Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-11-27

recovered, as wen as the top OF the wagon,
the steps changed to the side, and the con-
yeyance Is not only made very comfortable,
but there is hardly a trace Of the gloomy old
hospital wagon of the Government. An Of
hcer just home from q wedding festivity
and having to buy his little domestic outfit,
Is not usually prepared to purchase and
make over vehicle Of any kind, nor can he
At his wife out with a horse and equip
ments, with which, later in their history,
she varies many weary march.
At dawn the troops move out and the
wagons are pulled into line and begin their
monotonous march of four miles an hour,
sometimes varied by long stop at the
crossing Of stream, where g bridge is
made or a causeway laid of logs.
The traveller spends the day slipping
from the leather seat and recovering her
self. The seat Is narrow, hard and has no
back except the Slender wooden strips OF
the frame over which the cover is stretched.
it's dusty, and there Is a tantaliZing dry
heat, while the sun beats down remorseless-
ly on the black waterproof cover The
luncheon, hastily prepared, is not improved
by travel; the water In the canteen Is warm.
The promises of a few weeks or months
before OF q girl In tulle and lace and orange
flowers, with all the glamour Of first love,
ings, were not idle words. With such
chances before her to prove her devotion,
she enters into her life Joyous at the very
thought that no one can doubt that she mar
ried but for one reason.
Her journey over the plains is but the
repetition of the experiences of the wife of
the pioneer; there was no royal road over
those sun-baked prairies. The wind
storms shrieked around the ambulance,
rocking it in its violence, or tore the canvas
Of the tent in its fierceness with Just the
same fury that 1t did the lumber wagon Of
the frontiersman. The sun scorched and
the rain soaked the military pioneer just rs
1t did the brave man who sought q new
home There was this TO be said for the
pioneer: When he finally located he need
not move again, unless from some untoward
circumstances. With an on1cer the march
ing was "from sun to sum-" and, like Q
womRn's work, II twas never done.n Some
may suggest that the military wife had not
the ever-present fear of Indians In her
journeyings that the wife Of the pioneer
had. But she had, though. We have, even
now, with peace brooding over the land, q
very small army.
A few years since there was an immense
frontier to protect, and often our brave
little army was divided up so that small
knots Of men had to be marched from one
post to another through the very worst Of
the Indian country. The garrisons even
were too small for safety, and behind an
insecure log stockade our men have heard
the orgies, the threats, the insults Of the
foe. There was never any let up to q wom-
ans fears after she left the railroad and
civilization. In one respect the army wife
had the advantage of the pioneer woman
A soldier was allowed each officer az serv-
ant, and they cooked, so that the military
woman who could eat what they cooked did
not have to pat her eyes out with the smoke
Of campfire, or struggle with wet wood
and a hurricane Of wind to prepare the daily
meal.
In our life there was no gradual leading
up to any thing. 1t was a succession Of
plunges the whole life through.
For instance, one day q pretty, delicate
bride plighted her vows under exotics and
in the midst of sfluence. In three short
days, possibly less, she was sitting in an
ambulance travelling slowly over the West
ern divides. 1t was not the enthusiasm of
youth and fervor of early love that made
even that weary way seem to have the
verdure and bloom of garden, for years
afterward l met these girls one after
another, developed into matrons and
knowing what people in the States term
comfort, but still they had no murmuring
word. Army women have faults, but com
planning of their life is not among them.
At the end of these journeys Of weeks,
after experiencing every thing In the way
Of what the elements can do, encounterinR
prairie fires, making camps without fresh
water, eating salt meat and coarse food,
subjected to fright from Indians, and, per-
haps, being even in the midst of a skirmish
with the foe, into what sort of habitation
do you think she was introduced
Long before the post was reached the
feld-glass revealed a group Of low huts,
isolated and dreary The color of the plains
dull, rusty hue, 1t was hard to realize that
human beings were herded there. On
nearer and nearer approach, there was no
mistaking that it was garrison of Uncle
Sans followers, stationed way out in the
plains beside a muddy stream. The low,
dark quarters were built of adobe, the sun
baked blocks Of clay that the Mexicans use.
The earth floor, small windows and narrow
door all combined to add to the gloom. Not
tree was in sight that could cast q shade.
The army woman set gloom at defiance.
She went to work resolutely to try to make
another home. She watched eagerly when
the boxes and bales which contained her
| few treasures were unpacke d, and winked
very fast to keep the tears back when al
most every thing was found to be nicked,
| bent, broken or crushed out of shape. ]
have seen them take the articles one by one
and arrange them in the quarters, get
some simple curtains to the blindless win
dows, and so settle themselves in q few
hours that the husband, coming from his
duty at night, entered a home.
In travelling now over the Rocky Mount
aims sometimes hear the weary voice OF
some complaining woman excla.ming
when will these hideous plains ceasel"
and looking at her surroundings-thec COM
fort and ease Of Pullman car, the books,
fruit, ice-water, the dining-car, above all
all the water in land Of water famines
that she needs for her toilet-I can not help
contrasting her journey with that Of hel
brave predecessors whose buoyant faces
gazed Westward, and never turned back q
regretful look.-Elizabeth Bacon Custer, in
Chicago Journal.
THE CONDUCTORS CHECK.