The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-17
FUN AT FORT CLARK, THEN
COZ. "JoCKn MIX ESZIE's WAY OF
RUNNING AN ARMY POST.
Ihs Coreert Given by = sauare-Hcadsd Bnnd-
master to the Mules OF the Cemninnd-Fisht
OF = PuEAncious Private for Hts Liberty
Mrs. Hogan Obsys Her superior onicer.

at Fort Clark, Tex, In the early eighties, when
the late Col. Jock ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Nc he was aNectionately nicknamcd by the men
under him-of the Fourth Cavalry was IN com
inand Of thnt post" said an Old regular army
ssets- nA,s us other auy. Mckenzie was a
enc. square man, and as ablo u campaigning
soldier rs ever flashed II sabre in the sunlight.
but no was eccentric. especially in garrison, and
absolutely unfathomable by officers and men
who had been with him for years. His mind
was cloudcd before his death rs a result OF the
years Of hardship he underwent in frontier cam
paigns. But before his retirement, eccentric
as Jock Mckenzie was, there was no COM
manding officer in the United States Army who
gave every man in his military jurisdiction,
Licutcnant.C Colonel or driver of an ambulance,
a squarCr deal in cases that were laid before
him. officer or enlisted man-it made no diff
ference to Mckenzie; every follow in u uniform
got exactly what was coming to him when Mo-
Kenzic passed upon the merits of an argument.
lie despised garrison life, anyhow; he'd Gus 1t
up hill and down dale, and bite his finger nails
down to tho quick when the War Department
would turn a deaf car to his appeals to be per
mitted to take tho field against marauding reds
about II thousand miles away from where he
was stationed; Nit he knew how to run a garri-
son, all the same, and he managed Fort Clark
q twenty-five company outfit, and perhaps the
biggest post in the country when he was in com.
mand herewith IA snap that you don't see ex-
hibited in army posts in these days.
"l,don't think any of us who were soldering at
Clark at the time will ever forget how he made
the Fourth Cavalry band put in a whole day
discoursing music to the mules in the corral. The
way OF 1t was this: The band leader was n
'squarc.hcad.' He belonged to the toady and
dog.robber type OF enlisted man, I'm sorry to
say, ;and that was just the kind Of enlisted man
that Jock Mckenzie mad 1t in for. You had to
stand up and say your say to him like a man il
you wanted to win out OF a mess; he wouldn't
stand for crawling, crawtshing. or forehead
knuckling. Well. the enlisted men at Clark
wanted TO give a hop, and a mint of us
was sent over to this band leader to see about
the music.
Forty dollars said he. almost before we'd
got through telling him what We wanted.
This was a kind of q staggerer. We had
figured on paying him a reasonable sum, but
$40 was ten more than the price charged by the
band leader for music ut q civilian blowout.
What are you giving usf said one of the
committee. You play all night at the officers
hops for nothing. and you only hit the jumpers
in..town for thirty for q nights scraping and
wind pushing. What for kind of a talk is this
you're putting upf
Forty dollars said this queer duck of a
COrneJ Crucker, ana tnaC betueu IL. 80 VIC SID
up in a body to the old mans quarters to see
what he'd have to say about it. We wouldn't
have gone near him If we had not felt that tho
band leader was trying to rub it in on us. We
found the Colonel in one of his close-mouthed
humors-for Jock Mckenzie would sometimes
track around the post for a month at a time
without saying q word to anybody outside Of
the routine. One OF us stated the case to him.
I" The band leader is trying TO give US tho
worst Of it. Is anything to be donef' was tho
wind-up OF the statement;
The old man twiddlod his thumbs and smiled
in n queer kind OF way he had.
Pay him what he asks, he said finally, and
we left. We were disappointed in the old man.
1t was the first time he had gone back on us on
q pretty big time. We paid the band leader his
$40 in advance, and he gave US good music, al
GERS Of the post attended the hop and appeared
to Eet as much fun out Of 1t as the men; Col.
Mckenzie, showed up about midnight, with his
see the officers and men in my command mix
the officers and good for the men. But under
stand there has been a little contention with
lis hfss chin and ID went sns m inso a r eve H for a me mi I.lSse or
no. IN see about that in the morning. Go
ahead and enjoy yourselves until ~reveille, if
w took the old man at his word and kept
the thing s-soipg until first call sounded for re;
hands made q break for quarters to stand
~reveille. 1t was still pretty dark, but we made
para %' s Tta u %an As Ssa he GENERALLY tns s @ayasS in IN b bes
until about 10 In the morning, we wondered
After rcveille roll call the officer of the day
wheeled to front the Colonel and reported all
present or accounted for
order the musician of the guard to sound
r~eveillel. The old gentleman had us all guess
ing for fair. The members of the band had just
gone to headquarters from the hop, dead tired
after the nights work. The trumpeter blared
the band call.
-" Clap the double time onto the call, shouted
the old man to the trumpeter, and in about eight
seconds the bandsmcn came hopping over the
parade ground, elbows Up, their blouses half
buttoned, the band leader travelling in front
like a man racing against time when he saw the
old man standing on the parade ground. The
band lined up close to the commanding officer;
The leader did his two-handed saluting and
'EhSah-your music last night was pretty
good pretty good, said the old man to the
leader. 'You1eh.were pretty we'll paid for 1t.
too, were you nOtf
THE band leader stood mute. 1t was up to
him TO say something. but he wasn't man enough
and Jock Mckenzie hated, to have a soldier
thumb the buttons on his blouse and stand
""Eh-yes-good music he went on. I might
even say; damned fine music! Ike good music
But i dare say that neither myself nor my Off.
my mules. don't suppose there's such an
n " VI .'"hso - N'y.
post in this country as that bunch OF mules Of
mine down IN the corral. humph! Band
Leader, you will Immediately get yourself and
the band into heavy marching order and march
down to the mule corral. There you will render
the best music of which the band Is capable
until retreat this evening. DO not SLOUGH the
music. ! shall DO around at intervals to see
that you do not SLOUGH the music. Your bands
mems dinners shall he sent 10 them at noon, and
YOU and they shall have,tittcen minutes TO eat II;
Resume the, music ate fifteen minutes OF
dining, and keep 1t up until first call for retreat
Is sonr'cd. Officer of the Day, dismiss the men
to their quarters
"Wcll. hat mule corral serenadc was worth
any mans money to hear and sec. The bands
men sat around on bales of hay, their heavy
marching order gear. down TO the tin cup and
pinto and, knife and fork. ~jangling every time
they made II move. We all took turns going
down 10 the mule corral to SEQ tho performance
aud make the band leader feel good. We
threw ourselves fun length on the grass and
ehewod straws and watched EN- .nIf and
music by the weighing Of their ea;s, only
~ made some Of the oid.timers so sad that
they kept NJ. n steady 'ke-hun!;' during the en-,
tire twelve hours. The old man turned up at
me corral. picking his teeth. about . o'clock in
the afternoon. Some OF the bandsmcu. inciud'
Ing the leader. who played first cornet, were
half aSleeD right In lie middle OF a tune. 'ThT