Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-01-21

received the appointment of sword
master, and he soon became quite q
favorite with the officers and
cadets. "Old P" as he was
called, was seldom out of humor,
and ifthe fencing class got tired of
escrinae, 1t was only necessary for
some cadet, during q rest, to ask
P some question about South
America to start him off on his
tory of his adventures in his native
country, and there was no more
fencing for that day.
Time went on, aud the. Mexican
war caused an inquiry into the
propriety of introducing the Span
ish language into the West Point
course. The Professor of French,
the late Mr.. Angel, was all emil
nent philologist and most accom-
plished Spanish scholar. He took
q great interest in the movement
to introduce the Castilian lam
guage into the course, being per-
fectly willing to take the professor
ship without any additional COM
pensation.
At the time of the effort TO get a
bill through, P had no more
thought of being made professor
than he had of being made Minis
ter to England. He told his sto.
rles to the boys, played the violin,
and was as happy beggar as
could he found in the country. But
about 1866 another actor, or rather
actress, appeared on the scene, and
then the trouble commenced.
More than thirty years ago the
city of Nashville had a lively street
fight, the like OF which had not
been seen since Old Hickory and
the Bentons had their famous
difficulty there. During an at
tempt on the part of a Mr.. Porter
field to cut off the ears of Ned
Buntline (E. z. 9. Judson), the for
mer got a pistol shot in his stom-
ach, from the effects of which he
then and there died. AT least that
was the verdict of the crowd, which
Immediately divided itself into two
parties. one of which was to procure
a strong rope, while the other
charged itself with procuring the
body of Judson. But Buntline
escaped up to room in the second
story of a hotel, locked the door be-
hind him, jumped out of the win-
dow and thus saved himself to
enlarge and elevate the literature
of the country.
Mr.. Porterfield being dead and
buried, and Ned Buntline in parts
unknown, the disconsolate widow
wandered about the land until she
found herself at West Point. One
morning, when old P was en-
joying his Summer vacancy, she
caught sight of the tall, graceful,
dark.eyed moatre d'escrime. Be-
fore many days she had captured
poor P, who was but dough in
her hands.
"My DEAR" said che to him one
day, show much salary do you get
rs Professor of the Sword at West
Point? Only 5000! That must be
increased.n
P thought he had a fortune
and he asked:
"How shall 1 get my salary in
creased"
"Leave that to me-" said the wild.
ow. "pll get 1t DONE" And she
did it. She went to Washington
as soon as Congress met, and, after
a short campaign, bill was passed
increasing the pay of the instructor
of the sword exercise.
Meanwhile the Introduction of
Spanish had been determined upon,
and my lady had decided upon two
things--she would make P a
professor, and then she would mar
ry him.
Now, the Spanish was P-'s
vernacular as far as it lie the vernac-
ular of any one reared in South
America. He could express him.
self tolerably well in the language,
but he knew about as much of the
philology or the literature of Spain
as does q New Mexican padre. He
could carry on conversation in
Castilian, but once among the
verbs and copjugations he sadly
floundered.
jeff Davis was Secretary of War,
and although man of fifty odd,
and lean in body and visage, he
was not unsusceptibie to the bland
ishment of q handsome woman.
The bill was passed, and to the
horror Of the Superintendent and
the families of the professors al
West Point, P turned up with
his appointment as Professor OF
the Spanish Language and with
his new wife.
To the high-flown and extra-re'
fined society of West Point this
was heavy blow. To receive
'that horrible woman" was i'm
possible, but they had seen an ex
ample of her power, and to cut be-
might be cutting off their own of
fetal heads. 1t was q time of sor,
trial and tribulation, but 1t passet
over. Nine. P was not ag
gressive, and she was let severely
alone.
Soon 1t became necessary for tn
new Professor to begin the instruct
ion in Spanish. That was some
thing that neither Nine. P no
p had thought much about
But something had to be done
There was in the army at that tim
a lieutenant of infantry. q jolly
rollicking sort of fellow, who wa
generally known as He'll Roaring
Jackson. He had served In New
Mexico, and he had picked up
smattering of the pure Castilian a
spoken in Santa F6, Ell Paso an
Albuquerque. Some of the wag
gish officers of the Academy, VIII
saw what dilemma the poor P