The Portland daily press., 1898-07-21
LOG HUMPING IN THE ARMY
How an Indian Utilized That Form of
Punishment to Make BIS Escape.

(From the Washington Evening star.
81 read the other day." said an old SOL
der of tho regular army, "that one OF
the Districts lads in blue down in Tam
pa was given bit of Iog-shouldering to
DO as punishment. This is the first
time I've heard of that old-time army
punishment being revived. 1t use to be a
regular guardhouse punishment when l
was In the regular outfit. A man sem
fenced to ten days in the guardhouse
would either be sent out to work in the
morning, policing around the post, or he
would be given his two-hours-on ana
four-hours-otf tours of log-humping.
He'd have to carry his log just as the
men on guard carried their rifles, in so
far as hours of duty were concerned, ex-
cept that he was permitted to sleep in
at night The logs weighed from so to
100 pounds when the punishment was
first employed in the regular army, but
his was finally considered too much of n
good thing, and when the log-humping
punishment was abandoned the chunks of
trees only weighed something like so
pounds. But 1t was no soft snap to pack
even 50-pound log up and down in front
of guardhouse, in the hot sun especial
ly, for two hours at stretch, as 1 happen
to know. In truth, the punishment was
CALLING, and not so many men drank and
fought themselves into summary courts
martial when the log punishment was in
vogue as is the case now, when policing
around posts is the guardhouse punish
ment of military offenders on minor
scale.
when I was stationed at Fort Leaven-
worth in ~, Chief Douglas. one of the
high muck-a-mucks of the fractions Nez
Perce tribe that had recently been
rounded up. was put in the guardhouse
for safe keeping. The whole tribe of
Neg Perces was norralled and under O
strong chain guard back of the post
and at first Douglas was permitted to
remain with che tribe. But he was an
indian OF the agitating kind, was Doug
las, and he caused, SO much mutiny
among the pent-up bucks that the COM
handing officer thought 1t wiser to put
him away from the tribe. So he locked
him up in the guardhouse. Douglas was
magnificent big specimen of brave,
an after he had been in his guardhouss
Oo11 lOr u W6ch Or 81 Uuo OluCSr VI UllS Sdy
recommended to the commanding officer
that the Indian be given some log exer-
else to keep him from pining away. Tho
commanding officer agreed, and Douglas
was led out Of his cell to the porch run
ming around the second story Of the
gua~dhouse and shown the log he was to
carry. Four or five soldiers, serving
their logs some distance away, under the
eye of sentry. Douglas looked at the
log with an expression of contempt,
grunted as if to say, Not much 1 won't!'
and the officer of the day, seeing that
the chief didn't want any exercise, had
him taken back to his cell.
After thinking it over, however,
told him that he was not only willing to
pack a log up and down the porch, but
that he was anxious to do it. So he was
given an S0-pound log, and began his
march up and down. The sentry patrol
ling No. post, in front of the guard
house, was told to watch the Indian, but
the sentry didn't anticipate any treache-
| TO the strapping chief walking UP and
down the porch above with the log on his
shoulder. But about ten minutes after
| Douglas had begun his patrol the SEN
try saw dusky figure flying through the
air from the porch above, and by the
time hs had got his wits and saw that
the dusky figure was Douglas, the Indian
had picked himself up, and was off for
the woods only 100 yards or so away, like
deer. The sentry gave q whoop, and he
yelled after the flying Indian to halt
There wasn't any halt in Douglas, how
ever. and he kept right on like race
horse. The sentry fired after him twice.
but the Indian chief disappeared in the
brush. Fort Leavenworth was big post
at that time, for it was the national
| 1000 troops there. They were all turned
out within six minutes after Douglas
made his leap. cavalry and infantry, but
it was no go, although the sun shone
brightly for six hours after the chief made
his escape. They got Douglas just four
months later in Oregon, a good 1850
miles from Fort Leavenworth.
lAESI midland q