Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-07-03
gave the deserter chance to begin
L amin xsith a clean reNor,d

cleaning braSses, furnishing our saber
seahh7rds and getting things ready for
guard mounting next morning, for
Dick was q great fellow Ito run for
orderly"
As we smoked and talked and pol
ished wormed some of Dicks ex-
perience out of him.
Say, Dick" asked; what was your
first enlistmcnt?"
WELL" said Dick, with q laugh. my
first soldering was sailoring. l listed
in the marines and was sent down to a
1yblown hole in Florida The heat.
the bugs and the style of the marine
officers sickencd me, So resigned
''Rcsigned?" Icucricd.
Gave them n French resignation,
you know. l struck New Orleans in a
Cuban banan boat, dead broke, and
joined n company of 'doughboys' ut
Baton Rogue. That place was worse
than Florida The first pay day set
tied me, and took a trip up the river.
They charged me with two rifles, o
dozen brSomS and q wheelbarrow on
my muster roll, when skipped Handy
thing for a desSrt0r, . wheSlbarrow! !
often wondered that thOy did not charge
me with TON Germans wife, who lit
out with = coon about the time l re-
tired"
where did you go, Dick-St LOUISE
"Yesl Thought I'd take q flyer in the
cavalry. Got sick of old Bully Welch
there, and W ca glad enough 10 go with
dstashment to the Third in Arizona
Well, that's q lovsly country to get
away from. II there's hell on earth,
Arizona Is the place. was stationed
at Verde, and the malaria, bad grub
and Apache chasing changed my viewt
of the cavalry. Three of us skipped
the first time the paymastcr got round
and we worked down through Apache
pass into New Mexico with our hair all
right. We struck the settlements, sold
our horses, and separated. / worked
down 10 FL Paso and went broke on 3
monte game. Invent over to Fort Blisk
and took another blanket / hlsed
soldering there first rate and got the
ehsvronS; but the captain broke me
for raising a row down town and
humping q greaser. That made me
mad and went on tho retired list once
more. That quartermaster sergeant
was a daisy, and, as was a chum of his,
he soekcd it to unchanged me with a
six-mule harness, a grindstone, two
spades, a long Tom and a hundred
rounds of ammunition. Just think of
me a hoofing it across desert between
Quitman and Davis with a grindstone
under my arm! Must have thought
wanted 1t to sharpen my appetite.
got a Job rs teamster at Fort Clark, but
ran across a follow knew at Baton
Rogue, and he was always hard up and
had an idea that | was a bank, and
concluded to go east"
And thsn?S | inSinunted
Then" resumed Dick. II guessed
bad all the west wanted for awhile, sc
heaored tie ar ,Illsry. I made . mis-
take. Iwas in a fort where you could
see nothing but sea and sand, and
where it was cold enough to freeze 6
brass monkey. Lord! but the artillery
Is tough and dull, all Euard duty and
polishing; ro mountains, no plains; al
buttons and drill. That heavy artil
lery Faade flying artillery man of me
waited fer pay day ard lett without
leaving my ed6resA Well my muster
roll caught n They landed me on the
pay roll for 4 ca;Eson and htty round:
of fred and strapped ammunition ant
s&t sT trifi~G-"
"Hr.w it mid, Dick" suggested.
We'll, if they didn't" said Dick
earnestly. may be 'bobtailed-' put
out for the west and listed in Coving
TN in the 'lousEh,ys' again, like {
.ool. was just in time to be rounded
UP for a batch of Johrnies' going t.
| .0ntana, the worst lot of fresh fish
ever got into Tough? Well! say! W,
pofed it all day and stood guard ever,
her ni"ht. We had a chap Just ap
| pointed from civil life in command
| AMI he was scared TO death. And tn,
| .ruL. We'll, let that go We got t.
OFT p: and had to build new stable
| FOR t. cavalry. Fatigue duty ever!
';sv ana drc=s parade every night mad'
i.t> hardly worth living. Then l wa
let lied to guard railroad survey
| that WAS exciting, for the Sioux had
sFito a,rsiast U.s. but I conciudsd thir
teen d0iiRra II month WAS too small
bet to stake my life against Pour O
In said gcod-hy and waltzed for tn
railroad. sleeping in ravines by da.
and trampiag by night Once more
figured Zig talef on the muster rolls
The post QuSrscrmaster sergeant sol
six mules to treightar and the tear
turned up on my pay roll. with p-uode
enough 30 start suffers store"
we'll so on, Dick" l said
| '-Oh, 20 make a long story short,
kept getting In aud out all the time
Had 20 keep going and changing m
name, for VIA always running int
some fellow that knew me. Not man
fellows viii blow on you-bNit 10
can't help thinking they will Then
fellow that knows you have q ski
against you fnds You worry convenieu
to borrow tobacco from and money, an
a chap winds up by getting out Nov
there's Macksy who just joined. II
was with mo in the Nipeteenth. wa
nervous about him. though he neve
| pretended to know me; but he owne
up 10 four himself I'm going to site
this time and get out fair aaL squaz
with q clean discharge. for Pm >iS's an
tired OF running away like a rabbit
Dick made a good soldier and got
sar1eants chsyrJhs; but he nevs
served his enlistment out He wa
smoking q cigar in . saloon ia L
Cruces two years Later. when two fe
lows had q row and pulled pistols @
each other. Both fred One wa
killed and his bullet missed his ma
and went through Dlok's head, KILN
| him insfAntlH