The Russellville Democrat., 1893-08-03
.1s HE MUCH Huarl WE'RE THERE MANY OF THEMln

stant. Such scholars as had drifted into the ranks were, as rule, ire claimable drunkards, lost to any chance of redemption at home and only tolerated in the service in the rough old days because of their meek and accomplishing perform ance of long honrs of extra duty in the troop or regimental offices, when, their whiskey and their money alike exhausted, they humbly went back to their desks, asking only to live in the hope of another drunk. Hundreds of the old dragoons could barely sign their names; many could only touch the pen when called upon to make this (X) mark.u "Another busted clerk" was the general expression wben the young Gal fornian came forward to enlist. Yet he was the picture of clear eyed, athletic manhood, was accepted with much hesitancy by the officers and un- doubted suspicion by the men, yet speedily proved splendid horse man, scout, shot, and, as was the final admission, s'all-round trooper, despite the fact that he was well educated and spoke Spanish like native. Still, such was the pre- vailing faith, as it ever is among veteran soldiers, that the old style was the best. it was long before he won promotion. No one who has not known both can begin to imagine the difference between the army of a quarter ce, tury ago and the army of to day. Just as Feeny was a resolute specimen of tne old, so was Wing pioneer of his class in the new At the moment when the latter struck spurs to the wearied fanks of poor Dick and called on him for one more effort, the stalwart and handsome sergeant sped away on the path of duty, confident of the fact that by this time every man in his own troop and every soldler who knew him at all would stake his last dollar on Bob" Wings tackling the problem before him as fearlessly and inteligently as any veteran in the regiment
 Having ordered the ambulance up the gorge, he himself spurred away to gather in ali straggers within reach 70 as to reinforce the little garrison at the caves in the event of an attack from tue Apaches. To his practiced eye no vestige of doubt remained as to the character and purpose of the signal smokes. Not a moment was to be lost. Within that very hour, perhaps, unseen h. dians would cone skulking, spying, "snaking" upon their refuge, would be able, infalGbly, to determine the number and character of its occn- pants, aud, it their own force were considerable and that of the garrison weak, God alone could help those innocent women.
 When last noted the westward signal was pufhng slowly up into the cloudless sky from a point in the range perhaps six miles below Pat tersons station in the rocks. The three wearied troopers dragging slowly back from the chase could be seen coming up the valley prooably four miles away, some distance, therefore, ahead of the supposed position of the foe. Wing well knew with what goat like agility the mountain Indians could speed along from rock to rock and still keep under cover, and every man who had served month in Ariz ma could have predicted that if h. dians in any force were within a days march of those three stragglers, ambush and death would be their fate, perhaps even when within view of tbeir longed or god That they had not seen the sign, that they were ignorant of he possible presence of the heApsches in the range, was manifest simply because they