The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-07-22
ONE OF OUR GIANT WARRIORS.
Gen. I'll. W. Lawton, Who Won His Two
Stars at Eel Caney.
(From the Chicago Times Herald.)

Major-General of volunteers, who COM
mands one of the divisions of Shafter 6
army, and whose men were engaged in
the desperate assault OF FL Caney. They
have told of his long years of service. of
how he has worked himself up through
the lieutenancies to his present rank, and
of the training given him of more than
qua ter OF century of experience; but Of
the gigantic size. the phenomenal strength
and activity, the abnormal endurance,
the utter fearlessness and the inalienable
picturesqueness of the man not word.
have the honor to know him well, and,
since 1 like men whose basic manhood has
notbeen utterly refined out of them, like
him.
Lawton reminds me always of Scott's
Norman baron, Front de Boeuf. He has
better morals, of course, as we'll as a very
pretty taste in red wines and reed birds,
but he is as big as the giant slain by
Richard of the Lion Heart, is as direct in
his methods, and in personal or general
combat, every bit as savage. There is
plenty of the primal man in him. What
he thinks he says. He has strong sense
VI JuoUlCC, Ouu LID uCLD pei tOll anu
he is not gentle. He requires of subordi
mates the utmost endeaVor, ana gets it.
He asks no one to do work that he is not
competent and willing to do himself.
Naturally leader, he goes first. and the
more difficult or desperate the undertake
ing the faster he goes. Upon the gray
granite slab which covers the mouldering
bones of q Confederate officer who sleeps
on the..magnolia petalled uplands of Louis
lana is an inscription: ''He never told
his men to go on.'' That will do for
Lawton when he dies.
He is feet 8 inches high. He weighs
2l0 pounds and nearly every ounce of it
is bone and blood and tendon and muscle.
He is SIS years old and as springy as
youth. His capacity to go without food,
drink or sleep is seemingly unlimited.
'Macumazahn" the Zulus called Quarter
main "the one who has his eyes open.
Macumazahn Lawton will keep them
open for week at a stretch when neces-
sary, and then walk, talk, eat, drink or
fight dozen men to stapdstill. He
has lived life of peril and hardship. His
only rule of hygiene Is a tub in the morn
ing. He has taken no sort of care Of HIM
self. Yet SO splendidly was he endowed
by nature that there is no percept1ble
weakening of his forces. Apparently he
is as powerful and enduring as when l
saw him first. That was more than ten
years ago. He had completed one OF the
most remarkable feats of strength and
perseverance ohronlcled in the long an
nails of the Anglo-Saxon race, but he was
as fresh as rose in the morning.
He stood on the Government reserva-
tion at San Antonio surrounded by the
tawny savage band of Chiricahau Apaches
whom he had hunted of their feet. Near
him, tacitarn. but of kindly visage, stood
young Chief Naches, almost as tall as he.
In tent olncn ~ lav (yorOnt1rn tho
medicine man, grooming from q surplus.
age of fresh beef eaten raw. The squat
figures of the hereditary enemies of the
whites grouped about him came only to
his shoulder. He lowered among them,
stern. powerful, dominant-an incarna-
ton of the spirit of the white man whose
war drum has beat around the world.
Glad in a faded, dirty fatigue jacket, q
greasy flannel shirt of gray, trousers so
soiled that the stripe down the leg was
barely visible, broken boots and dis
| reputable sombrero that shaded the harsh
features burned almost to blackness. he
was every inch soldier and man. 70
the other officers at the post the Indians
paid no sort of attention. To them Gen.
Stanley and his staff were SO many we'll
dressed lay figures, standing about as
part of q picture done for their amuse-
ment, but the huge, massive man with
the stubble on his chin had shown them
that he was their superior on hunting
grounds that were theirs by birthright,
| and they hung upon his lightest word.
For the tenth time Geronimo's band
had jumped the San Carlos reservation.
The spring grass was two inches high,
and the Indian lust for blood was awake
AS usual, troops were started upon per-
ilous chase. For days they followed the
trail over country that God almighty
made in wrath. Further and further into
fk,C ncfC sol 4r11n All Il
crests reared about them. Lava tore the
leather from their feet. They drank from
| springs @that gushed thousands of feet
above Ethe valleys. They wandered in
canons SO deep and dark that through the
narrow ribbon of white far above them
the stars were seen at,midday. They lived
upon animals no wilder than the mon
wild than they. Now and then, from q
forest of pines far above them, shred OF
blue smoke drifted ON the furnace air, fol-
lowed by the shrill of the bullets wild
singing. The horses longssince had been
left behind. The cavalrymen were on foot
with Lawton al their head his teeth hard
set. well walk them down. he told
his Sergeant whensf the mountains were
reached He was walking them down.
ssSix weeks afterward an Indian, whose
| bones seemed ready to start through his
skin, came to the camp and said that
! Geronimo was ready to surrender. Law
ton went alone to the lair of the starving
wolves and received their submission
| Cavernous eyes glared at him. Lips
black from thirst and hunger were drawn
back over discolored teeth. Skeleton
fingers pointed at him. From Skeleton
jaws came sounds of pleadings mixed
with wrath. The poison of bitter raciaI
hatred was in every glance. Gwen tn,
rocks s1nelled like mad Indian" he tolt
me with laugh long afterward. H
lounged among them, their master b.
virtue of superior courage and strength
and hardihood and they followed hin
like sheep to food and Imprisonment
That is the story in outline of the capture
Of Geronimo, physician, wizard, conjurer
orator, and murderer.
The man of Ell Caney is the man of tn
Mogallons, and the man of the Moga1lon
is the reincarnation of some shining
helmeted giant warrior who fell upon th
sands of Palestine in the first crusade
with the red blood yelling over his corse
let and his two-handed battles wore
shiyered to the hilt. The race type per
sists unchanged in eye, in profile, in fig
ure 1t is the race which in all the cen
turtles the Valkyrs have waited from tn
war-deoks, have hailed from the holm.
gangs or helmet-StreWn 1nOorlandS-the