Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1892-11-17
HARD RIDING, INDEED.
Comparison of the Great German RecOit
with the Work of Our Troopers.
from Boston Journal


From Boston Journal.I
Three or four crack cavalry officers,
eight weights" mounted on picked
horses which had been carefully groOmed
for the emergency, ride over smooth,
hard roads from Vienna to Berlin, or
Berlin to Vienna, distance of $50 miles,
in about three days. The comfort of
man and beast are carefully arranged
for. They have the best of food and an
abundance of water, and to stimulate the
energies of the tagging quadrupeds, they
are heavily dosed with brandy to force
them on in their race for the coveted
goals. Riders and steeds reach their
journeys end in state of complete eX-
hau. tion and within two days the horses
of both the winners of the race are dead.
But they have covered $50 miles of dis
tance-over the best roads in the world
in less than Is hours and all Europe rings
with applause for their ''unparalleled'
feat.
A quiet little laugh goes around the
mess table at many rude fort out on the
western prairies when the orderly brings
the mail and the week-old newspapers
are unfoldcd. This achievement of long
distance riding which Europe halls as so
remarkable has many time been eclips ed
by the rough-and-leady troopers OF the
American cavalry. Not to 90 back to
the brilliant raids and forced marches of
the Civil war, army records show that in
1879 several courers rode from Thorn
Durg's command, hemmed in by the
Indians, to General Merritt, 10 miles, ia
less than "A hours. In 1873 Colonel Mac
kei zie III the southwest rode out after
the "hostiles," be at them in smart fight
and returned, covering l45 miles with his
whole battalion in % hours. In 1891.
two troopers of the Eighth Cavalry rode
with dispatches ITO miles in 20 hours
and captain rode eighty-four miles in
eight hours. 1t is common thug
for a cavalry regiment to cover 60 miles
day. Seventy miles in II hours is
nothing uncommon for a single com
pany. A courier carrying dispatches iu
New Mexico rode 800 m les in three con-
5, cutive nights-as the country swarmtd
with Apaches he rode by day and hid by
highland returned over the same route
in the same time, keeping up the service
at this terrible pace for six mon hs.
The American cavalry, it should be
i>'ANhA'NiSp. las q Wi Souhil
for its operations from the billiard
table roads of Austria and Germany
Its fit Id is the open prairie CT the burn
ing deserts of Arizona and New Mexico
There are no co oil shade trees or COM
Portable inns best de The way with she Tier
and refreshment for men and horses.
The h orsts themselves are not picked
animals. They are very ordinary beasts
Which foreign cavalry man would be
very apt to regard with derision. But
they do have wonderful toughness and
vitality behind their ugly hides. They
do not require to be dosed with brandy
and they do not drop dead at the end of
the journey after the fashion of the
vauntod foreign thoroughbreds. These
American long distance records, too.
have been made under the ordinary con-
ditions of service, with troopers averag-
ing not much less than $50 pounds in
weight, besides heavy saddles and all
the usual equipments and ammunition.
The winner of the race from Vienna TO
Bel lin was a spidery little fellow weigh
lug only l2S pounds with saddle and
bride.
This is why the news of the famous
race of the flower of the European cav
airy is received at the frontier ports of
the United States with good-humored
condescension. They think they know
what hard riding is, these fine Austrian
and German uhlans and hussars, be-
plumed and epauletted. But their eyes
would be wonderfully opened by few
months duty in the field with some OF
Uncle Sans ''hustling" squadrons, the
only spectators of whose exploits are the
unai precative coyotes and prairie dogs.