Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-10-19

~ - hemently as was pos
1A ~ sible to a young fel-
- low who was i'm other
respects thoroughly in love with his pro-
fession. A fairer type of the American
cavalry officer, when once he got in sad
die and settled down to business, one
would hardly ask to find. Tall, athletic,
slender of build, with frank, laughing
blue eyes, curly, close cropped. light
brown hair, and a twirling mustache
that was source of inexpressible delight
TO its owner and OF some envy to his
brother subalterns, Mr.. Perry was prob
ably the best looking Of the young Off
GERS who marched with the battalion to
this far away station on the borders of
the Llano Estacado. He had been ten
years in service, counting the four he
spent as cadet, had just won his silver
bar rs the junior first lieutenant of the
regiment, was full to the brim of health,
energy, animal spirits and fun, and, bar
ring few duns and debts in his earlier
experiences, had never known a heavier
care in the world than the transient
and ephemeral anxiety as to whether he
would be called up for recitation on a
subject he had not so much as looked at,
or "hived" absent from a roll call he had
lszily slept through.
Any other man, his comrades said,
would have been spoiled dozen times
over by the petting he had received from
both men and women; but there was
something essentially sweet and genial
about his nature-something lacking in
guile about his perceptions, said a cyni-
cal old captain of the regiment-and a
jovial, sunshiny way of looking upon the
world as an Eden, all men and all women
as friends, and the army as the profess
sion above all others, and these various
attributes combined to make him popular
with his kind and unusually attractive
to the opposite sex. As a cadet he had
been perpetually ON the verge of dismis-
sal because of the appalling array of de-
merits he could roll upagainst his name,
and yet the very officers who jotted down
the memoranda of his sins-omission
and commission-against the regulations
were men who openly said he had the
making Of one of the finest soldiers in
the class" AS junior second lieutenant
-"plebe'-of the regiment, he had been
welcomed by every man from the colonel
down, and 1t was considered particularly
rough that he should have to go to such
company as Capt Canker's, because
Canker was man who never got along
with any of his juniors; but there was
something so irrepressibly frank and
contrite in Perry's boyish face when he
would appear at his captains door
in the early morning and burst out
with; by Jove, captainl l slept
through reveille again this morning.
and never got down till stables
were nearly over" that even that cross
grained but honest troop commander
was disarmed. and, though he threat
ened and reprimanded. he would never
punish-would never DENY his subaltern
the faintest privilege; and when promo
ticn took the captain to another regi-
ment he babe good-by to Perry with ewes
that were suspiciously wet. why,
blow 1t all, what do you fellows hate
Canker 50 for?" the youngster often
said HE ought TO put me in arrest
time and again, but he won't. Blamed
If don't put myself in arrest, or confine
myself to the limits of the post, and do
something, to cut all this going To town
and hops and such things. Then can
stick to the troop like wax and get up at
reveille; but if I'm out dancing till 2 or
3 In the morning it's no use, tell you;
lust can't wake up"
1t was always predicted of Ned Perry
that he would be married and done
for" within year of his graduation.
Every new face in the FIVE years that
followed revived the garrison proph-
ecy, Now he's gone, sure!" but, how
ever devoted he might seem TO the damsel
In question, however restless and impa-
tient he might be when compelled by his
duties to absent himself from her SID :,
however promising to casual Observers
perchance to the damsel herself-might
be all the surface indications, the abso-
lutte frankness with which he proclaimed
his admiration to every listener, and the
fact that he had been just 30 with half
a dozen other girls" enabled the cooler
heads OF the regiment to decide that the
time had not yet come-or at least the
woman.
IL do wish" said Mrs Turner. that
MI. Perry would settle on somebody, be-
;a1se, just 80 long as he doesn't. it is
rather hard to tell who he belongs to-
And, a. Mrs. Turner had long been
reigning belle among the married women
OF the -th, and one to whom the young
officers were always expected to show
much attention, her whimsical way Of
describing the situation was readily I'M
derstood
But here at the new staticn-at far
away Rossiter-matters were taking on
Q new look. To begin with, the wives
OF the officers OF the cavalry battalion
had not joined, none of the ladies Of the
til were here, and none would be
apt to come until the summers scout
ing work was over and done with. The
ladies Of the little battalion of infantry
were here, and, though there were no
maiden sisters or cousins yet at the post
(rest assured that more than one was al
ready summoned), they were sufficient
In number to enliven the monotony OF
garrison life and sufficiently attractive
to warrant all the attention they cared
to receive. 1t was beginning to be gar
rison chat that IL Ned Perry had not
"settled on somebody" as the ultimate
object of his entire devotion, somebody
had settled on him, and that was pretty
Mrs Belknap.
And though Ned Perry hated reveille
and morning stables, as has been said,
and could rarely take his week" with
out making one or more lapses, here he
was this beautiful May morning out at
daybreak when it was his juniors tour
Of duty, and vending his way with that
youngster out to the line of cavalry sta
bles, booted and spurred and equipped
for q ride.
The colonel had listened with some
surprise to his request, proffered just as
the party was breaking up the night be-
fore, to be absent from garrison a few
hours the following morning.
'But we have battalion drill at Q
o'clock, Mr.. Perry, and i need you there"
he said.
"Oh, I'll be back In time for that, sir.
wanted to be of three hours or SO be-
fore breakfast"