The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-05-30
FORT SMELLING.
Past and Present of a Historic Military
Post,

IuSts
Were you to mix well together love
stories and tales of war, a century of
history, songs of children and war cry
of Indian, blare of bugle and chant OF
priest, rattle of drum and orchestral
strains, crack of rifle and boom of can
non and dirges for the dead-were you
to blend these well together you might
Their paint from the pigment picture
of old Fort Smelling, one of the historic
places of western America, long prom
inent in northwestern annals in times
of peace and times of war.
TheTfort lies about midway between
the cities of Minneapolis and st. Paul.
1T is the scene of many charming so
cial events, the summertime affordlng
opportunity for witnessing the elabo-
rate evening parades which form an in
teresting feature of the close of every
military day in such post as this. In
the winter seasons there are delightful
receptions and balls, and the post col
ony itself has many events of its own,
so large is the number of officers and
their families.
From the time the reveille sounds at
six o'clock in the morning, winter and
summer, until taps ring out at eleven
at night, the fort is a beehive of life
and activity. Everything is conducted
on the strictest military lines. The
men are taught discipline at ever1
step. They are bound by such, rulsk
and restrictions as the civilian is who'll
ly ignorant of, such rules and regula-
tions as are essential to the efficiency
of the army, small though it be, and
insignificant in the sight of the armies
of the other nations of the world. 1t
is such discipline as makes a band of
marauding Indians run to cover; that
brings cheer after cheer from the pave
ment throngs as a regiment of regulars
swings with rhythmic tread down the
street; that treasures the citizen, when
he reads of the militarism of Europe,
with the thought of the magnificent
influence. which this discipline would
exert did the horrid front of war APP
pear in his own country; that enables
a regiment of troops to hold at bay
ten thousand mob-ruled men, and
scatter them, when sullenness deepens
mows down a horde of anarchists and
asserts the splendid supremacy of ma
tiOnal law.
An incident, which, for obvious rea-
sons, did not find its way into print in
the daily newspapers at the time of
its occurrence, but which | may here
briefly recount without any violation
of confidence, illustrates how impor
tant a factor this fort has become in
the civic as well as the military life of
the northwest
In the dark days of midsummer,
1894, when the whole country was with
intense anxiety awaiting the outcome
of the great railroad strike, Col.
Mason, the commandant of the fort,
received a telegram while he was at
church one Sunday morning, ordering
the Third under arms, for call to Chi
cago at a moments notice. In less
than an hour from the time the tele-
gram was received the regiment was
equipped for the field; all the accoutre-
ments, all the munitions, all the i'm
pedimenta of war were ready. This
was a precautionary move; it was i'm
possible to tell, so cloudy the skies at
Chicago, how soon there might be
need of more troops.
But Il was learned about this time
that there We're threats-by no means
open, but more or less serious-that as
soon as the Third regiment left Fort
Smelling a mob would seize the depots
of the cities of st. Paul and Minneapo-
lis, take complete control of them,
prevent the arrival or departure of
trains, and thus cut off the possibility
of the troops being returned from Chi
cago. With a mob in control of these
cities it would be difficult to say what
the outcome might be: it might do
much to complicate the case from ma
tional as well as local standpoint In
formation came to the war department
that such a move was in contempla-
ton, the Third stayed at Fort Smelling,
and the mob was checkmated. -Har-
per's Weekly.