The age-herald., 1898-03-12
BILL ANTHONY,
 THE MAINE'S HERO

Anthony-this here they're caliin the hero of the Maine? Say, friend, I knowed Bill
 Anthony before he ever knew what pair | of sea legs was. I knowed Bill when he was a soldier, which same is better'n
 sailor, any day. I've slept blanket and
 blanket with Bill when the Dakota zephyr
 was freezin' the tails off the horses; and I've rode stirrup to stirrup with Bill when | the alkli was burnin' the whites out of 1 your eyes and the sun was cookln' your | face the color of burnt bean.
 l "Bill Anthony, eh? He want no hero
 then. He was just a devil of cavalry | man, ridin' a hoss like Indian, hghtin' l like two or three ordinary men and raisn' | rumpusess all over Montana. Ever been to | Fort Assinaboine? Then you don't know | how close you can get to hell on this earth. l Bill was tough as whang leather in them l days. Don't know where he learned to | ride, but he could back hoss and stay | with him longer and closer than any boot | and-spur man ever saw.
 "Bill used to be a moonshine chaser. He | got into the army way back wonder in '71. Times was rough down in Carolina them days, because everybody was maKin | whisky and sellin' it like there want no government at all. Bill went down there | with TX company or lHe olu I1iShlOShIAi | infantry and rode all over the mountains, with every log shelterin' man with a rife and a general uneasiness creepin around Bill went through that campaign | against the liquor makers and never got a scratch Then when he was transterred to | Montana I run against him and we hooked up pals both for one another against l the whole world.
 ''We was together in the Seventeenth in- | fantry in Dakota and had some hard rid 1 ing and worse walllin, and then we moved l over to the old Seventh, the thing that Bill | loved better'n his God Every day with | the Seventh was a hot day. There wasn't 1 no layin' around camp in the Seventh. We | was full of work, and the toughest kno | of work. The Sioux folks, which was heap more numerous and Wiilin then than l they are now, was generally goin around l disturbin' the country, and the seventh | always went after 'em. Bill had knack | at Indian. It took him about three months | and two raids to know every darn word | in the Sioux talk, and half the war signs | in the code, and what Bill didn't know | about a Sioux, Twin or dead, fghtin' or 1 playin' peace, wasn't worth while.
 "The Seventh missed him when he went | His time run out for about the third time, and Bill pulled his freight for the east | And then, what do you think? The cuss enlisted in a marine corps, left the army | that he loved, and got in among lot of | water dogs that don't know a horse from an | "A" tent. But he went around the world | that way: got aboard the Brooklyn, the old wooden ship, l mean, and while ne didn't see no flghtin' on her, he was at | Alexandria when the British was throwin | shell into that misguided town. When the 1 ship got back they cut Bill loose, but the | flag and the flannel was callin him, and he
 went right down to the recrutin' station | at David's Island and enlisted again. He | got set of sergeants stripes and was a l drill master. While Bill was doin this | round the world run the Seventh had come | in out of the Sioux country and was doin purty duty at West Point. Lieutenant Harding saw Bill one day and nailed him. Lieutenant wanted drum major Tor the band Bill looked more like a born drum
 major than any man in the army and Lieutenant took him to the point. Bill was prouder of that job than anything the
 army had ever done for him, and he made a good man, too. l remember the day he got to the post. He was bilin drunk and reelin' like a sick hoss, but he marched up to the lieutenants quarters. strengthened up, and said: Sir, I report for duty. The | lieutenant knew Bill, and he just told him to go to his quarters and go to sleep Any other man on earth would have got the guard house, but Bill had a way of lookin serious whether he meant it or not, and he never got drunk without bein' good drunk and the officers had some sort of respect for him for that reason.
 "One day he went down to the village from the Point and tanked up to his chin. He couldn't get whisky at the post, so he equipped with three quart bottles under each arm and started back. Just as he
 reached the area of the cadet barracks he met the drum corps preparing to sound off the reveille. The cadet captains reported
 companies present.
 "Bill had stood looking on all this time. and it struck him that duty was staring m n He stPDne6 forward laid the bottles down like he was handlin' bunch of babies, and, salutin proper, says: Sir, field music present or account l ed for The officer screwed up his face | to keep from laughin' before all, an | then he saluted proper and says: Very | well, sir. Take your post-and your pack ages Nobody but this Bill Anthony could a-done that. Somehow that trip of Bills on the Brooklyn got the sea into him, an he was always talkin' about it. After while it got so bad he couldn't stand West Point and no travel no more, so he joined the marines again, and the next knowed of Bill he's down there in Havana on the Maine sayin' smart things to the captain while the ships goin' down, just like he used to say 'em out West song
 "Bili won't ever get drowned. He's tco lucky. Bill will die in his hammock or his blanket of old age, or drunkenness, may be, because he'll never leave the uni l form of the land or the water as long as he lives. He always wanted to be a fight CT, and he always will be one. He had | that in his nut when he just chunk of a kid. Before he was 14 he run away l from home in New York and slipped down | to the Old Park barracks close to where the postofflce is now. The first man in uniform he saw was a big colonel, with black whiskers, settin' at desk. Bill walked in and said: T want to git into the army How old are you? the colonel said. T guess I'm just about 2' said the kid. The colonel grabbed for him and missed him. Bill skipped out of reach and then stood off and begged the colonel to take him in. But he had to wait few years before that q story would go. "Bll's been everything in the United States army except commish and he'd a-been that with half chance and no w..isky. Whisky? Did you ever see an Indian drink whisky? That's Bill. He can git away with more real corn juice than any man in the ranks. and that's sayin' good deal. But he always got drunk good and hard, and never made any of