Arizona republican., 1899-03-09
The FeVer'S Fifth Man
By W. L. Comfort

! depraved man in the troop. More over, he had the reddest face I ever
 saw with one eXception-a man con-
 nected with political adjustments back
 in my native burg. Maybe I wrong Fogarty. It depends upon the point of view from which one scans depravity.
 Briefly, his faults were these:
 He terrorized recruits. Following
 each pay day, he firtcd with serpentine
 combinations until broke. He was ut-
 terIy devoid of reverence or moral con-
 ception He cursed necessarily. exc
 cutting weird flourishes and introduc-
 ing innovations of the most nerve
 shriveling nature. Scientists would
 have called him q study of degeneracy.
 Cavalrymen deemed him only super
 ficialIy depraved because he threw
 away money and loved his horse. Mint
 Julep was the horses name.
 Now I was recruit and in Fogarty's
 squad. No man or boy is a rational be-
 ing during his first EQpnth in the caval-
 ry service. Veterans say their marked success in life is due to it-or their failure. 4 recruit has much to learn, but first of all he must overcome the f-mamma-could-onl -only-see-me-now eX- pression his face is prone to assume. He learns that it is unproftable to eX- patiate upon the rich appointments of his residence far away, and upon the princely salary he threw up. He learns to grin while his trousers are sticking to his legs, because they are chafed and bloody from bareback riding in the 1,,,11 1,-i,, Io States commissariat does not supply pie, sill1en hose. or scented pillows. He learns the peculiar devilishness of southern, army camps in sultry wealth CT. He learns to eat flies and other strange things-and to eat them in vicious sunshine. He learns what a ter TOT the rainy season is for one who can't get in out of it for several reasons. He learns fo chew holes in his tongue when a superior officer calls him dis grace to his country and other express sive things. He learns how insignificant it is possible for a human atom to be. He learns to laugh at the whole busi- ness and write home how stroag and happy he is.
 Some recruits never get rational. They take things seriously. <. They mutter: God help me- and bad1hings about wars and armies.
 l enlisted about the time poems On the Maine became unpopular. Fcgarty applied a system of ghoulish torture to make me miserable. I concluded that Ee was a cunning reconstructed object for my hatred. and that his heifft was packed in ice. What I concluded about army life in general I kept to myself, thereby scoring a hit.
 One evening I won a foot race and found myself a friend of Fogarty's. Old soldiers are fond of physical dem He was in my set of fours On troop drill the next morning. Nat urally, my horse had it in for me, be- cause it was only a tilty, trembly re- cruit, and the bridle did not fit. Sev- aral officers had already directed stere- otyped call-downs at me. The troop halted for a moment while horsemen formed on our right. We stood at at properly-all except Fo- yarty. To my bewilderment he slipped lown from his mount. deftIy and quick y frightened my bridle on both sides  again, whispering:
 "Give me a chew tobacco, Kid.
 He had risked reprimand to do me rood turn, and the ice packing which I pictured about his heart oozed out of ny mind forever.
 We were on the skirmish line to- yether, crawling up the drenched hill Il front of Santiag', Fogarty and l. Ye heard the drOning death whistle which is thrown from Mauser barrels, nd saw the punctures which the whis- ling things made in roots and sand and n soldiers. We turned our faces up when it rained, and gaped like lizards o. We tried to cough out the sand which caked in our threats. We cropped up our heads with empty can eens when neck muscles collapsed. We turned our hands on the barrels of our wn carbines. Cartridge belts burned UT waists. We did not mind any of hese things.
 We knew nothing-felt nothing but he heat. It was the sunshine that we ursed at huskily-the terrible sun of uba. It put a throbbing weight in our eads. It made us laugh. It bound our mbs. It mixed the stifing smoke of owder with the steaming. choking tench of the ground. That stench, +hich the sun made, is fever. Ii filled UT stomachs. our lungs and our brains.
 When the command Rest was heard llong the firing line, l used Fogarty's 1 ness plate to pile up the sand in front 1f me. Mine was thrown away. And | when it was night I smoked half of Fogarty's last pipeful, and after that 1 oiled over on 10 half of Fogarty s blan- zet. Mine was thrown away.
 Thank God, we didn't get punctured his day" muttered. It was night and silent about The Red Cross men were , busy.
 ''i'm too tired to give a care, Kid" said Fogarty.
 A couple of days later I awoke in the morning feeling stiff and tired. We