Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-09-03

to throw We Il life preserver-as many OF
our gallant infantry boys from New
Mexico and Arizona did"
The barkeeper's breast swelled with
| pride until the buttons on his eest were
| torn from their fastenings, and the rub
Der in his suspenders snapped.
I'VE lost more'n half the regiment in
that fight. Was literally cut to pieces.
| Holy smoke. But our boys fit like devils.
"Gilly Otero was governor of New
Mexico then, and he had a lot OF influ-
ence in Washington, being a government
appointee. In them days New Mexico
was a territory and Santa Fc a small
city on the branch line. Where ye now
see all these fine brick business blocks,
brown stone mansions, concrete walks
and paved streets, was dilapidated board
sidewalks and sky-scraping, n story
adobe houses. The steam engine didn't
pull trains into a magnificent union
depot at that time, and the people had
to walk out on the prairie n few miles
when they wanted to get on the cars and
60 anywhere.
"The colonel of the regiment also had
a pull with the Washington push, being
as how he resigned the job of governor
of Arizona to go to the front.
"As O as he hears of the La Quasima
fight, Governor Otero pixies off to Wash
ington to see President Mckinley. He
O e into the White house, and pulling
Mckinley away from the crowd of poll
ticians that was waiting for him to give
them army commissions, took him over
into, and seq he: Bill, them boys
r a,.n Ioun ham 1yfl1ol ~ ,k:1ra-
with yellow fever, and it amt right.
He N McCord want ZEN moved back into
the mountains POGO pronto. They've fit
all we're going to let 'em and we have
got a little summer resort ready for 'em
down at Prescott, where we're going to
feed 'em on cruel and mince pie
"sAll right says Mckinley, and he
sits down and writes out railway passes
for the whole caboodle of us.
"Guy'ner Otero was a peach from way
back. Ez l said before, he had a pull
like q government mule and was allus
rustllng around and using it for the
best interests of New Mexico and her
people.
.sThat's the way we came to be SEN to
Whipple Barracks"
The colonel paused long enough to
give the chunk of ice q deft turn with
the long spoon, and make n draft on the
straw.
"When the boys began to ecover
from their fever and wounds" he added.
'.they acted more like a lot Of kids on u
vacation than a crowd OF gallant boys
| in blue, who had fit, bled and died for
their country.
1.-The Santa Fe boys had the worst lot
of '~josserS' that ever lived andit was as
good as a circus to see the jobs they'd
put up. The corporals was allus study
ing up some devilment and what they
| couldn't think of. wasn't worth men
tioning.
Zone of the sergeants was a rafting
good looking fellow and he knew it.
He took better care of himself than my
wife does of her pet poodle. We called
the sergeant the Count de Pajamas,'
cause he wore pajamas, waxed his
moustache, scrubbed his teeth every day,
and all that sort of monkey business.
"The company clerk was the counts
rival for the affections of a fairy who
sung in a Prescott beer hall. He didn't
change his shirt so often, nor look half
so swell as the count, but he was smarter
than the ordinary run of men and could
write poetry that would bring tears
enough to your eyes to float a canal
boat.
"Ye see, l amt mentioning any names,
cause there's a big ranchman up on the
| Pecos and q judge down III Louisiana
who might get hot under the collar II
| this story reached their ears.
prescott was a swift town in them
days. Saloons more plentiful than
soldiers in heaven and money flowing as
freely as booze. Every saloon had it's
| stage and pianny, and women singers
charmed the eagles from the pockets of
blue trousers and Gagged them In the tills
behind the bars.
Every night the clerk would be
found in n of these places, seated
alongside his inamorata on the little
dusky stage. When she sung it reminded
one OF a person undergoing q surgical
operation, but he would always join in
| the chorus as she warbled one of tho
popular airs of the day, like MY
| Sweetheart Went Down On the Maine,'
Dewey Didn't Dewey Thing to Them
etc.
"Bimeby, along would come the count.
He was onto the fact that she measured
a mans worth by the size of his 'wad,'
and he'd make her come down off the
stage while he 'blowed' himself. The
counts trousers had q stripe on 'em as
big as a ~lieutenant's and was creased in
the center like the hair Of a dude. The
way he'd strut around and pull that
waxed moustache would put a brigadier
general in full retreat.
"We called the girl 'Klondike,' be-
cause she wasn't quite so distant as the
north pole, and had drugstore hair that
reminded us of tho stuff they dig up
there.
MATTERS run along in that way nigh
onto two months, the clerk singing and
writing poetry and the count blowing
himself and lighting cigarettes with the
poetry. KlOndike was getting their
dough, and didn't play no favorites.
Zone day the LIST lieutenant came
down to the barracks to teach the nom
CONS school, and he decided that one
of the corporals must dig up some paint
and make q blackboard.
''The corporal got a can of black
paint and II Of varnish and made the
board according to instructions, finding
that he had o lot of varnish left over.
Thinking It might come in. handy some
day, he rustled q bottle in the orderly
| room and poured out its contents, substi-
tuting the varnish.
SIT happened that the bottle was the
counts hair oil bottle, but the corporal
didn't know that, of course.