The Van Buren press., 1898-04-09
Is cu TROOP of the til cavalry was
BY CLARENCE Mako.

colonel knew IL to his sorrow, Every
officer in the regiment knew it, and even
the diutant-general's Office away Oft in
Washington was aware of it, for the in
spector-general had told it, and the rec
ord of trials by summary eourt-mar.
tiai" showed it.
The captain of the troop had been abb
sent doing duty as military instructor
in a college for year or more. The
first lieutenant was an aid on some
brigadier-general's staff, and the Sec
ond lieutenant had gone away on six
months sick leave. No one in the regi-
sment wanted to do duty with the troop,
and it was without an officer when a
rosy-eheeked young gentleman. just
from West Point, was assigned to the
command of what the adiutant said was
"a mob-a hopeless mobi'
The name of this "shave-tail lieuten-
ant" as the men called him, was Dust
lie was known to his classmates at West
Point as "DielIy" Dust. and he was
quiet. unassuming and loved by them
all. His father was farmer in Iowa,
and from the farm to cadetship il had
been struggle with 'Dicky" all the
way--toueh-and=ge from the eompeti
tive examination for appointment until
he was given his commission one June
afternoon on the West Point parade;
but he had never failed.
Lieut. Dust's first appearance before
the troop was at afternoon stables
The men had heard of their new COM
mander, and out of bravado drank
heavily before going to stables.
After receiving the reports of the
first sergeant and the stable sergeant,
the young lieutenant walked quietly
up and down the pieket-line. taking
account of the situation-whicE was
very bad. Discipline was evidently as
lax as il could be, and many of the men
could hardly groom their horses. The
command "Change horsesi" was scarce
ly needed and only few obeyed.
Sergeant, see that every man
changes" said the officer; and the SER
geant tried to do so. but the men shifted
back again to their old horses.
Walking over to big, hulking fell
low. whom he saw snealking back to a
horse already groomed, the lieutenant
ordered him to return to his dirty
horse. The soldier faced around and
burst into an insolent laugh. There
was dead silence on the picket-line; for
all the men stopped grooming to see
what the .shave-tail lieutenant would
do.
As Dust seized the fellow by the coll
lar and led him back to the dirty horse,
the men saw flash in the little officers
eyes that sobered the grin OH their
faees. When the major came around to
stables a few moments later. there was
n marked improvement in the way the
"mob" performed its stable duty.
But with this incident the troubles
of the new troop commander did not
end. Next day, at weekly inspection,
arms and equipment were so dirty that
Dust turned the whole command out
again three hours later, to its infinite
disgust and Indignation.
Three absentees from drill were re-
auired TO spend the afternoon scrub
bling the barraclS floor. OF course they
stormed at such an imposition, and de-
clared they preferred a court-martial,
while the rest of the troop, not little
pleased AT so much labor-saving, smiled
in derision. However, when the lieu
tenant made 16 men report to him in
heavy marching order for being little
late at reyeille, the whole troop swore
he was unjust
At this time in Arizona there were
some 90 separate troops and companies
trying to catch a murderous band of 30
Apache Indians who were terrorizing
settlers. The 'mob" had been kept at
the post by the colonel because he did
not consider 1t fit to go out in the field
One day, however, troop came back to
the fort "played out''-a troop of sick
men and lame horses-and the mob
was ordered out in the field to take its
place.
Dust was summoned to post head
quarters 10 receive his orders. He was
TO escort a couple of wagons with 10000
rounds OF ammunition to place in the
Dragon mountains, and there to place
himself and troops under the orders of
the major.
look out for those men of yours. Mr..
Dust; they are an ugly lot" were the
old colonel's last words.
1t was a fve-day march from Fort
u to the Dragon mountains, over
an alkali desert, and there were but two
good watering places on the route
one days march from the post, and
the other days march from the noun
tains-so a march across the waste land
always entailed some suffering on the
part of both men and horses.
The troop halted the first night at
Cassidy's Springs and pitched camp.
The lieutenant made the men stand IRE
treat roll-call' under arms, and the
murmurings and complaints OF the
command at this supposed injustice
were loud and long. Even the old sol
diers in the troop joined the growl
around the campfire, and Dust could
hear them from his tent holding forth
on the ignorance OF "shave-tall" lieu
tenants and the folly of retreat under
arms in an Arizona desert.
They were to make an early start
next day, and push on as far as possible
Dust wished to make the trip across
the desert in four days, because the
water was so bad that the hardship OF
n forced march seemed preferable.
All day long they toiled over the dry,
hot plain, covered with cactus and sage
brush and choking with alkali dust.
The wagons occasionally stuck in the
sand, and the assistance Of the troop
was required to pull them out. The
riet, .xaro cross and rul1an and hfa mol