Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-22

uusty, and there is tantallZlng Gry neat
while the sun beats down remorselessly OF
the black waterproof cover. The luncheon
hastily prepared, is not improved by travel
The water in the canteen is warm.
LOVE sMooTHs THE ROAD.
And yet, at the end of 25 miles oi
this irksome journey, I have seen the
sweetest face, pale, perhaps, but not frown-
ing, look out of the entrance of the wagon
and greet her husband without murmur.
She speaks always of the lovliness; that
sort of murmuring no man minds, since
he knows it is for him the sentiment is
called forth. Most of them say something
like this: "If a girl marries a man and
something of her husband, don't you
think?" and then he lowers his voice and
| makes some reply that the driver tries in
vain to hear; for a soldier, from the highest
to the lowest, has world Of romance in his
| nature.
The promises of a few weeks or months
before of girl in tulle and lace and orange
flowers, with all the glamor of first love,
all the allurements of luxurious surround
| 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
rled but for one reason.
Her journey over the plains is but the
repetition of the experiences of the wife of
the pioneer; there were no royal roads over
those sun-baked prairies. The windstorms
shrleked around the ambulance, rocking it
In its violence, or tore the canvas of the
tent in its ferceness with just the same saw
age fury that it did the lumber wagon OF the
frontiersman. The sun scorched and the rain
soaked the military pioneer just as it did the
brave man who sought a new home. There
was this to be said tor the pioneer: When
he finally located he need not move again,
unless from some untoward circumstances.
With an officer the marching was "from sun
to SUM-" and, like woman's work, it twas
never done" 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 SHARP CONTRAST.
The journey overland from Fort Leaven-
worth, Kan, which was the great Quitting
place, to Santa Fe, n. NJ, took six weeks,
and this was the bridal tour of many an
army bride. saw so many then, and have
talked with them since about that eventful
time, and no women of them all but declared
that their wedding journey was the Lest any
one ever had.
In our life there was no gradual leading
up to anything. It was succession Of
plunges the whole life through.
For instance, one day a pretty, delicate
bride plighted her VOWS under exotics and
in the midst of af1uence. In three short
days, possibly less, she was sitting in an
ambulance trailing slowly over the Western
divides. It 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 1 met
these girls one after another developed into
matrons and mothers, and perhaps in all
that time never knowing what people in the
States term comfort, but still they had no
murmuring word. Army women have
faults, but complaining of their lite is not
among them.
At the end of these journeys of weeks,
after experiencing everything in the way OF
what the elements can do, encountering
prairie fire. making camps without fresh
water, eating salt meat and coarse food. SUBJ
jected to fright from Indians, and, perhaps,
being even in the midst OF skirmish with
the foe, into what sort of q habitation do
you think she was introduced?
HOME ON THE PLAINS.
Long before the post was reached the field
glass revealed group of low huts, isolated
and dreary. The color of the plains a dull.
rusty hue, it was hard to realize that human
beings were herded there. On nearer and
nearer approach, there was no mistaking
that it was a garrison of Uncle Sans fol-
L. koE1a .,,4 = L. II. -
side muddy stream. The low, dark quar-
ters were built of adobe. the sun-baked
block of clay that the Mexicans use. The
earth floor, small windows, and narrow door
all combined to add to the gloom. Not a
tree was in sight that could cast 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 tables which contained her
few treasures were unpacked, and winked
very fast to keep the tears back when almost
everything was found 10 be nicked, bent,
broken or crushed out of shape. I have
seen them take the articles one by one and
arrange them in the quarters, get some SIM
pie curtains to the blindless windows, and |
so settle themselves in few hours that the |
husband, coming from his duty at night, |
entered home.
In travelling now over the route to the |
Rocky Mountains sometimes hear the |
weary voice of some complaining woman /
"When will these hideous
plains cease ?" and looking at her surround
ings-the comfort and ease of a 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
Il cannot help contrasting her journey
with that of her brave predecessors, whose
buoyant faces gszed westward and never
turned back regretful look.
ELIZABETH BACON CUSTER.