The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1898-01-06

work is never hard. The only discom-
| fort connected with the work is that it
| is always performed under the watch
| full eye of n sentry with loaded gun.
On the other hand, the guard house
| prisoner gets every night in-that is, he
is permitted to slumber peacefully on
the comfortable bunk In his guard
house cell, while his comrades who
have not committed themselves have
to take their turns standing guard over
| him through the watches of the night.
The soldier who worked himself into
the guard house prior to 1879 did not
get any night in, from the day he be-
gan his term until its end. He walked
| his post. two hours on and four Off,
from the beginning to the termination
of his sentence. But he did not carry n
| gun while on post. He shouldered an
Embarked log, from six to eight feet in
length and weighing from 20 to 100
pounds, and 4 man in his rear carried
the rifle. The business of the soldier
with the rifle was to see that the sol
dier with the log kept on the move, up
and down in front of the guard house,
| from the time he went on post until
relieved, at the end of two hours, by
another guard house prisoner. to whose
shoulder the log would be transferred.
It was also the sentry's duty to see
that the ''log-humper' did not drop his
burden. The prisoner could shift it
from one shoulder to the other, or car
ry it under his arm, or horizontally in
front of him, or in any other way he
chose; but he had to carry it, and he
had to keep moving, on pain Of being
indented with the point of bayonet
There are hundreds of old soldi rs still
in the United States army who did
their little tricks at tree packing in
the old days, and none of them speaks
with the slightest degree of enthusiasm
OF the job. The guard house prisoner
of large physique was out of luck in
those days. A 100-pound log was in
variably bestowed upon him. The
smaller logs were reserved for the pris-
oners of less bulk.
| One of the punishments meted out to
the cavalryman who got into the guard
house under the old regime was "trot-
ting the bull ring" The bull ring is the
circular track upon which the horses
are exercised when there is not much
doing around the post in the way of
drills on account of inclement weather.
Every cavalry post has its bull ring.
| Upon the smooth surface of the bull
ring the fractions cayalryman of a
couple of decades ago was required to
chase the intangible air at regular in
tervals, named in the sentence, every
| day of his confinement. His bull-ring
work was no gO-as-yOu-please walking
match either. He could go at any pace
swifter than walk; but he WAS rot al
lowed to walk. Heel-andtoe business
was barred. If he chose to work It out
in cantering the sentry was agreeable;
did he prefer the less graceful, but also
less irksome, trot, the sentry hadn't n
word to say, but If for single instant
he relapsed into a common, every day
mand, like the crack of circus ring
masters whip, "Shake her up there,
Pete; what do you think this is. prac-
tice march? G'langw and if the bull
ring FOUNDER knew his gait he would
leave off walking right away. The bull
ring work was good for wind and
muscle, but it was hard and CALLING. A
soldier undergoing bull-ring sentence
dropped dead from heart disease at a
post in the Southwest one day about
seventeen years ago, and then the bull
ring punishment was abandoned.
1t was reserved for the commanding
officer of an Arizona post One-com-
pany outfit, to intlict so barbarous pun
ishment upon an Onending soldier that
the whole scale of punishment in the
United States army was revised and
made hard and fast. Ills command
ing officer was a captain, and the affair
happened in 1879. He had in his COM
pany a soldier who was very hard
case, and put in most of his time in the
| guard house. Fa completed guard
Immediately repaired to the nearby
town of whisky shacks and made him.
self exceedingly drunk. He returned
to the post with the announced inten-
ton of razing it to the level Of the des-
ert and firing n yOlley over its ashes.
The captain had him lassoed as he was
entering the post. He ordered that a
hole sufficiently large to receive the
upright body of man be dug in lie
sand of the parade ground. When the
hole was dug the captain ordered that
the hard-case soldier be stood in it up
to his neck, and that the sand be then
repac,led around him as tightly as pos
sible, covering his arms and shoulders
and leaving only his head protruding
above the ground. The captains or
ders were Obeyed. The offending sol
der, still more than half drunk, was
| packed in the sand hole, his head alone
catching the rays of the Semi-trOpical
sun. and sentry was placed over him.
The sun was nothing compared TO the
desert ants. The ants sent out their
couriers to the highways and byways
and dunes a 1 hOllows, and it was no
time at all before some thousands of
them, big, red, spder-like and fero-
cious, We're running over the soldier :
head. They crawled ito his ears and
his nose and his mouth. and they
caused him such unspeakaDle agony
that he shouted in frenzy. The sen
try finally revolted against this punish
ment, and his comrades joined him
They threatened the captain, and the
latter, from fear of summary punish
ment. permitted the prisoners release
The prisoner was taken 10 the hospital
stGlost Il maniac. The ease was re
ported at Washington, and the result
was revisio of the military code.
The new regulations expressly for
bid the punishment of 'huckinS and
gagging" Bucking and eagging con
sists in tying refractory solaicf-gen
orally soldier who is maniacai WITH