San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-01-08

| g1neers, ali ms u1enus rmoersuoou; ana
he frankly avowed only ambition enough
for graduation in the cavalry arm.
Frank, impulsive and prodigally gener-
Gus as the race and fortune he was born
| to warranted, the young Creole was
conceded as the best rider and swords
man of the whole corps, with one ex-
ception. In the fencing school his pecul-
iarly quick eye and fexile wrist ever
met one opponent whose GOODNESS and
strength caught his lightning like play
and repaid hit for hit. When the riding
hall was thronged with beautiful and
brilliant women and their "cit" dang
lers, with occasional officers off duty,
pretty faces flushed and bright eyes ca
gerly followed the 1.-THE, tall form that
sat horse with centaur like natural
ness, guiding him seemingly more by
intuition than by the light touch that
Asd tn" rervans strength Of, hand
trained from childhood. Near Latour,
the best riders appeared effortful and
stiff, the ightest rein seemed to tug at
| the bit. In all the ''show movements"
he was the cynosure of bright eyes and
experienced ones alike; and even "Gal-
lery Pete'-as the cadets named snowy
Kentuckian who erode for the girls
failed to win the praise for his set feats
which fell to Latour for ease and uncon-
scious grace.
But when the wild rushes came and
the flying ruck of riders swung at the
hurdles; when the CLEAN Of sabers made
the air one fash of steel, in right aid
left cut at rolling "heads;" when the
| unsteady went down in the sawdust, at
imminent risk to limb if not TO life, and
the hot frenzy of the cavalry charge was
! mimicked almost to reality, then ever
beside the proud. olive face of the Creole
was another, pale and placid even, with
its steel gray eyes only cleaning under
the fair brows that scarcely emphasized
the broad white forehead.
For Dale Everett was a born soldier
too, carrying in his veins blood that had
boiled hot enough under oppression to
send his ancestor across seas to set his
foot on Plymouth Rock: blood that had
later flowed in Indian fight and Revolu-
ton; blood that had lately made his
clear faced mother point to his grand
sire's name, boldly standing out among
| the Ggners of "the Declaration" hung
| in the parlor of the old Massachusetts,
homestead, as she blessed him in fare
well and babe him study and remember
what that name demanded of those who
bore it. He was a clear type of that
"Brahmin caste" Of New England which
has set its seal upon all her best work
which, in the glow of its pride, fuses
conservative blgotry and supreme stead
fastness into an amalgam that hardens
| under stress into the density and
strength of her own granite hills.
Holding first place in his class for two
years past, Everett had naturally devoted
less care than his impetuous friend to
the soldier side of cadet life. But duty
was his creed, and his military record al
most equalled Latour's for performance,
! while it lacked as largely in brilliancy
as did the latter's in scholarship. But
in the fencing and riding schools the
Yankee boy found congenial exercise to
keep the body vigorous and healthy,
spite of the great strain upon the healthy
| and vigorous mind. And in neither did
the dashing Creole fail to meet the match
for his most impetuous rushes, when
| chance placed the cool and steady New
Highlander opposite his blade, or mount
ed by his side in the swirl of the charge.
do you note the peculiar difference
in their riding?" the bluff old command
ant once asked Miss Van der Huysen, as
he watched with proper veterans adj
miration the deeper glow in her eyes that
followed them as they swept by, neck
and neck. Those eyes, glittering al
| most to blackness when fixed on the rid
ers, seemed only laughing brown as they
looked into the coloners rather blood
shot ones, and the voice was very quiet
in which she answered, slowly:
"In real war, perhaps, Mr.. Latour
might kill the most horses; Mr.. Everett
| the most men," "
The colonel made no answer in words;
but that night, over his third cigar, he
suddenly blurted out to the senior sur
geon:
"May be sent to the frontier If that
Miss Van der Huysen oughtn't to be a
troop captain. But damn me If under
stand her, though" ..
And not many men at West Point
that summer subverted military disci-
pine by knowing more on that score
than did the ranking officer. To men
and women at the hotel, to officers and
their wives in quarters, even to the labo-
| riously distant cadets, the girl was cour-
teous and affable always-often brill