Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-06-30

HoA ance by n e
emem bers of the Porter family. old
and young, big and little, they were
patriotism and the martial instinct. Old
Grandpa Porter had fit in the war of
1912" and his greatest sorrow in life
was that caused by the authorities when
they refused to permit him to enlist
during che war with Mexico. ''Pa"
Porter, then a youth of very tender
years, went, however, with Taylor,
and also fought through the rebellion
and earned a coloners eagles for his
big shoulders. He married a soldiers
= daughter also, SO it is small wonder
that their family of nine, girls as well
as boys, Inherited taste for gunpowder
and brass buttons.
As soon as the boys were old enough
to walk they began wearing soldier
caps and carrying wooden or tin swords
and guns and fought mock battles on
the lawn, while their sisters, beating
p drums and waving the national colors,
squealed with nervous delight from
their safe place of observation on the
front porch.
And not one of them ever outgrew
these tendencies, either. The two old
err boys, after a course at q private mil
itary school, were sent, each in turn, to
West Point, and the two younger ones,
while they never took to arms as pro-
fession, were both leading members Of
crack militia companies.
The two older girls married into the
army; and Dorothy, aged eighteen, Mar
jOrie, aged sixteen, and Beth otherwise
known as "Baby''). the fifteen-year-old,
insisted that they would do likewise.
1t SO happened, however, that the
young man who was devoting all his
spare Unexpectedly more-to worship
ing at the fair Dorothy's shrine didn't
care snap for soldiers or soldering,
real or otherwise. He was physician,
and a very nice chap, indeed, who hao
the approval of all the family, and was
devoted to Dorothy. This approval,
however, was qualified by disapproval
Of his distaste for things military.
In order that he might be entirely
satisfactory, Dorothy had, a few months
since, induced him to Join the militia
company in his own village, which was
SEVERAL miles from Fairfield, where the
Porters lived; bur, somehow or other,
this did not prove entirely satisfactory
to either herself or the doctor For, al
though, after several weeks of torture,
Recruit Hull became full-Hedged Pri-
waite Hull, he got not step higher,
despite the fact that number of va
cancies occurred in one way and an
other. in the commissioned and nom
commissioned of1ices-apd a private is
hardly gorgeous enough for the taste of
a fastidious daughter of Eve, especially
one who has two brothers in the reg
ular army, another who commands a
swell militia company, and yet another
who is adjutant CT the best regiment in
the state. And the annual encampment
was to take place the first week in July!
1t made Dorothy's blood boil to think
how all the girls in her ''set" would be
Swelling around" with colonies, and
majors, and captains, and lieutenants,
while she would have to content herself
with modest private, aud very little
of him; because a private often has
duties to perform when his superior Of
fcers are having q good time.
The more she thought of it, the
.angrier Dorothy became. and the harder
she made it for poor PHI, who didn't
understand, at all, what was the mat
ter. For, be it known, Dorothy was 9
young person who resented any effort
to question her Withstand she had a
great many OF lncIl-duu OE. L III was
very much in love, and somewhat in
awe of his pretty sweetheart.
July first came, and with it the jolly
militiamen belonging to the three regi
ments which annually ''camped" with
the First. The governor came, and
with him glittering staff; the brigade
commander arrived, accompanied by
more brass buttons and gold lace; like
wise the regiInental commanders, with
their compliments of staff officers; and,
besides, there were the field officers.
Such a glittering array. and not enough
girls to go around!
eff Phil We're even a FIRST sergeant. >
thought Dorothy bitterly, sit would be
little better, because they have almost
as many privileges as the ieutenants
but a Pricate-Ughl how horridl''
But Dorothy was not the girl to miss
all the fun just on account of an insig
nificant private; and, even were she sc
inclined, there were too many of those
lovely staff officers to permit such {
sacrifice. So, Cor three days, while
poor Phil was undergoing discipline ane
the miseries OF camp routine, she man