Evening star., 1898-10-21

much longer they would have had to bring
back an interpreter with them. can't
understand half they say as it Is.
AS the officer walked off the two prfvates
looked at one another, winked and COM
menced to laugh
What was the boss-I mean the captain
-sayin' to you?' asked one of the reporters.
said you were talking much slang he
couldn't unde, stand you.
Guess he wasn't in the south, then. but
were pitching it rather fierce. eh.
bunkie?" to his companion. 'Bunkie"
didn't say anything, only grinned.
But. say" continued the other. You'd
, died to see bunkie here when he came
down tC Cuba an heard the men talk. Say,
it was out o. sight. He's no sweet-tempered
angel at the best of time, and he's been my
I bunkle Chats my tent mateD, an so l
know. He was one of the last recruits to
reach the island. We call the recruits
rockies now. At first they WAS new
boys but now they're rockies. The grub
boss-thats the quartermaster sergeant
comes around next morning an sees my
ounkie sitting in front of the tent. Here,
rookie ne calls, tell your bunkie to come
an get his punk Punk means grub. bread,
anything to eat, you know. Bunkie looks at
him, an then says, 'Aw. what're you givin'
us? That's all right, rookie said the grub
boss, Jest you tell your bunkie. That's him
in the tent there
Then bunkie got mad. Now just you
look here. sergeant says he; just you
mind who you're addressin', See? You
on your arm. Don't you call me out O. my
name, cause it don't go, see? I amt no
bird, an 1 won't stand for it Gosh. he
was madi told him rookie was only slang
for recruit, but he said he didn't want any
slang in his. But you got used to it fore
long, didn't you, bunkie?'
The derivation of other expressions is
doubtful if not impossible to ascertain.
Most of them probably had their genesis in
the fertile brain of some soldier who de-
scribed a fact in terms that amused his
companions. Others caught on because
of their literal truthfulness. AS an ex-
ample of the latter class the expression
shot except when referring to intoxica-
ton, has been changved to 'Mausered.' If
man was wounded otherwise he was prob
ably macheted." If he killed. cause
of injury unknown, the soldiers will tell
you he was ''dagoed.'' and let it go at that.
The reason for calling the Cubans ''cubebs''
Is not hard to find. nor why the Spanish
victims of their butehery were "dagoed."
The Spanish sharpshooters were not lynch
ed by the American soldiers, they were
strapped" which is distinction with only
slight difference. Ropes We're not handy"
and rife straps always were.
The soldiers in Santiago uIdn't take a walk
or make march. he did a hyke. Any SOL
der knows what a ~hyke'' is but very few
seem to know why it is. A volunteer in the
Army building yesterday said that he had
been "hyking all over looking for transpor-
tation.'
What does hyking mean?" he was asked.
"Oh, you know! Just-ah-to hyke" was
his reply.
Food is. of course. grub, but bread and
hardtack are often known as punk" while
the word rations has been abbreviated to
rats. Hardtack by itself is commonly
known as "angel food" A soldier who was
asked the reason for this term simply laugh
ed and replied: Cause Ii amt"
A soldier doesn't lie nowadays. at least
those who have been in Cuba don't. They
only pitch you a fierce one" or possibly
give you pipe II the soldier has doubts
as to your veracity he may insinuate that
you are dreaming" or that your pipe is
out. If he wanted you to infer that he
had been locked up in the guard house by
a member of the provost guard he would
probably say that he had been .cooped In
BOBBY hatch by bull" Should a soldier
inform a civilian that his bunkie was "bak-
ed by a bull for jumping a gump" he would
probably be misunderstood. His meaning
would be that his tent mate had been ar
rested by the provost guard for stealing
chicken, which is not quite as bad as IL
sounds.