Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-11-05
thus stationed within gun range Of tho

DETEsTED ALCATRA2,
Four miles away from the Preside a rock
rises from the center OF San Francisco bay
which Is cordially dctestcd by artillery ON
cers II is AlcatraS Island, two-bsttcry
post and big military prison. nlcak and
dcsola'c. AlcRtra2 stands right in the track
OF the donsc cold fogs that nightly sweep
into the bay from the Pacific. During the
night hours ttcatraa Is a humorous example
OF the righteousness Of the alleged "clor-
Gus climate o. California" as the muttcr-
ings NJ many shiverlng officer of the day
who has been compelled to visit the scntrcs
on tho Alcatra2 citadel will attest
There are, Of course. occasional drawbacks
even IN the life OF an artillery officer one
might consist In his assignment to duty at
Fort Candy In the state OF Washington.
There are, OF course, drearicr military posts
In the United states than Fort Candy, but
none Of them Is an artillery post Candy Is
another Of the two-battcry posts. II is In
the wilderness " the Swash country on
Cape Disappointment, at the mouth OF the
Columbia river. thirteen miles from Astoria,
town built upon piles, through the flooring
of which a few drunken fishermen are
dropped from villanous saloons nearly every
night during the salmon fishing season.
There Is no very delirOus social whirl In
Astoria, which at best Is only reached by a
daily boat from Fort Candy travCrsing dan
Eorous, tumultuous waters. Two miles across
q bear-intCstCd trail is the town OF ii Waco,
where the enlisted man finds peculiarly
barbarous brand Of whisky and which Ia
only visited by the army officer when he
goes there In charge Of platoon to hunt
up enlisted dcrelicts.
The cavalrymen and the infantrymon bear
the brunt of the actual soldering in the
United States service Frozen by the winter
blasts of Montana for five years they stand
immune nuringly-o Officially subject to an or
der that may send them to be parchCd for
another half decade by the simoons of New
No. 1n alE.Nl In flA
ccedng great wetness Of western oregon at
Vancouver barracks, for instance, where, &C
cOrding to an old army tradition, 1t rains
for thirteen months in the year. Frontier
soldering as portrayed by the pencil of a
Remington and the pen of a Wister is pic
turesque enough. but it is to be borne in
mind that the Wisters and Remingtons So
journ at Fort Apache for one week and
spend the next at Philadelphia or New York.
The man who wrote the weird and dismal
"Monotony of Muleteering" would probably
find existence at Fort Wmgate, n. NJ. so
much more monotonous than his own COM
parativeiy exciting experiences among
the Apennnes to induce him to
try suicide. 1t is a significant fact. by the
way, that all the army officers who have
become afflicted with insanity during the
last quarter of century have belonged to
the cavalry or the Infantry branch. and in
nearly every case the loss of reason has
/ been traceable to the monotony, only re-
! lieved by severe hardship. of frontier sol
dicring. Not a single artilleryman or engi-
neer has figured in the lists OF insane army
officers since the rebellion.
POPULARITY OF FORT MYER
Notwithstanding the soul-paralyzing shifts
! to which cavalry and infantry officers are
constantly liable. there are a good many
posts where officers In these branches may
mince through joyous days. For tho cavalry
men. Fort Myer. near Washington, is per-
haps the star assignment of the lot An
army officer of good carriage good address
and good habits may have a lot of fun In
Washington to atone for whatever misery
he NAV have undergone In the mesquite
country OF the Texas panhandle or among
| the red bluffs of South Dakota. There are
many opportunities here for him to don his
| fun dress uniform, which may have been
wrinkling in it's case for any number of
years previous, and the only dangerous COM
petition that he is likely to chance upon in
Washington drawing rooms Is that Of the
young attaches OF legations, who, as is being
eXempliiied more and more every year,
possess a great deal more manners than
morals The cavalrymen are generally lead
ing spirits in the fox hunts that take place
here and among the adjacent Virginia hills
during the season, and the drills OF the
troops stationed at Fort Myer, which are
participated in by the CraCkajack riders OF
the different troops. are frequently attended
by the smartest people in the various Wash
inston social sets, including any number OF
pretty young women with sufficient horse
wOmanship to take part In the drills them
selves, were the occasion to arise.
Next to Fort Myer the wearers of the
yellow are perhaps more partial to Fort
Leavenworth, Kan than to any other post
in which their branch is prominent. An
exceedingly beautiful and attractive post in
| itself, Fort LeaVenworth has gradually dur
ing the last twenty years so extended its
influence to the adjoining handsome town
of Leavenworth, the metropolis of Kansas,
that the city has become practically an adj
junCt 10 the fort in n social sense There
are as many Irritation walks" and spoon
ing rows" aud doves groves" within the
boundaries of the Fort Leavenworth gaTri-
son as there are at West Point. Moreover,
the soldering at Fort Leavenworth is easy
enough for cavalrymen, infantrymen ana
light artillorymen, and the atmosphere of
the post is found sufficiently lively by Of
icers who have been buried for a few years
in Fort Spokane. Idaho; Fort Grant Texas,
or other not-on-the- garrisons where
situations are only charted in the publica-
tions of the general land office.
IN THE MIDWEST
Infantry officers are generally rather par
tial to Fort Sheridan, near Chicago. which
has for several years been held down by
the Fifteenth. now banished for its sins
to unspeakable Arizona. As no good reason
has as yet been advanced why any sane
human being should desire to live in or
near Chicago, IL must be taken for granted
that the "doughboy" officers only nourish
their fondness for Fort Sheridan because
it is a regimental headquarters with band
attachment, and because the post is roomy
and comfortable
The infantry officer who has done his
four or five years at San Carlos or at Fort
| Whpple, or at Fort Sidney, or at Fort
Smelling, or at Fort Assiniboine, In any of
which and similar purgatories he is likely
to pine and die for the sight of human
Countenances other than those of his com
rades in arms, halls with rapture an
signment either to Fort Logan, near Den
yer; Fort Douglas, near Salt Lake City;
San Antonio Barracks near San Antonio,
or Fort Crook, near Omaha After n few
! interminable years of plugging away with
Springfeds at nght-hOwling coyotes, of
playing endless whist or even of occasion
ally scouting through Arizona after the
ever-elusiee Apache Kid, there is gee in
tho prospect of pulling up for a while at
a post where cigars do not wither or freeze
before they are smoked, where all of the
femininity does not consist in the post
laundress and the ordnance sergeant's good
hearted wife, and where a newspaper or
magazine is not begrimed with alkali dust
before it finally reaches the post library.
Fort d. A. Russell is only a short distance
awey from Cheyenne, lovely enough town
after its own peculiar breezy western fashion,
and for this reason 1t would mutually seem
to be desirable post from the officers point
OF view. But II Is not The reason 1t has
arhinyp1 rCrutation among army officers