The Florence tribune., 1898-10-29
THE LOG PUNISHMENT A Penalty That Used to Be Imposed
 Upon Soldiers. How a Captive Indian at Fort Leev- enworth Made His Escape
 While "Humping"
 Log About.


 Log About.
 T read the other day. said an old soldier of the regular army, that one of the districts lads in blue down in Tampa was given a bit of log-shoulder- ing to do as a punishment. This is the first time I've heard of that old-tlme army punishment being revived It used to be a regular guardhouse pun ishment when 1 was in the regular out fit. 4 man sentenced to ten days in the guarahouse would either bs 1ent out to work in the morning policing around the post, CT he wond be given lis two hours on and-two-hours-oh tours of log-humping. He'd have to carry his logs just as the men on guard carried their rifles, in so far as hours of duty were concerned, except that he was permitted to sleep in at night The logs weighed from so to 100pounds when the punishment was first em- ployed in the regular army, but this was finally considered too much of good thing, and when log-humping punishment was abandoned, the chunks of trees only weighed some thing like 50 pounds. But it was no soft snap to pack even a 5o-pound log up and down in front of q guardhouse, in the hot sun especially, for two hours at stretch, as happen to know. In truth, the punishment was galling, and rot so many men drank and fought themselves into the summary court martial when the log punishment was | in vogue as is the case now, when polio ing around posts is the guardhouse punishment of military offenders on a minor scale.
 stWhen I was stationed at Fort Leav- enworth in TT, Chief Douglass, one of the high muck-a-mucks of the frac- tious Neg Perce tribe that had recent ly been rounded up, was put in the guardhouse for safekeeping. The 1 whole tribe of Neg Perces was cor ralled and under a strong chain guard back of the post, and at first Douglas was permitted to remain with inc tribe. But he was an Indian of the agi- tating kind, was Douglas, and he caused SO much mutiny among the pent-up bucks that the commanding officer thought it wiser to put him away from the tribe. So he locked him up iu the guardkouse. Dauel vas magnificent big specimen of Z ] brave. and after he had been in h. guar6huuse cell for Q week or go fhe i. officer of the day recommended to the commanding officer that the Indian be given some log exercise to keep him from pining away. The commanding officer agreed and Douglas was led oui of his cell to tho porch running around 1 the second story of the guardhoust and shown the fog he was to carry | Four or five soldiers, serving a guard house sentences, were humping theil logs some distance away, under th' eye of a sentry. Douglas looked at ths log with an expression of contempt | grunted as if to say: Not much, won'tp and the officer of the day, zee ing that the chief didn't want any ex ercise, had him taken back to his cell
 After thinking it over, however Douglas sent for the officer of the day and told him that he was not only will ing to pack fog up and down th' porch, but that he was anxious to d. it. So he was given an s0-pound log and began his march up and down The sentry patrolling No. 1 post, il front of the guardhouse, was told t watch the Indian, but the sentry didn' anticipate any treachery, and so h didn't pay much attention to tn strapping chief walking up and dow the porch above with the log on hi shoulder. But about ten minute after Douglas had begun his long pa trol the sentry saw dusky figure fly ing through the air from the pore
 above, and by the time he had got hi wits and saw thattle dusky figure va Douglas the Indian had picked himsel up and was of for the woods, only 10 yards or SO away, like Q deer. Tn
 sentry gave 8 whoop and he yeile
 after the flying Indian to halt. Ther
 wasn't any halt in Douglas, however
 and he kept right on like 8 race hors'
 The sentry fired after him twice, bu
 the Indian chief disappeared in tn
 brush. Fort Leavenworth was a bi
 post at that time, for it was the nation
 al school of application, and ther were over 2,OOO troops there. The
 were all turned out within six minute
 after Douglas made his leap, cavalr
 and infantry, but it was no go, a
 though the sun shone brightly for si
 hours after the chief made his escap , They got Douglas just four montl
 later in Oregon, a good 2,50O mil'
 from Fort Iaara,a1zorth ,,.-INa sh in.