Evening star., 1896-12-19
AN ARMY POST STORY.
BY CLARENCE L. CULLEN.

I
| by a little while before the territory of
Washington became state. He had enl sted
| at Seattle as a recruit, and was therefore
| classed as prairie chicken as soldiers
] then were who took on anywhere west of
| the Mississippi. We all had good many
reasons for believing, however, that Will
! son was not quite so much of a recruit as
| his Seattle enlistment record showed on it's
| face. None of us could remember having
sold.ered with him anywhere. and his face
was unfamiliar to ALL Nevertheless, from
the day he arrived at Candy in charge of
| the Seattle batch Of recruits If which. ac-
| cordiIg to the list he handed to the Off
| Ger of the day. he was one, he carried him
self too much like a soldier to fool those of
| us who had been in the outfit long tine
! Old Sergeant Fisher took the recruits
out to the parade ground, th. morning af-
| ter their arrival, to begin to lick them into
shape in the awkward squad. Wilson was
| among them. He tried hard to assume the
le"ruit's clumsiness, but we could see that
| the job was a little too much for him He
was too naturally graceful man in his
carriage for that, ard his shoulders were
too square. At the command of execution
ne forgot himself every time, and stepped
out with the left foot recruit never
| does that. 1t takes at least SIX months to
teach recruit that he is possessed of a
left foot Old Fisher gave ITO the rear,
| march,! suddenly, and it caught Wilson
mapping. Alone of the squad, he whirled
on the ball of his left foot and took step
rearward, while the rest of the squad ig-
Eorantly ploughed on. 1t was a bad give
away, and Wilson's dark, handsome face
flushed. Old Fishers eye was sharp, if
he lad been canteen sergeant for six
years.
"Hsltr' he commanded the squad of re-
they halted. wilson. fall out" wilson
| fell out, and for a time stood by watching
cid Fisher drill the rockies in the facings.
After awhile the sergeant, having brought
| the squad to rest, walked over to Wilson
looked him over for minute with a sort of
| half smile, and said: What's the use?'
"Ncne." said Wilson. probably seeing that
the game was up so far as old Fisher was
concerned
All the same, not to make the officers
suspicious, the drill sergeant took Wilson
cut with the awkward squad every day
| for a time. 1t was fine thing to see VII
son handle his rife when the guns were
dished out to the rockies for the first time
| A young lieutenant, fresh from West Point,
happened to drop into the day room, and
! ne stopped for a while to watch the new
| men trying to get through the manual His
eye naturally drfted to Wilson, who would
nave attracted attention in the middle
tank RANK OF a refiment for he Certainly was a
handle his gun as if he had never seen one
Lefore We couldn't help but grin lack
ass-caily as we stood around. although we
were careful not to let the little West Point
shaVetail SEE us do it, for we all liked Will
son. and didn't want - see him get into
any trouble. Wilson tried SO hard to make
IL appear that he didn't even know what a
ttne thn was was MADE Tor that he dropped it while
'he squad was standing at a rifle parade
rest. 1t made the DEVILS own clatter. and
the little heutenant's eyes snapped.
Gawk! he muttered, while Wilson. red
ana nervous, reached out and picked nm the
gun. 8, f ~
Attention." shouted the drill sergeant
wilson alone of the batch was like a ram
aou before the echoes of the command died
away In the day room.r
Right shoulder-hums!' Wilson's gun
came TO his shoulder with a snap the three
movements M perfect while the other fellows
OF the squad We're sluggishlv coming to q
port. present. a carry. eyerythinp bnt o
right shoulder. "'
IT ;.rt1xsIbay-o-nets"' Wilson's was fixed
witt with the raptdity and precision of an ex-
well said the little lieutenant under
nf ms breath as he turned, away with kind
ot w11san gnzx,ea a. twinkle fn his eye.
eausnt aug commanding officers orderly the
n tis. .ine ne vent on guard. All of us who
occupied hunks in tha old-timers' snmaS
fsom s,, mad to confoss that Wilson was as
4nse soldier as We had ever seen. 80
None of us ever asked him ~.
ne mad been in before he came 70 o,, outLt
GU! as recruit Wilson was vsr,,
bh,., Sira rai man, well educated-we used to see
i'm
ansuases, as he lay on his bunk on raiSu
aiter noons-and we didn't care to bothar
nm MN with questions. 1t was none of nnr
blasted business, anyhow. yo1np 49,,
OF rookie was watching Wilson dsdI,ntP
. ,,,S cartridge belt one day, and, like the
Pup pup .nat ne was, he said SO that the other
leilows IN the room could hear him:
ono, but hasn't Wilson done that In.
times before. I'd just like to know,
one OF us reached over, caught the ouh
pv the scruf of the neck and dropped Elm,
.ne panmisters of the double-decker
quarters. Wilson said nothing. although
there was an odd sort of g!eam in his black
eyes. There were no illusions to his mast
after that, you can bet past
Fort CANDY Is beautiful gloomy r,st
1t is at the mouth of the Columbia river
under the shadow of the mountain thar
forms the extremity of Cape Disappont
n,,sa, msnt: on; but the Pacific batters wildly
ters we could always hear the roar of tb.,
sea. The sound used to break some OF ms
up little, kind of, at night, after the
.Iea ssh;s ;s went out. l don't know why. The
sea is mournful, anyhow, L think A hum
dred salmon fishermen from Astoria and
II waco got upset and drowned on that
wicked Columbia bar while we were there
well well ahynoW, Wilson used to spend
nearly all or the time that he wasn't on
duty down by the sea. He had a pir
dragon tattooed on his knotty left arm
and barkentine in three colors on his
breast. Besides he knew a great deaI
about Japan and South America, as some
OF us found out without being iruuisitiye
ana we knew that he had been to sea
When, now, or in what capacity, we had
no idea But he was fond of the sight
OF the sea- Only once in a while did he
join IN the foot ball game with the gang
on the parade ground. When he did. he
always kicked a goal. On pay days some
or us used to go across the trail from
the post to ii Waco, three miles away
and there were a lot of ugly looking black
bears on that trail, too, can tell you-and
well. we'd load up on Jawbones barbar-
GUS SiWash whisky. Jawbones was the
half-breed Siwash who sold 1t. Wilson
never went along with US. He didn't
drink. We kind O. liked him for that too
FOR. with big heads and sore stomachs we
were all swearing off every pay day-af.er
our money was spent at Jawboncs'.
No, Wilson put in his off duty time
tramping through the pine and spruce for
ests along the beach, with stick in his
hand, always alone. One day the tide
rushed In suddenly and caught him at the
foot OF the cape. He had to climb the
6OO-foot rock, Which was almost perpen-
dicular. l wouldn't have tried 1t for a
million, even to save myself from drown
ing. He smiled little when l told him
so. He's been aloft on ships, you know.
Well. this is the. finish 1t has been
long time In coming, but you had to under
stand what manner of man Wilson was
One bright day thsssentry up at the IN h
hOuSe yelled down Go 10 Sorpoopt t,,o