The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-15
A REGIMENT SCANDAL

II was very painful business dom
think that any of Us have forgotten it or
are at all likely TO. The morality of the
Third Carabiniers was as loose as their
discipline was tight, and if a man rode
straight and was keen on soldering he
might work out his private record to his
own mind. But still there IS a limit to
what even such a thorough going old
sportsman as the colonel would stand,
and that limit was passed on the instant
that there was a breath of suspicion about
fair play at the card table
Take the mess through, they had ridden
through the decalogre as gaiIy as through
Arabs guns at kassassin. Professionally
they had made free with other men lives.
But the unwritten laws of honor lay I'M
broken amid the shattered command ments
They were short and sharp, and woe to the
man who transgressed them. Sporting
debts must be paid. There was no such
thing rs white feather. Above all, man
must play fair. 1t was a simple code of
ethics. but it commanded an absolute obe-
dience which might have been refused TO
amore elaborate system
Ii there was one man in the mess who
could be held up by the youngsters as the
embodiment of honor it was Major Erring-
,on. He was older than the chief, and
having served twiGe as a volunteer war
correspondent and once as a military at
tache. he had been shot over Berdan's and
Nannlicher repeaters. which seemed to US
much more gaudy thing than Jezails or
even Egyptian Remingtons. We had all
done Egypt aud we had all done the
Soudar, but when he would begin his
modest little aiter-mess anecdote with
II remember when Gourko crossed the
Balkans, or II was riding beside the red'
princes stall just two days before Grave
iotte,' We would feel quite ashamed of our
poor "Fuzzies" and ''Pathans" and yearn
To replace thaforeign office by commit
tee of subalterns of the Carabiniers, all
pledged to a spirited policy.
Then our major was so humble and gentle
with it all. That was his only fault as
soldier. He could tight--none better-but
he could not be stern. No matter how
heinous the crime of the defaulter who
Was brought before him, and no matter
how resolutely he might purse up his
features lato trown. there was still some
thing so very human always cleaning
from his eyes, that the most drunken de-
serteT could not but feel that this, instead
OF beng commanding officer, was merely
man and a brother. Though far the
richest man In the regiment, for he had
ample private means, he lived always in
the sim piest fashion. Some even set him
down as parslmonious, and blamed him
Tor IL. But most of US saw in it only
another example of the majors deli
cacy which made him fear TO make
others feel poor by showing himself rich.
1t was no wonder that he was popu-
lar We subalterns worshipod him, and il
was 10 him that We brought all those titis
and chickering's and misunderstanding
which need little gentle wisdom 10 set
them right. He would sit patiently with
has cheroot reekinC from the corner OF his
mouth and his eyes tXed upon the ceiling
listening 10 our details. and then would
come the quick. Il think that you ought
t. withdraw the expression, Jones" or.
Under the circumstances you were quite
justified. Hall. which settled the matter
forever. Ii We had been told that the
chief had burg.ed the regimeutal plate or
that the chaplain had invited the secular
Isl sergeant MAJOR "a tea, we should have
been less ast0nisaed than at the rumor
that Major Errington had been guilty of
anything which Was dishnnorablc.
IL came about IN this way: The chief
Was a born piunEer. Horses. cards. dice
they were all The same 10 HIM lie
would bet on. or he would bet against, give
the odds or take them, but bet he would
1t was all very welt as tong as he stuck 70
shilling points and half-crown rJ!bs 1T
whist, or made his little book upon the
rcglmental cup; but when he took 10
American railway scrip. and laid out All
his savings on per cent. bonds which
were selling at s.Nty-twO. he started a
game where the odds are all On the bank
and the dealer sits someW here near Wall
| M raj tr4tsssh ,s. 4
that Monte Carlo was sound family in
eestncnt IN comparison. lie held on
grinly until the inevitable came round
The lire Mas sQue.cAed by & big cauita3-
ats, who wished 10 buy Il, and our
chief was left ou the very edge Of the
bankruptcy court, uncertain from week ~
week how song II might re before he would
need 20 send III hts papers. He said moth
inR. Ter Ge was IS proud IS luciter: hut he
looked piearN about the ewes IN tAe MORN
ing, and has tl2Jc did not III hlm quite rs
sight As II used -. ot course. We were
ve-y sorry for the poor ola chief uut we
we're sorTler StIl. for his daughter Violet.
We were ail IN love with Violet Lowell.
and her grief was blight 80 the regiment.
She wasn't such very pretty glri, either
hui she Was fresh and bright and srrlchtIy
as an English spring. ana So Sweot.
and good, and sympathetic, that she
vas gust the tyre ot woman
Of those girls about whom. when once vou
come TO know them. YOU never think
whether they are pretty ~ nor You only
know thai II - pheasant - De- near ;tem.
10 see their happy faces. 10 hear their voices.
and 20 have hle made sweeter and more
beGutsfu! by their presence. That vas how
Ne all felt towards Nlo,et-from the o!d
major 20 the newly joined suoSltern. with
brand new razor case upon his dressing
table. 81 when that bright face cioU3s6
over as The shadow of her fathers troubles
fell upon il. We c.ulGed over also. and the
mess of the tagablnlegs sank into state
from which even the caterers Deutx ami
Gue!deTman OF 81 Was unable II redeem H.
The major vas the clost stricken Of all
] think that he took the whole matter 10
heart even rlore tasn the colonel dbl. al
though Il bad been against his strenuous
advice that these curSed bonds had been
bought. lie was All cid friend Oft the chief.
aud he knew tina. the disgrace Of bank