Evening star., 1898-11-05
COMIC OPERA AT THE POST

| "A good deal Of tommy-rot Is written
| always by persons totally unfamiliar with
| army life-of the alleged 'exciusiveness' of
| arnny people-the officers and their women
1otks, that is to say" remarked an army
officer w-ah ! long and varied experience
at military rosts on the southwestern from
| tier. "As matter of fact, there is very
| widespread spirit Of hospitality in the
American army, and in some of the
menages In the more remote posts, where
| the officers and their wives and families
are exceedingly intendependent for compan-
| lonship and social pleasure, you'll often
| run across the charming military Bo-
! hemianism that Frederic Remington and
owen Wister have so faithfully portrayed
For example, take that whirl of ours with
| the comic opera company down at Fort
Huachuca few years ago; that was about
as dehgntfuly unconventional and enjoy
| able period of fun as l ever mixed in
with. 1t involved a complete knocking
down of social barriers-a thing which, /
admit. could not happen in a military post
more near to civilization-and yet there was
nothing wrong or even questionable about
1t. On that occasion all of us at Huachuca
-ofncers, enlisted men, officers wives and
post laundresses-had more fun than a
| bushel of Gila monsters and at the same
time We gave an organization of distressed
people push along that III bet every one
OF EN- remembers with gratitude to this
moment of time.
The reckless, devil-may-care first SER
geant of one of the companies of infantry
got us into it. He won a big bundle of
money at poker from the men of his outfit,
and got ten-day leave Of absence, in or
der to go to Deming. n. M to blow his
winnings in. By the time he had been in
Deming for few days he had cleaned out
couple of flyer faro layouts and he had
money to make bonfires with. On his sixth
day in Deming the broke comic opera
company came along. The company, which
consisted of eleven men and seventeen wo-
men, had been having all kinds of hard luck
throughout Arizona and New and Old Mex
leo, and when they struck Deming, al
though they had all of their effects and
properties with them, they We're up against
| it for fair. There wasn't dollar in the
crowd, and. to make matters worse, the
manager had skipped out and left them
| in the lurch. The tiger-smashing top ser
geant of ours got in talk with a couple of
the men Of the company soon after they
struck Deming, and learned their hard luck
story. He had an idea.
Come on up to Fort Huachuca with
! me- said he.
What on?' asked one of the singers,
hopeessly.
' On me, of course said the top soldier
Do you own the post?' asked the singer.
very near 1t, just now, replied the first
sergeant. Just corral your bunch and we'll
take the next train up to Huaehuca- We've
| got square command up there, and the
officers and their women folks are the right
sort and on the dead level. You'll get none
the worst of it at their hands
The idea kind O. caught the fancy of
the company when it was explained to
them by the two singers to whom 1t had
been suggested by the first sergeant. and
| they decided to hit up Huachuca. just for
luck-not that they considered the sergeant
| eligible to talk for the whole post but it
was a last resort, and they were in bad
hole
Two days later the whole outfit, with
n a he frnn nd nf
acting as scout, arrived on the outskirts of
the POST. There were fourteen buckboards,
each holding two members OF the company,
behind him, and behind the buckboards We're
six four-mue road wagons loaded down
with the company's trunks and the scenery
and properties. The top sergeant paid the
big railroad and wagon transport alton bill
| out of his winnings. The officer of the day
met the curiouS-looking cavaleade on the
garrison outskirts.
What the devil is this. sergeant?' he
asked, drawing the top soldier little away
| from the crowd.
"-Comic opera fitout I've brought down
| from Deming, said the sergeant. and he
| told the story. The officer went away,
grinning, TO see the commanding officer
one of the finest soldiers and gentlemen
| that ever looked from beneath a peaked
cap.
Sergeant Conroys got bunch of thfr-
| ty comic opera singers, just in from DEM
| ing, down near the corral, said the officer
| of the day to the Beak.' DO they get in,
| slr?'
1.-The old mans face wreathed into
smiles.
81 wonder what that confounded ruff
| ffan'll be doing neXt?' he exclaimed. 'Whv
the devilish nerve of him. Do they get IN,
| sir? Of course they get in, Now. At
once. They'll be a godsend in this general
desolation. Just what this command would
| do without that blackguard of first SER
geant-you may just bring the whole outfit
| tc me n cnce, sir
by the time the tWenty-eight members
of the company, with the sergeant still at
their head. were drawn up in their buck
boards in front of the c. o.'s quarters the
whole command officers and their families
and enlisted men, had turned out. The old
| man received the singers cordially, and the
officers and their wives got into conference
with him. Ten minutes later all of the sew
enteen women--a mighty good-looking
well-behaved lot of women. too. they were
were snugly quartered with the families
of the married officers, and the eleven male
singers-a gentlema My set of fellows-were
comfortably fixed, all to themselves, in an
unused barrack room. You never saw a
post liven up like Huachuca did from the
moment the company got in. The enlisted
men spent all their time carrying Sergeant
Conrey around on their shoulders and
blowing him off at the canteen and the
officers and their wives told each other of
the hundred and one occasions on which
Conroy ha | always done just the right
thing at tie lroper moment When you
the-earth garrison Huachuca is you'll un-
derstand what q godsend Conroy's corral
ing of the opera company for us was.
"A big detail was set to work to rig UP
a quartermasters storeroom for a theater
and on the next night The Mascotte' was
given amid scenes of enthusiasm such as /
never saw before or since. The company
was really admirable. l don't understand
yet how such clever people ever got down
in that country. Some of us hadn't seen
show of any kind for years, and you can
imagine what children we Were when these
people, with first-class costumes, proper
ties and scenic effects, gave US such tune
full, pretty thing The Mascotte' with
finish beauty and effect. The members of
the company, too, seemed to be having just
as much fun We were-we We're SO tre-
mendously appreciative, they said The
next night they did 'Olivette for U.S. I've
seen that opera done in good many swell
uheaters, but it never sounded so we'll to
me as it did in Huachuca. We were all
thoroughly mashed on the members of the
company by this time, and hated to think
of them leaving U.s. If the men had yielded
to our persuasions not a one of 'em would
have been sober during the week they