Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-04-06
TROOPER BAPTISTF,.

! IeOOL IJI1 DAl L L ~ L Lie
Jean Baptiste was a Canadian
Frenchman, and his proper place in life
would have been the woods of New
Brunswick or Nova Scotia; but, through
drink and the devil and women or
Il woman, he was trooper in troop
of the Seventh United States Cavalry
Regiment, which company was station
ed at Fort Concios, in Colorado. Now,
the meaning Of conejos is plainly con
| eyS," which are not again, to be Biblic
ally rendered as rabbits, but as prairie
dogs; and Trooper Baptiste was, when
sober just as mild and even milder
than any prairie marmosct in the whole
sage brush country For prairie dogs
will bark or rather whistle, at one,
and Baptistc only looked at man with
great round, foolish black eyes, which
could be very fond of a friend and
show it most pathetically. But in
spite of this gentlcneSs. there was II
terror hanging about him. for he was
superhumanly strong. His very hand,
nay, his fOrcilnger, was something to
beware Of; he could break clay-piDe
bowls between two fingers; he could
smash Il cocoanut with his fist; he
could shoulder a great brass howitZer
that commonly took five men to handle
| without being faxed" He was
very devil of muscle, and when he was
drunk his mind went wrong-he got
mad. The whole troop was scared of
him. Yet, not all of them literally, for
one, Jack Robertson, the Englishman,
could even handle him like Il child-for
| Jack didn't drink, himself
But how it was that the whole troop
didn't take to liquor, and having got
drunk, didn't cut its universal throat,
was Il puzzle. For the fiat plain was
sage brush and alkali, and when it
| didn't rain it froZc, and when the frecZ-
| ing was over Il northcr blew fit to per-
ish whole squadron, man and horse,
and when the northers "pctcred" the
| southcrly winds came up from the low
| lanGs, and across Texas it was like a
| recreation ground in he'll. with dirt and
| heat and flies. Some of the men got
| Ophthalmia and went blind or saw
double or blinked vaguely through
ruined life hereafter and some desert
ed and died of alkali like the bullocks
of team on the White desert or the
great MohaVc, and others got into difr-
cultics and were knitted by MeXicans,
or some border rufian, even worse to
| handle or reckon on: ana some, like
Judas, went out and hanged them.
selves, for they had sold their own souls
| for an American eagle which struck
| its claws of iron through their hearts.
Oh, it's not good to be a soldier in peace
| time anywhere, but to be one at Uni.
| ted States outpost in a sage brush des.
ert, where the devil reigns in the ofi.
GERS hearts ut being in such Il hole, is
worse than all. For there is no chance
of glory or of fighting. At the very
| best Il man rarely gets the chance OF
| reddening his hands if he spares his
own carotid and is delicate about his
own iugular. SO they drink ard gamble
and die-and the fools don't desert.
About thrce-quarters of n mile from
| ConcjOs on the road to Chama there
| was Mexican shebang-a log shanty,
a grog shanty-and in it most people
| got rid Of their cash very promptly
| some got rid of their lives, too. 1t was
a favorite haunt of Baptistes. though
! they did not much like him there. For.
! being Il soldier they had natural ten.
| dcrness about finishing him in the usual
| way. They were afraid of his com.
radcs But one day word came TO the
camp that trouble was brewing at Mex.
lean Joe's. Raptistc was drinking, ana
! his rage was rising like Il cyclone that
comes quickly and bursts all at once.
"Wherc's Robertson?' said the Cor.
poral of the guard, and they reused the
| young fellow out. They knew he was
| the only one who could handle the
Frenchman. They ran down the road.
| five of them, and the dirt rose in clouds.
, They chokcd in ten yards and each
strove to be first Then they spread
out like skirmishers and left dirt be.
/ hind each, instead of smoke.
whats this:" said the Corporal MS
they came within fifty yards of the
shanty.
For out of the door there came
mans body 1t rolled over and over,
and then it appeared to be alive. just
asthc owncrof that apparent corpse dis
proved the inference of his eternal limp.
ness, another body dropped on him, and
then third came, ana the three rolled
, dustily, and rose up white and voluble
when they got their breath. Then Bap.
tiste came outside, roaring in French
and Spanish and good round United
States a polyElot mass of oaths; and
he rolled them until they were almost
insensible and dropped their drawn