The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-06-30
81 Has Hard Time Trying to Keep Whisky
Out of Camp.


Orderly Sergeant, after he had finished tn
evening roll-cal: Bailey, Belcher, Doolittle
Elliott, Fracker. Gleason, Hendricks, Hum
merson. Long, Mansur, Nolan, Thompson.
'Corp'l Klegg, you will act as Sergeant o
the Guard
Dan Elliott will act rs Corporal Of tn
Guard
1t is one of the peculiarities Of men tina
the less they have to DO the less they want t.
do. The boys of Co. q " ere no different from
the rest. When they were in active service
Il more active, energetic crowd could not b
found in the army They would march iron
day break till midnight and build roads, di!
bitches, and chop trees on the way The,
were ready and willing for any service, anC
none were louder than they in their con
domination when they thought that The
| officers did not order done what should be
But when lying around camp with absolutely
nothing to do but ordinary routine, they de
veloped into the LATEST mortals that breathed
To do turn of guard duty was heart
breaking atlliction, and the Orderiy-Sergeant.
announcement of those who were detailed
for the morrow brought forth q yell of pro
test from every man whose name was called.
g ] only come off guard day before yester
day" shouted Bailey
Pm sick, and can't walk STEP" com
planned Belcher, who had walked Is mile:
the day before, hunting ''pies-an' milk"
That blamed Orderiy's got spite at me
he'd keep me ON guard every day in the
week" gIumbled Doolittle.
Il was on fatigue dooty only Yesterday, y
protested Fracker, who had to help carry the
company rations from the Commssary's tent.
I'm goin' to the Surgeon an git an ex-
| cUca ~ Cai1 Gleason, -bn I,a1 aH hiS
wrist tri1e in turning handspring.
So it went through the whole list.
. want to see every gun spick- d-span,
every blouse brushed and buttOned, and every
shoe neatly BACKED. when j march you up to
the Adjutart," said the Orderly, entirely
oblivious to the bowls. ''If any of you don't,
| he'll have a spell Of digging up roots on
the parade. ! won't have such a gang OF
scarecrows as l have had to march out the
last few days You fellows make note of
that, and govern Yourselves accordingly"
Right face-Break ranks-March
Coipl kie9g," said the Officer of the Day
the next morning, as 81 was preparing to re-
lieve the old guard, ''the Colonel is very much
worked up over the amount of whisky that
finds its way into,,camp Now that we are out
here by ourselves we certainly ought to be
able to control this. Yet there was a disgust
ing number of drunken men in camp yester-
day, and lot of trouble that should not be-
The Colonel has talked very strongly on this
| subject, and he expects Us to-day to put stop
to this. l want you to make al extra effort
to keep whisky out. i think you caa do it
if you try real hard "
III do my best, sr,'' said ST, saluting.
Shorty" 81 continued with his next in
rank before they started on their rounds with
the first relief, : we must see that there's
no whisky brung into camp this day.
You just bet your sweet life there won't
be- either" returned Shorty He felt not a
little elatea over his brevet rank and the
responsibilities of his position as Corporal of
the Guard. This here camp'll be as dry as
the State o. Maine to-day"
1t was hot, dull day, with little to oc-
cupy the time of those Oft guard As usual,
Satan was finding 'some mischief still for
idle hands TO do ,r
After he put on the first relief, ST went
back to the guard tent and busted himself
awhile over the details of work to be found
there. There were men under sentence of
hard labor that he had to find employment
for, digging roots, cleaning up the camp,
chopping wood and making trenches He
got the usual chin-music from those whom he
their sentences and "tEe airs that some folks
put on when they wear couple Of stripes" "
but he took this composedly, and after awhile
went the rounds to look over his guard-line,
taking Shorty with him.
Everything seemed straight and soldierly,
and they sat down by a cool spring in little
shady hollow.
Did you ever notice, Shorty said ST.
speculatiyely, as he looked over the tin cup of
cool water he was slipping, chow long and
straight and string-like the cat-brier grows
down here i'll this country? You see % or
30 feet of it at times no thicker'n wool-twine.
Now, there's piece layin' right over there.
On t. other side O. the branch, more'n u ROD
long and no thickern rye straw
: . see it, an l never saw piece O cat
brler move endwise befOre,n said Shorty,
fixing his eyes on the string-like green
s. As sure's you're alive, it is movin," said
81, starting to rise.
Set still, keep quiet an watch" ad-
monished Shorty You'll find out more "
. 81 sat still and looked The direction the
brier was moving was toward the guard-line,
some 100 feet away to the left About the
same distance to the right was thicket of
alders, where 81 thought he heard voices.
There were indications in the weeds that the
cat-brier extended to there
The brier maintained its outward motion.
Presently clump of rag was seen carried
along by it.
They're sending out their money for
whisky" whispered Shorty Keep quiet
and we'll confiscate the stuff when it comes
in"
They saw the rag move straight toward
the guard line, and pass under the log on
which the sentry walked when he paced his
beat across the brapch.io 1t finally disappeared
in = bunch of willows. n
Presently a bigger rag came out from the
willows, in response t6cthe backward move
ment OF the long Gat-brier and crawled
slowly back under the log, and into camp.
As 1T came opposite hi jumped out, put his
foot on the cat-brier, md lifted up the rag.
lie found, as he had expected, that it wrapped
up pint flask Of whisky.
80, come off ST: come off Shortv,u an
pealed some of Co. q from the alders "Drop
that. Yon amt goin' 70 be mean, bows. You
don't need to know nothin' about that, an
why go maxim yourselves fresh, when there's
no necessity? We want that awful bad, and
we've paid good money for it.''
No, sir" said Shorty sternly, rs he
twisted the bottle off, and smashed it on the
stones. {" No whisky goes into this camp
Pm astonished at you Whisky's cuss.
It's the bane of the army It's the worm
that never dies. Its feet lead down to hell.
Who hath vain babblings? Who hath
redness of eyes? The Teller that drinks