It has been a great lesson for me, and I have rubber tents, rubber blankets, rubber coats and hammocks enough for an army corps.

I have written nothing for the paper, because, if I started to tell the truth at all, it would do no good, and it would open up a hell of an outcry from all the families of the boys who have volunteered.

Of course, the only answer is a standing army of a hundred thousand, and no more calling on the patriotism of men unfitted and untrained.

It is the sacrifice of the innocents.

The incompetence and, unreadiness of the French in 1870 was no worse than our own is now.