The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-10-21
A Gall to Arms.

portraying one incident of camp
lifo at Manila as experienced by
South Dakotas soldiers boys, is
sent IN by a member of Company
M, which went from this city. The
sketch is dated the day >'our boys"
landed at Manila and took the quar-
ters they now occupy.
AFTER short march our troops
were assigned to quarters in a
cathedral within the walls of the
old Spanish arsenal of Cavite. The
company to which I belong chose
the gallery aud as unslung KNAPP
sack and haversack, canteen and
shelter tent, ant unrolled my blank-
ct beneath the high window with
its hundreds of tiny panes, / thought
OF the repousive chants OF the holy
catholic 'church which for nearly
three hundred years had echoed and
re-echoed from that gallery.
''Theband had taken the sacristv
and tammocks were being slung
from Image to image, ana cots,
hastily improvised IRON shelter
tents and bamboo poles, were being
laid from the altar ITO the nearest
encimling rails, while upon and
about the altar were piled the horns
and other instruments.
Within the gardens of the hume
rous courts, surrounded 10y the high
dark walls of cathedral, monastery.
arsenal and fort, the camp fires
were burning brightly and the blows
OF .axes resounded on the slowly
yielding mahogany of the doors and
passageways. One company more
energetic than the rest, was eating
Its supper of American bacon and
crackers upon the clumsy stone
benches where Years before the
Spanish monks h4d sat in silent
meditation Nnd PRAYER. In one of
the little squads which cluster
round the light there is discussion
concerning the possibility of immedi-
ate trouble and cong -cture as to the
meaning of the orders to sleep on
arms
Soon everything is quiet and the
men settle down to rest. A strange
braying laugh cuts the air. There
rs something uncarny i'm the sound,
but it is nothing more than talk
ing bat, The men beside me lie
fully dressed, but / loosen the
strings of my leggnns and fold them
back. AS I lie down again / hear
the sharp "Halt!' OF the sentry as
the officer of the guard in poets the
lines. Then suddenly, before 1 re-
aize that | have been asleep, I hear
the second or third notes of the
Assembly 1t strikes the high
vaulted roof and echoes back into
our quarters from where it re- echoes J.
again down the church. Its clear,
thrilliag tones awake the soundest
sleepers and those who do not rec
ognize the call know that some
icing has happened. When I find
myself awake am in sitting pos
ture, tugging at the laces of my leg
gins. The man who sleeps beside
me is quicker and he reaches for his
qua which is in the window JUS.
over me- His hand trembles and
the gun ratties against the easement
as he pulls it down.
The men stream down the stairs
and as one squad reaches the door
one man stops and loads his gun.
As suddenly as the assembly, the
recall sounds. One man shouts
double time, and the rest OF the
squad, either too ignorant or ex-
cited to recognize the call, begin to
run.
In less than three minutes four
thousand men have responded to
the call to arms, sounded in the {
middle of the night, and when ere
CALI sounds they returned to their t
hunks with mingled feelings of I
gratitude and disappointment. In a
few minutes all are again sound i