Evening star., 1898-07-23
GEN. GRAHAM'S KIND HEART

Gen. William Montrose Graham, in COM
nand of Camp Alger is called plain Billy
Graham by regular army soldiers. He is
| fine, able, flint-headed officer, who has
always tried to impress the soldiers serv-
| Ing in his commands that he was also flint
hearted, but he never contrived to make
this stick. The artillerymen have generally
been able to penetrate Billy" Graham's
very thin armor of austerity. and when
they have deserved anything at his hands,
they have always got it. An old soldier.
now living in Washington, who put in a
| three-year trick under Graham, was speak,
ing of that officer to Star the other
day.
when l first went to the Preside OF San
Francisco, said he, Il had been out of the
service for couple of years, and had for
gotten some of my lines, | suppose. Other
wise, l wouldn't have landed in the clink
as soon as l did. l Joined one of the bat
teries Of the 9Th Artillery, of which regi-
ITent Graham was colonel and l settled
down 20 comfortable soldering in the finest
post in America. But the first pay day sort
OF got me going, and-well, when 1 woke
UP was in the guard house. l knew l
was likely to get a worse dose than re-
cruit would get under similar circun-
stances, for had already put in ten years
at soldering, and ought to have known
better.
lHouShl L was III more tlan 1dlrly
good luck when the summary court-martial
only gave me "a month and month'-that
is, months confinement in the guard
house and the loss of a months pay. 1 say
connnement in the guard house, but that
is hardly the right term. A man who gets
a guard house sentence in our army has
got to work out his time. He is set to
WORK at fatigue call right after breakfast,
and he doesn't get rid of the sentry at his
back-who, by the way, is under instruc-
tions to shoot him dead if he makes the
faintest effort to get away-until recall
from fatigue sounds late in the afternoon.
The guard house prisoners work consists
| of post-polcing altogether = picking up
scraps saving wood, shoveling coal, and
all that l happened to be the only prison
er in the mill at this time and the post
provost sergeant received me cordially, for
it was in the spring season, and the pro-
vost sergeant wanted the post whtewash-
ed l was set to work whitewashing the
Presidio-that is, all of the sheds, barns,
outbuildings, chicken coops, pavilions, and
so on. 1t wasn't dead easy work, not by a
good deal. l hadn't done any hard work
while l was out OF the service, ana this
heavy whitewashing job told on me, and
wished L had been good L mad
brushes of all sizes, some with twelve and
fitteen-foot poles, to reach up to the tops
of barns and brushes with no handles at
all. My hands became blistered from han
ding the brush handles, and the lime got
into the broken bliSterS, and my sentry
gave me the laugh, and l wished more
than ever that L hadn't been bad. worked
hard, though and at the end of eighteen
days 1 had about finished whltewashing the
pest and made rafting good job of it,
tco. l had become pretty friendly with the
provost sergeant, and he felt sorry 20 see
my hands in such shape. They were
swaddled in bandages, and they were just
about as badly bungcd up they we'll
could be. When L was turned into the
guard house after finishing work the
eighteenth day of my month, the provost
sergeant came into my CELL and said he:
" Say, I've got no more work around for
you to do, and there won't be anything to
speak of to do for a couple of weeks yet,
and by that time I'll have hals dozen
prisoners; so I'll just get you out O. this
Il gave him the laugh. l had been SOL
diering too long not to know that coldiers
in the cink don't get their guard house
terms RENTED unless they're about to
crCak.
Yep went on the old provost sergeant,
who had soldiered alongside of Billy Ora
ham for good many years, I'll con the
old man into turning you loose tomorrow
morning
We'll. the next morning the provost SER
geant saw to 1t that my hands were fairly
covered with great band1ges. They locked
as big as boxing gloves. Then the provost
sergeant told the sentry to take me up in
front of Coz. Granam's quarters to rake
the grass that had been cut by an extra
duty man the day before. ! was taken UP
there, and I grabbed a rdke and began
with difficulty, on account o. the condition
of my hands, to rake grass on the coloners
lawn. BY and by Col Graham appeared
at one of his front windows, smoking a
cigar, with his hands stuck in his pockets
He sized me up. and tnen he chucked up
the window.
:" Look here, boy ?ald he, as rough as
the dickens, what ails your hands" ~
Il told him they were just bit splat-
tered up and burnt by lime from white
washing"
What did you do to get yourself in the
guard house? he asked me.
" 'Canteen, said 1.
:" And you an old soldier, said he. Why
can't you leave that sort of fool business
to the recruits?
Then he slammed his window down, and
in a minute l heard him ringing his teie-
phone bell. The telephone ran to the guard
house. In five minutes the sergeant OF the
guard appeared and toli me TO lake my
blankets out of the guard house.
odd mans turned you loose by phone
said he."