The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-30
GOOD GRIT
Of Young Worcester
Boy.
NEVER TOUCHED HIM
Did the Mauser Bullets at
81 Caney.

Among the many odd characters that
drifted into the Seventh United States
infantry at the outbreak of the war,
was George Evadesian.
He was a young Armenian who had
just passed mans estate, and he was
enrolled upon the books of the recruit
ing officer as a resident of this city
He was the only one of his country
men, so far as was known, in the en-
tire third brigade of the Fifth corps;
and "Chaffee's guerrillas," as they
were called along the line, boosted a
representative of almost every ma
tionality under the sun. China and
Japan had sons who were in attend
ance on high officers of the line. and
even the Spanish blood was there flow
ing in the veins of Mexican sergeant.
who afterward developed into one of
the most valued nurses that the hun
dreds Of wounded and sick men at
Sibnoey had to depend upon.
But Evadesian was a character
quite by himself When he was as
signed to Company G at Tampa, he
! seemed trif1e reluctant about ming
ling with his comrades. All through
the day, when off duty. he would stand
about and listen to the instructions of
the drill sergeant. He would sit for
hours in his tent polishing his gun, ar
| ranging his accoutrements or study
ing the army regulations in the little
blue book.
When the orders first came to move
to Port Tampa and board the trans
ports for Cuba, it was decided to leave
a half-hundred Of the raw recruits be-
hind. Evadesian was on the list to
be left. But he begged so hard to go
that old Capt. Jackson, strict disci-
plinarian that he was, decided to take
him on.
He labored like a beaver to be of
service to the company, realizing keen
ly that he lacked the knowledge requi-
site for active service. He worked in
the cooks tent, served as artificer
and performed a hundred and one
duties out of the ordinary to make up
for what he didn't know.
But his natural reserve created a
prejudice against him among the en-
listed men. Not that he shirked his
work; anything but that. But by day
he wandered about alone, and at night
until the bugle sounded taps he
would sit by the camp fire alone or
by the light of his broken candle in the
little dog tent, read his Greek Bible
till he fell asleep.
Prejudice merged into ridicule, in
spite of all his labors, and by the time
his regiment went into camp at Sevilla
he had become the butt Of the COM
pany.
I met him alone one night down by
the brook that run close to camp. and
in the course of conversation Evade-
sian spoke in a broken tongue of his
adopted home in this city and of his
old home away across the seas, in dear
old Armenia.
He had come to America at the time
of the labor troubles in the shoe dis
tricts in the SOS, and drifted to Wor-
cester, because so many of his coun-
trymen resided there. Il found said
he. that it was impossible for me to
get the school education I had hoped
for, because l had to work such long
hours to obtain a livelihood When
the war broke out, I thought it would
be fine chance for me to get a mill
tary education at least, and do some
good service for the country of my
adoption. So I came into the regular
army and if I live out my three years
service, l am going back to old Arme-
mia and offer my services as an officer
in the army of my country"
The battle of El Caney came on July
l. The men knew it was coming on
the previous night, and Evadesians
d
with years of Indian service behind
them. tried to test his grit by tough
stories and dire predictions.
But the little fellow never hinched.
He fought like a fiend, and was as cool
withal as any man on the field He
lived to help bury some of the poor fell
lows who tormented him and to nurse
others, His regiment was depleted
worse than any other; but he never got
scratch. and he landed at Wikoff in
August in as good form as when he left
here in May.
More than that, he was respected by
every man left in the company, and a
letter l received only a few weeks ago
from Fort Wayne, Mich, told that
EVadeslan was wearing the stripes of
a first corporal
1t would be strange shaping of
events, indeed, if some day the young
Armenian from Worcester should find
himself wearing the uniform of an orr
Ger in the regular army of the United
states rather than that of the land be-
yond the Bosphorus.
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