Ritzville's Patriotic Send-Off
When two hundred soldiers passed through on a troop train, the town dropped everything to feed them.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Ritzville people were fortunate to have the privilege last Saturday of seeing some of Washington's real, live soldiers. Word was received about noon that the soldiers would pass through about 2 o'clock, and excitement and patriotism began to rise accordingly. Although the wind was blowing at a forty-mile gait, the citizens managed to raise every flag in town. When news came that the train would not arrive until 5 o'clock, the majority of the crowd settled down to wait. Some of the G.A.R. men conceived the idea of serving refreshments, so a contribution hat was passed and the needful secured. It is a matter of history that when the train came in, it did stop, and the soldiers said that while they had met with enthusiastic receptions at every station, Ritzville was the only place that had served refreshments. The train made a ten-minute stop while steam whistles blew and a committee kept up a bombardment with blacksmith's anvils and dynamite, to which the soldiers yelled in response. About 200 men were on board, a company each of artillery and infantry, all robust-looking and anxious for a chance to show what they were made of.
“Ritzville was the only place that had served refreshments with the reception.”
This event captures the raw, pre-war enthusiasm of 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Modern communities rarely muster this level of spontaneous, hyper-local logistical support for military movements, reflecting a shift in how civilians relate to active-duty troop deployments.
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