as susceptible as their white comrades.  The theory had been advanced that they were less susceptible to malarial fever, and in a certain sense this appears to be true; but the experience of our army in Cuba, as well as army statistics published before the Cuban War, do not bear out the popular view of the theory.  The best that can be said from the experience of Cuba is to the effect that the blacks may be less liable to yellow fever and may more quickly rally from the effects of malarial fever.  These conclusions are, however, by no means well established.  The Twenty-fourth suffered excessively from fevers of both kinds, and in the judgment of the commanding officer of the regiment “effectually showed that colored soldiers were not more immune from Cuban fever than white,” but we must remember that the service of the Twenty-fourth was exceptional.  The Twenty-fifth Infantry lost but one man during the whole campaign from climatic disease, John A. Lewis, and it is believed that could he have received proper medical care his life would have been saved.  Yet this regiment suffered severely from fever as did also the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry.

Arriving at Montauk[21] early the author had the opportunity to see the whole of the Fifth Army Corps disembark on its return from Cuba, and was so impressed with its forlorn appearance that he then wrote of it as coming home on stretchers.  Pale, emaciated, weak and halting, they came, with 3,252 sick, and reporting 87 deaths on the voyage.  But, as General Wheeler said in his report, “the great bulk of the troops that were at Santiago were by no means well.”  Never before had the people seen an army of stalwart men so suddenly transformed into an army of invalids.  And yet while all the regiments arriving showed the effects of the hardships they had endured, the black regulars, excepting the Twenty-fourth Infantry, appeared to have slightly the advantage.  The arrival of the Tenth Cavalry in “good condition” was an early cheering item in the stream of suffering and debility landing from the transports.  Seeing all of the troops land and remaining at Camp Wikoff until its days were nearly numbered, the writer feels sure that the colored troops arrived from the front in as good condition as the best, and that they recuperated with marked comparative rapidity.

The chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, while en route to join his regiment at Montauk, thinking seriously over the condition of the men returning from such a hard experience, concluded that nothing would be more grateful to them than a reasonable supply of ripe fruit, fresh from the orchards and fields.  He therefore sent a dispatch to the Daily Evening News, published in Bridgeton, N.J., asking the citizens of that community to contribute a carload of melons and fruits for the men of the Twenty-fifth, or for the whole camp, if they so wished.  Subsequently mentioning the fact to the commanding officer of the regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Daggett, he heartily commended