The midland journal., 1893-10-06
BILLY'S LAST CALL.
It Was a Warning to His Cher
ished Comrades.

very 1ar away 1nueeu now, a1Jer all
that has happened since then. 1t was
but year or two before Custer and his
men of the Seventh United States cav
airy were massacred by the Sioux In
dians, and that was in 1876. We were
not very much on parade, out on the
plains, then, and it mattered little to
us if a man dressed in forage cap or
campaign hat, when he was in the field.
There was not, in fact, anyone to see us
save those we were protecting-the set
tlers-and those we were fighting, the
Indian hostiles. 1t is different now,
when ''buclz" gets fined for stain on
the right palm of his gloves, or a mis-
fitting blouse. Then, l remember
Sergt. M, of the -th. greasing his
body over when we left the post in
February, and never-so it was said
washing until November, when we got
back again, after the campaign. And
if you study the question and know the
way we had to live, you will under
stand that the sergeant was neither a
beast nor fool. They were rough h
days, and more than one man have seen
ride into garrison in the late autumn
with breeches made out of buffalo hides
by his own hands. We thought our.
selves ill treated if we had to spend
more than three months of cold weather
in the lonely picket buildings they
called barracks and were allowed no
more than eight or nine to room with
pack saddles over the prairie and chase
the red man, who certainly kept us
going then. Now he has got to grow
ing corn and living on his ration and
begging, and he does not afford as much
fun as he used to.
However, this has nothing to do with
the Pet, or only indirectly.
When the regiment was organized,
was the first sergeant of the old troop,
and he married (before the end of the
war}, whom, don't know, and neither
did he, for she had been wife to so
many men previously-that stalwart
old campaigner-that her original
name and her pedigree were lost in the
passing of the ages. But she bore him
a son, and while dressing a young pri-
Yates wounds, in the course of an at.
tack on train, which her husbands S
troop escorted. was shot dead. For her
sake and for the sake of the old Dutch
Pennsylvanians, the troops buried her
mournfully, and without any method
of procedure decided to adopt her SON
the Pet.
And adopt him we did. Poor little
chap! The old sergeant had acquired
habits which We're not condu Give to
longevity, and was reduced gradually
in spite of the many chances given
him-to the ranks, and remember few
things more pathetic than when little
Bill Jones, four years old, came crawl
ing on hands and knees up the steep
hill to the guardhouse and demanded
furiously that I, who was only hum
BILE sentry on "No. l." should give him
his dada" who had recently been
confined for "being under the influence
of Intoxicating liquors" while a mem
ber of the post guard. Whether the
sergeant of the guard consulted the
officer on duty or not don't know. He
said he did. Anyway, it was against
regulations to let the four-year-old des-
perado into the guardroom. The Off
Ger and the sergeant have the blame be-
tween them, for he came in and raised
havoc with the guard. A sweet little
domineering chap he was, and took US
by storm. The end of it was that he
led his father out by the hand, and the
sergeant of the guard sent sentry
along after them. Poor old "Schuyl-
kill" never came back alive.
The boy drew his father away to look
at his mothers grave in the lonely cem-
etery on the bluffs, and there the old
soldier became overcome with a sense
of his own degradation and his child's
loneliness and had a fit, and was found
by the doctor and ambulance men lying
dead on his wife's grave. And the SER
geant of the guard was tried by court
martial and reduced to the ranks, for
regulations are regulations.
Billy's father and Billy's mother hav-
ing died without thinking it necessary
to notify anybody of any relations they
may have had, Billy was left with what
pay was due to his father, and the debt
to the sutler which his father owed,
which was rather rough on the four
year-old, for the debt considerably ex-
ceeded the pay. Under these circum-
stances the troop determined to lick
Billy into shape, and put the kid"
into the hands of Mother Brickenscheul-
| fer, an old German woman, who had
done washing for American soldiers,
and made pies for them, and lent them
money, since the days when Fremont
first crossed the Sierras. But enough
of Billy's childhood, and childhood's
troubles, which he certainly took quite
cheerfully.
| When he was old enough to hold the
bugle to his lips, he made noise which
his partial stepfathers said was mighty
near like taps" and he took to the
bugle after that, as he might to a suck
ing bottle. When he was ten he could
blow all the calls, and ride Tip" to
water, while leading two others, which
was more than any recruit could do
When he was fifteen, and had had a de-
cent education at the post schools, our
dear old captain (rest be to his soul)
held a consultation with the colonel
and the adjutant and Billy was called
in at the end of it, and asked if he
would like to enlist. 1t required spe-
cial order from the headquarters at
Washington, but Billy got his hearts
desire and not a sock nor a shirt did he
have to draw for himself when he en-
tered. We all drew for him out of our
own clothing allowances. Il remember
Big Healy, on quarterly draw day-he
was six feet by three, guess-gravely
putting down for pair of No. l trous-
ers, which would not have done more
| than make a connla Of matches on his