The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-03-17
The Chronicle of a Friendship, iFrom tho Chicago ReGordl

and it is the prayer of the chronicler that it is and may ever be the eXcep- tion rather than the rule, It is the story of Welby, who was captain. and of Warren, who was lieutenant of the second degree and loved Welby devot- edly. Had Warren been first lieuten- ant, with the added ten years of eXpe- ience which this time of peace neces- sitates before promotion, he might have been wiser, but being a second lieuten- ant the juice and vital strength which goes with unobstructed humanity was in him It bred enthusiasm for the service and love for his friends both of which qualities look well in print, but either of which is sufficient to damn man who seeks advancement.
 Welby had enlisted when the war broke out, and, being a man of under standing, his advancement was certain. 1 Unfortunately that advancement did not stop at the right place. Had 1t ceased of operation and left Welby a sergeant he would have been most successful and praiseWorthy sergeant with bulging breast and great sense of dignity as he sent underlings to te- dious and unwelcome service. But, to the woe of all that is good, it so occur red that two or three commissioned of ficers had the i'll taste to be shot at most in opportune time, and so left place vacant for the strutful but brave sergeant to achieve shoulder strap, and as the fortunes of war waged high and low he fluctuated in his prospects, l a,,I Ia, IaI .fotn in l deed a captaincy is an awful thing to any man who does not know how to be righteously and properly captain. | Welby was, from the beginning of his life as a commissioned officer, marti- 1 net. Nay, he was more than a marti- net, for, while martinet is unsparing 1 in the proper and reasonable advance ment of military government, Welby was uureasonably cruel to his men and needlessly merciless, He drilled them with packed knapsacks when 1t was 10l in the shade.
 The other things which Weby did are non-essential, but their elimination was court-martial. Multiplied in- stances of nonsensical cruelty to his men had pointed the finger of higher suspicion at Welby, and so a colonel and lot of majors met together one day in the club house of his post and decided that Welby was mentally un- balanced-at least sufficiently unbal- anced to warrant a report favorable to his dismissal from the service. Ac- cordingly Welby was dismissed, and Officers row knew him and his wife no more.
 Welby had been captain of com pany, in which he had no friends, counting from the luckless Private Wrightwood, who was always in the guardhouse because of those amours in town which caused him to forget the passage of time, to the first lieutenant of his company. But over in A com pany, in all his distress, he had a friend, and he knew it. Warren had been born in the same town as Welby, and, whatever you may say or think, there is a sort of tradition circling and lowering about common birthplaces which makes all men of like nativity kin. So when the courtmar- tial decided and when the president ap- proved of the finding that Welby was of the kind unfit to associate with off cers and gentlemen, only Warren of A company felt the slightest compassion for him, and that compassion, feeding on the natural food of distance from faraWay birthplaces, placed Welby in a position even higher than that of a moral and self-righteous captain; and Warren, recognizing the awful vacancy of what Welby's life now must be, went beyond what was natural in the dem onstration of his friendly feeling.
 Have I forgotten to tell you of the peculiarly malignant terms of the mili- tary service which provide that no off cer of the army may hold even the Y slightest converse with a cashiered of fcer? That is most important. For il was that law which Warren disregard ed.
 The cashiered Welby in San Francis co became q thing to be pitied; to be pitied by the charitable civilian, but by the military man-never. There are very stringent rules and orders in mil itary life, and an officer loves his
 friends by mathematical rule promul- gated from the headquarters of the wal department at Washington. A civilian is in better circumstances, especially ii 2 his friends happen to be an inch or SC off color. Wherefore the continued
 friendship of Warren for Welby, the
 cashiered, was a most fragrant viola
 tion of all military ethics Despite 2
 full understanding of the rules made and provided, Warren visited at Vel r by's poor little three-room flat in Sar , Francisco. It was Warren who, be cause of that town of common nativity
 in the east, arranged alF sorts of dis guised benefits for Welby, who, accept , ing them. and what they brought, hat , | no knowledge of the hand behind them , It was Warren who quietly defied al
 the long line of matrons along Officers row and took Mrs. Welby to the opera and in general acted as though he dit not understand that his whole future depended upon the favoring graces O
 the petticoated court. It was Warren
 Lieutenant Warren, who, defying al
 tradition, recommended to Welby tha , he take his case to the highest court O 1 all courts and ask for an adjudication
 upon the error which had been com
 lnitted in the trying court martial, anc | who supplied the funds for this push
 ing of the cause. A very foolish lieu 9 tenant was Warren.
 : Nevertheless, foolish or wise, the cas- t was pushed. The presidents approva