Evening star., 1899-04-08
HIS REVENGE .aNAs SWEET

50,
"Quite stretch of tFears ago." said
weil-known poiics officer from ST. Louis.
who was in Washington last week. II was
soldering with an infantry outfit OF the
regular army down In the southwest One
Of my bunkies-I1l cali him Joe German,
which isn't SO far from his right name
had been mate OF mine when we were
both kids down Oh the St. Louis levees, al
though we hadn't NETS until we ran into
each other in the army. German was in
the doughboy outfit a couple of years ahead
of me. and he had the corporars chevrons
when got thereae He was good man and
a good soldier, hut somehow he had In
Cured the enn,ity of one of the officers of
our company. a second lieutenant, who had
got his shoulder straps via the mustang
route-that is. by promotion from the
ranks. Wen just call this second lieuten-
ant Reed. which Is close enough to his right
nan name, 700. rms Reed. you may suppose,
pass the examination for promotion from
the ranks in the American army, you'll re-
member. me He was pretty nice officer to
say, except Joe German. He surely did
nave II IN bad for German. 1 never knew
why: and don't know yet. But the way
Keea rubbed It In on Gorman was caution
ranks soon after I Joined the outfit for
some trivial cause connected with guard
uuty. Gorman didn't say much but the
nne or thinks he must have entertained
with regard to the second lieutenant occa.
slonahy shone out in the blaze of his eyes
Mneh they Ut upon the figure of the young
.h,,stadas ,ussans ofhcer: Two months after ne
pusteo him. this second lieutenant pot
Gorman into the clink on the charge of
Iesiect OF duty while on post as a sentinel.
zoe narrowly escaped a general court-mar
VA hi,r On anat charge,i which was unquestiona-
ply trumped up, and the summary court
gave him thirty days, with labor in tbe
mn. mil 30 Joe had to follow around the sion
rul, risa tuSty ey morning, sentry with loaded
tha "a. oeiihu MN, and flush the sewers of
.ne post, and saw and split wood and dig
sraVei ana whftewash the sheds, and In
general work out his unjust sentence from
aEue unti 1a can l. In "a the gray dawn of the day
went. He set his jaw pretty hard, and
tooh tne game as 1t happened along When
ne sot OUT and resumed duty he told me
saoa,,d mere was murder in his heart for that
III get hunk with him. he told me.
with savage quietude, If 1T takes me TWEEN,
wears to do it.. I'll play evens with that
mouse again, awaiting trial by genara1 !
court-marttal Reed, the second lieutenant
nah got Joe into the orderly room on some
pretext pre- or other and grossly insulted him,
anu e'orInan, unable to hold himself In any
longer, had opened up on the mustang,
oNncer, and would have struck hjs tor
mentor had not the first sergeant of tho
company ieaped behind him and pinioned
German got six months hard ,aho- at
the hands of the general court-rnartia1. and
'bobtail' besides-that is a disshonorahIe
alscharge from the servfce-for 1T is a pret-
n,,ss', as ous s tiLIs Tor man even to be ac-
ed officer.
NOW, here was case of good soldier
WI WHO got the worst of it at the hands of an
I'M hot Il
our service, where justice is the rule hut
Whicn happens once in a while at that
Joe Gorman was escorted to the gate of
that th remote south~estefn post by a file of
ihe guard gave himfa bum suit of civil
1an's clothes that z had in nv box and ue
cnlpped In and handed him S1O to start life
on: wed have given him more. but II wa
between pay daysI -as W. ''e
IN get square with that geezer ware
the last words G6rmaaf said to me hafore
ne was drummed but Three months later
got letter from him, dated St. Louis
ne announced that he ethad got on the St
Louis police forces IL ~
NOT long after tthatthis second lieuten-
ant, Reed. began to go1so pieces. He start
ed In to Jag up, onee in a while at first
Dut: later on. quite frequently a man
tha osrry .ne haptfss he has picked up in
hmsef discipiinedP several times nv .4be
peak, otherwise the Commanding offinar
ana ne came near TO his finish, about a
fnr
showing up pal)ably drunk one day vhan q
was his turn for an officer of the day tour
me commanding officer smothered thai
however, and gave Reed another chance
along with final wigging
Two months later, Reed went nm IN the
town, forty miles distant from the post pot
loaded up for snowbirds, and did ali sorts
ol tnlngs including the duplication of his
days overdue, and still drunk, and was put
under arrest in quarters. Then his dupU-
cation or his pay accounts became known
TO the commanding officer and Reed found
tial. Having got in from the ranks. he
didn't have any friends to intercede for
MIN at Washington, so the rt-martiaJ I
promptly cashered him from the service
IN ulsgrace. l wrote and told German
about this. and got a telegram in reply.
consisting of one word, besides the sig
nature: e
Hunk. Joe'
back home to St Louis, where Joe German
put me next to the way to get on the police
force, and 1 got on. That's part 1 Of the
yarn.
"One afternoon last April Joe German
was patrolling his beat when he happened
up against drunk. The drunk was a
f1ne-looking man. shabbily dressed. He
had book under his arm. He was a book
agent. He was ex-Lieutenant Reed, and
German recognized him.
"Gornan took him to his own home. and
SODeTeu MIN up. he got Reed into shape
Why he did it l don't know asked him
how it was that he caring for his old
enemy that way-asked him a number of
times-but he never answered me- don t
understand it yet. Joe put some clothes
on Reeds back, and got Reed to looking
fine, strong and clear-eyed. Then Joe did
some politics for Reed and got the latter a
job in the st. Louis tax office as a clerk
Reed remained sober, and got along
famously He and German were always
seen together when both were off duty at
the same time.
They both got the hankering for soldier
ing when the war was well under way.
That hankering is liable to hit man
through life who's ever worn a uniform on
land or sea. Reed and German from talk
ing about it, became possessed of the craze
to go to the Philippines, and they cast
around for tip on an outfit that was
booked to go down there They got the tin.
and they both threw up their jobs and
Joined the Goth Kansas as buck priyates
German under his right name and Reed
under an assumed name-for a man who is
known to be cashiered officer can't get
into the service even as an enlisted man.
although that thing has happened num-
ber of times when fictitious names have
been given. That's the wind-up of part III
and it's all on the dead level at that
We'll, / got hold of an afternoon paper
on the cars the other day and read an m,