The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-10
BILL ANTHONY.
A Comrade Talks of the Hero Of the
Maine.


New York Journal: do 1 know Bill
Anthony" said the old corporal. with
a grunt. DO 1 know Bill Anthony
this here they're calm the hero of
| the Maine2 Say, friend, 1 knowed Bill
Anthony before he ever knew what a
! pair of sea legs was. l knOwed Bill when
he was a soldier, which same is bet
tern a sailor, any day. I've slept blan-
ket and blanket with Bill when the Da-
| kota zephyr WAS freeAn' the tails of
the horses; and I've rode stirrup To
| stirrup with Bill when the alkali was
| burnin the whites out of your eyes
and the sun was cookie your face the
color of a burnt bean.
Bill Anthony, Ell? He warn't no
hero then. He was just d devil Of a
cavalryman, ridin' boss like a Indian,
fghtin' like two or three ordinary men
and raisin' rumpuses all over Montana.
Ever been to Fort Assinaboine? Then
you don't know how close you can go
to hell on this earth. Bill was tough
as whang leather in them days. Don't
know where he learned 10 ride, but he
could back a hess and stay with him
longer and closer than any boot-and-
spur man 1 ever saw.
Bill used to be u mOOnshine chaser.
He got into the army way back yon
der in II. Times was rough down in
Carolina them days, because everybody
was maxim whisky and Sellin' it like
there want no government at all. Bill
went down there with X company of
the old Eighteenth infantry, ana rode
all over the mountains, with every log
shelteIin' a man with a rife, and a gen
eral une9siness creepin' around. Bill
went through that campaign against
the liquor makers and never got a
scratch. Then, when he was trans
ferred to Montana, l ran against him,
and we hooked up as pals. both for one
another against the whole world.
THE Seventh missed him when he
went His time run out for about the
chird time, and Bill pulled his freight
for the east. And then, what do you
think? The cuss enlisted in a marine
corps, left the army that he loved, and
got in among lot of water dogs that
don't know boss from an a tent.
But he went around the world that
way; got aboard the Brooklyn, the old
wooden ship. l mean. and while he
didn't see no fightin on her. he was
at Alexandria when the British was
THROWN shells into that misguided
town. When the ship got back they
cut Bill loose. but the flag and the fan
mel was calm him, and he went right
down to the recruitin' station at Dav-
ids Island and enlisted again. lie got
z
drill master. White Bill was dom this
round the world run the Seventh had
come in out of the Sioux country. and
was doin' purity work at West Point
Lieutenant Harding saw Bill one day
and nailed him. Lieutenant wanted
drum major for the band. Bill looked
more like drum major than any man
in the army, and the lieutenant took
him to the Point. Bill was prouder of
that JOB than anything the army had
ever done for him. and he made a good
man. too. L remember the day he got
to the post. He was bilin' drunk and
reelin' like a sick boss bat he marched
up to the iieutenant's quarters, I
Strengthened W, and said: ''Sir, re-
port for duty. The lieutenant knew
Bill. ard he just told him to go to his
quarters and go to sleep. Any other
man on earth would have got the guard
house, but Bill had d way of loOkin'
serious. whether he meant it or not. I
and he never got drunk without bein'