Evening star., 1895-06-01
THE SALVATION OF BARRENALL
BY WILLIAM q. WASSELI.
Copyright, 1895, by William H. wassel1.)

Copyright, 1895, by William H. wassell)
Fort Barrenalps mental tension was at
its limit. A very slight turn of the screw
is sufficient to produce a high tension on
army strings, but at this time the screws
had been turned until the worn threads of
discipline were on the point of slipping
back
Wind and heat were the cause of it all.
Now. wind in general is very fruitless,
especially in army circles, where deeds are
mightier than words; but this ill-blowing
wind was the wind that swept over mile
after mile of sage brush prairie, gathering
fresh impetus on each mile. until it burst
over Fort Barrenall tornado in it's fury.
High up in the air it whistled and shrleked
like a tormented devil; like a traitorous
devil it cut the old flag on the flagstaff SO
that every one of the thirteen stripes was
a streamer by itself.
There were no signing poems of love in
| this wind, no soft murmurs that could re-
mind soldier of his sweetheart's whis-
pers; but there was demon in 1t, high
and mighty demon, who shook all the earth
with his untiring rage. until puny man put
his fingers to his ears to shut out the sound,
gnashad his teeth in powerless anger, and
then vented his choler on the fellow-man
whose nerve strings were just as taut.
And the heat was worse than the wind.
But three months had gone by since the
garrison was wearing huge buffalo over
coats in vain attempt to keep 90 below
zero cold from freezing the benumbed blood
in their veins, and now, as If to make mat
ters even, the sun scorched down upon the
post until, in the coolest place, the ther-
mometer stood at 112 Men soaked their
md En,t h,o olyotc Exy
their iron hunks to douse themselves in the
middle Of the night. If man could get a
! lump of ice he wrapped it in a towel and
put it on his aching head, but 1t did not
last long. and to get a little piece he had to
creep out of barracks at midnight. when
the ice house was opened.
| So they lay on their hunks, a seething.
| sweating. sizzling mass Of profanity They
| swore at the wind, the heat, the mosqui-
toes, their officers. and finally at each
other. All the officers came in for a goodiy
share. but at some they swore harder than
at others, because there were officers at the
post who expected a thirteen-dollar-a-
month man to possess all the cardinal vir-
tues. to want nothing but work. and to find
pleasure only in being nagged at by a
never satisfied officer.
Half dozen times in a night the men
would get up and creep out on the pGrches
to smoke and talk disjointedly of far away
homes. or perhaps of sweethearts that
never could be theirs. The old soldiers
smoked in silence. because they had been
through the wind and heat before, but the
recruits made foolish condolences and
talked at random between the puffs of their
pipes.
For three weeks the wind had blown its
furnace breezes. and so far as siSns Of
abatement went, it might continue to blow
houses; it shook the government plaster
from the government lath: it blew on the
colonel just hard and as hot as on the
private, and it blew through the burning
brains of the garrison until every one was
going mad.
All this time the mighty machinery of the
War Department was moving with its slow,
but steady. grind. There were drills to go
to- and officers and men for the one thou
sandth time formed lines of skirmishers
advanced by rushes, and fired volley after
volley in a way to dislodge any enemy ex-
cept wind or heat Then there was target
practice, and down on the range the men
swore at the wind when it blew their we'll
aimed bullets off the targets. or else when
they made a wide two instead of the de-
sired bulf fS-eye-which counts as fye-they
cursed the heat and said that no man could
shoot when his nerves were burned out
Wind and heat are not recognized in the
blue book of army regulations, and hence
the guard details and the fatigue details
and the thousand and one other details that
are always part of garrison life could
not be stopped. p
One afternoon the long roll was sounded
Turn, out every man." yelled the first
sergeants.
Before the men knew where they were
the startled companies were rushed down
to the Guartermaster's store house, armed
with gunny sacks, ana raced out mile
from the post to fight prairie fires that had
been started fifteen miles north of Barren
all by the scorching sun. And it is not an
easy matter to head off prairie IRE. In
the emergency they lighted wisps of hay
and started the prairie grass to burning
they tried to confne the fire to a swath
encircling the post and only fifty feet in
and the devil wind stifled half the men
with smoke, but still they had to beat out
the flames with their gunny sacks when
tha fire made too great headway.
The post was saved, but officers and men
had to work all night to do it.
By the epntrariety of nature. which sub
sides the storm when a safeguard Is erect
ed, the wind should have shown its fury
spent by the next morning. But there was
no such luck for poor Barrenall. The high
wind blew worse than ever on the shatter-
ed nerves, and the hot sun seemed angry
because the ravage Of its prairie fires had
been stopped.
The colonel sat in his office and mentally
threw up his hands. For two weeks he
had Systematically jumped every officer
and soldier who had come before him, all
because the wind and heat made him i'll
tempered. But at last, he realized that
they were all in the same boat. officers
and men, and then he, the tig colonel. be-
came mild as a little child. He could not
tell his adjutant to publish an order abat-
ing the wind or moderating the heat, but
it was his duty to devise salvation for his
half-maddened command.
Early in the morning, there had been
shooting scrape in F company, and he had
just sent his orderly to summon Capt.
knight.
what was the cause of the shooting in
your company this morning, captain?" he
asked, as the company commander entered
the office.
Il don't know, SIR" replied the captain
IT am told that the two men are the best
of friends, but this morning Wilson said he
was going to kill some one, and then pick
ed up his rife and shot the man in the
next bunk. I sent Wilson to the guard
house, but I couldn't get a word out of
him. 1 think he is crazy, SIR concluded
the captain.
The colonel rose from his chair and be-
gan to pace the floor.
''How are the other men of the COM
pany?" he asked.
II don't know, SIR" answered the cap
tain, 'bul I have given orders to my SER
geants and corporals to keep their rifles
handy and beat out the first signs of in
subordination they see. i can answer for
Flesh and bone can stand only so much" :"
said the colonel, land between wind and
heat the men are on the verge of insanity
dislike to drill them in such weather, but
If let them stay in barracks they will