Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-12-24

clonr down The rohii,n. so that when the
order "front" Is pivo, every ON, turns MS if ON
n uivot and touches elbows with those ON each |
sid6 of him. i'm "A STRAIGHT. firln wall of mon. |
without any stumbling CLOSING IN" or side |
steppine" to the right or lcft-to do all this at |
word of command looks very simple and casy |
TO the non-milltarv SPECTATOR. rs many other /
very difficult thing, look simple and easy to the |
inexpcrienced But really il is only po,,ible to |
a thoroughly drilled company held well in !
hand bv n conlpctcnt commander. II is some
thing that. if done well. is simply done well, |
but if not done well. is very bad It i, like |
an egg that is either rood or utterly WORTH
less.
Pancake seemed fated to exhaust the cate
CORY of possible mistakes. Coming on tho
ground lat. he found that n rnp had been left
in the line for his company which was only
barely sufficient to receive it when it was
aligned and copractIv "dr~,,cdn
In his ncrvou ,nco, he halted the company
before it had reached the right of the gap by
ten PAGES. and so left about onc-auaiter of the
company tapping over on the one to the left.
Even this was done with an unsiShtly tumble.
his confusion as to the reversal OF right and
leit sun abode with nm. lie commanded
right lace instead OF front, and was
amazed TO see the whole one hundred wei
drilled men whlrl their backs around TO the
regiment ana lhe commanding ollcer' "A
IauSh ripped down the ranks OF the other
companies; even the spectators smiled ana
something sounded Ike swearing by the ad-
Jutaht ana sergeant MAJOR
Ialcake Ilited MS plulhed hitC, ana "lped
the ueaued perSprauoh from MS pro" WIN
the BACK OF one OF ms yellow gauhtlets.
Oruer an ABOUT race Whispered ehe or
uerlS sergeant whose lace was turning WIN
snafiie at the aWk"aro position III "nlon the
company l"uiu ltselI
A"ou '"'e' S'aPeu lilcaAe'
lnc men 'uinGu Oh Tnelr neelS'
,i'''S'eP ~ 'no iIon'' "HiPeicu 'ne VI
" 'ne ilsuU' iePc"'eu iaiicaAe'
me- Sr
nc '"'' '''N S"o'V si'ie-S'cP9' anu lono"
Iii9 .'' o''.' "ii''i "'i''hp i'Pe't'e'' iioii
Uio "HI'Pe'''' '"75esOioil' y. '"' otucrlS' 'ne
cVi'p"nH came cluiii5ly FORWARD 'iI'o iCs
place, IL,''e1 ana 'oPehed RANKS 10 tns
redI men Il, Uhe coiliiiiau" u Parauo
rest IailctNe "roppeu MS sapFcS po'nV 10
the ground he did it with the crushed feeling
of a struttug cock which had been flung into
the pond aNl energies with dripping feathers,
He raised his heart in sincere thanksgiving
that be was at last through, for there was
nothing more for him to do during the pa
rade, except TO stand still and at its conclu
sion the orderly would have to march the
company back to its quarters.
But his woes had still another chapter The
inspector general had come up to camp to in
spect the regiment, and he was on the ground.
Forty years of service in the regular army,
with promotion average Of one grade every
ten years, making him an old man and a
grandfather before he was a lieutenant col
onel had SO surcharged Col Murbanks ma
ture with bitterness as to make even the very
air in his vicinity seem roughly astrincent
The wicked young leutenauts who served
with him ON the plains used to say that his
bark was worse than his bite, because 10 rea-
sOnable bite could ever be SO bad rs his bark
They even suggested calling him Peruvian
bark because visit to his quarters was
worse than strong dose of quinia
"Yeth, that'th good, said the lisping wit
of the crowd. "Evrly bite it'll bit, amt
it, And the Wortht mutht be IA bitter, ath
he ith.'
The colonel believed that the whole duty of
man consisted in loving the army regulations
and in keeping their commandments. Tho
best part of all virtue was To observe them to
the letter; the most abhoiTent .own of vice to
violate or disregard even their minor pre-
CcptS.
Iii, feelings were continually laceratcd by
contact with volunteers, who cared next to
nothing for the farm of war making, but
everything for lis spirit and the martinez
heart within him was bruised and sore when
he came upon tine ground T. inspect the
regiment
Pancakes bluuderu. in bringing the COM
pany into line awakened TIL, ire from a pas