Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-10

ments Of regular infantry were with us
when the Filipino war broke out-the Four
teenth and Twenty-third-both famous as
II dian fighters, and but few of the men
who led their stalwart attachments in old
Arizona and Wyoming days remain with
them. Death or other promotion had long
since removed them from the rolls. Yet
Ovenshlne, now colonel of the Twenty
third and brigadier general Of volunteers,
was a captain in the fighting Fifth infan-
try in the days OF it's flercest campaigns.
Potter, major commanding the Fourteenth.
was a graduate in frontier service with the
Seventeenth infantry, and Murphey and Nc
Cannon had served a quarter century on
the frontier with the Fourteenth.
Big Brave Lawton.
Then there was another, a veteran, who
wore the chevron Of a sergeant in the COM
pany of engineers when 1t sailed in to help
the squadron Of the Fourth cavalry that
hot day along the Pasig bluffs between
Pateros and Paranaque. Quarter of a CEN
fury ago he wore the yellow lace of the
same grade in Payne's troop Of the Fifth
cavalry-was the best shot in the regiment
and won a name for GOODNESS and bravery
in many a fight. He looked not a day older
In Manila than when he was hailed as
Paddy Mill OF the Fifth Horse-and
who can say that the experiences Of The
Indian campaigns were not OF the utmost
value when, as more than once happened,
the Filipino rifles blazed at them from three
sides at once?
And so, just as in the old days OF the
decade Immediately succeeding the civil
war, we now speak Of Lawton among the
Indian fighters at Manila as foremost and
the only attribute he seems to have out
grown Is caution. There he is, magnif-
Gently tall, athletic and muscular, gray as
a badger, but alert as a terrier. His keen
eyes have lost nothing Of their fire and his
stride nothing of its scope or elasticity, He
can outwalk and outride many a youngster
even now and to say he is tireless puts It
altogether too mildly. He came to my
headquarters the day after his assignment
to the NINA OF the First division and
we rode out TO the lines together, he on a
big black American horse and ! on a little
runt OF a Filipino pony. The contrast was
so funny the soldiers on guard could hardly
keep from laughing; some Of them didn't
after we had got a few rods away. The,
line had been selected when he had only a
small force with which to hold ii, but by
the time Lawton arrived the Twentieth aud
Twenty-second infantry had been sent TO
reinforce us and the Fourth came with
MN, SO ne decided 10 push tarther out TO
where a long and moderate ridge crossed
tho front from the Pasig toward Oven
shines left. The Filipino camps, we knew,
were not far over that ridge and their out
posts could sweep it with their Mausers
from a distance. while my volunteers with
their hard-kicking ~Springfelds could not
reach them. The regulars, however, came
with their long-ranged "Krags' and about
the first thing Lawton did was to order the
selection OF a dozen crack shots from each
company in the First brigade and for these
he obtained our latest model of magazine
rifle.
Lawton's PIucIzy Son.
This placed us on better terms with the
little brown men" and now Lawton was
ready for an aggressive move. A most
gifted correspondent OF a great New York
periodical closed a capital description OF
the general with the information that he
was a bachelor. yet the first time Lawton
~reconnoitered that ridge a chip OF the old
block. a gallant little fellow in his early
teens, followed his fathers movements on
a Filipino pony and took his baptism Of
fire from the insurgent Mausers far more
coolly, | dare say, than did the devoted wife
and mother three miles away in Manila
the news that her boy had more than one
close shave that afternoon. 1t was Gods
mercy that spared them both, for the under