The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-02-03
OF THE ARTILLERY Y.

u
named St. Ronald on the muster rolls, hut
known unto us Of the command only as
ME Lud,' said a war department clerk
who put in fve-year stretch in the ar
tillery branch 1--WE didn't call him Me
Lud because he was in anywise pompous
- stuck up--that sort of thing doesn't go
nlong the enlisted men of the American
army-but because, although genial, anna
BILE, and corking good fellow, st. Ronald
really had mighty fine manner about him,
and, when it came to pinch, he didn't
have to take any dust from any of the Off
GERS in courtliness and grace of personality.
st. Ronald was about 81 years old
when he first joined the battery, and he
was the very pink and picture of fine,
natural-born soldier. He had been fine
soldier before he ever broke into our outfit.
He had No. discharge, with extremely
complimentary remarks attached thereto,
from the cape mounted police of South
Africa, in which he had served three years
as a sergeant, campaigning all the time
Then he had No. discharge from the
Canadian mounted police, in which he had
served for two years. So when he drifted
into our heavy artillery outfit he didn't
need to be told the difference between a
cartridge belt and fatigue cap. He was
such a crackaiack from the day that he got
among us that he was rated corporal and
then a sergeant within three months, and
we were all glad of it, for he was way
ahead Of the buck private class. figured
st. Ronald out from the first as the bad lot
of a good family, which, in fact, he was,
although he rarely spoke about his past
except to two or three of us who We're very
chummy with him. He had his ups and
downs in our battery-got busted from SER
geant to buck private, and put in S0-day
trick in the guardhouse for trying to tear
San Francisco loose from its foundations,
then had to go UP I'd his former noncom-
missioned rank again by slow stages, and in
general had the usual career of an American
soldier who doesn't belong to the goody-
goody platoon. Whatever happened though,
Me Lud' was game for it, and he never
had a kick coming, and several times. when
some fellow in the battery got into gen.
orably discharged and turned adrlft without
back, Me Lud' was the boy to turn in his
whole months pay to help the unfortunate
out, and to get the rest of us to do something
on the same general order.
Eat another time when the old post ord
nance sergeant lost his wife and had not the
necessary funds to give the good woman the
burial to which the bereaved husband felt
she was entitled, Me Lud' goes into his
pocket for what was needed, not as a loan
but as gift, for the old sergeant was about
at the end of his days of active service, and
retired pay would never permit him to re-
turn the amount unless at great sacrifice.
To the sergeant he said: Never mind about
giving it back, as l would have to spend it,
and spending it my way would mean being
ssbusted" by the G. o. again, and would
rather be discharged as sergeant than as 9
private
after doing his three years with the
battery, st. Ronald took his discharge and
went over to San Francisco. He didn't tell
any OF us what he was going to do, and he
only had about $25 or $50 when he was
paid off. A week after he left Alcatraz 4
| number of US went over to San Francisco
one night on leave. We were walking up
Kearney street, when we pushed into a
crowd surrounding fakir. The fakir was
gotten up in stage ranchero style-velvet
bell-bottom pants, with gold tinsel running
down the sides; velvet jacket, loose, rufHed,
I spotlessly white shirt, and enormous white
sombrero, with two or three heavy silver
cords running around it. The fakir was
telling 'em Of some perpetually fragrant
beans that he had discovered on a tour Of
South America. The beans were devised
to take the place of sachet powders or o.
liquid extracts, and the perfume said the
fakir-never left them He certainly had q
great spiel about those beans, and he SOLD
'em like hot cakes, at the rate of so cents
for paper bag holding about pint Of
them. Me Lud, the fakir, winked at III
solemnly when he saw US on the outer cir
Gle of the crowd, and we didn't have Z
chance to talk with him for some time after
ward. Then he told us that the beans b.
was selling were the ordinary frijoles o.
commerce, soaked over night in cheap toile,
water, and that he thought he had a prett.
good thing, inasmuch as he was haulin.
down profit of about $50 a night.
81 didn't see any more Of Me Lud' on tn
coast after that. came on to Washington
and entered the war department sool
afterward. / went out to the opening of th'
worlds fair, and on my third tour aroune
the buildings met up with Me Lud.' HI
was the second man in charge Of the exhibi
from Ceylon, and he looked out Of sight ii
the makeup of Ceylon tea planter He wa
prosperous ana tuOrOuHuly IN Tue game. d
had quit San Francisco and gone to Ceylol
before the mast CATER going broke OF
'Frisco's 'Barbary coast soon after lef
the coast, and had put in the intervening
years as timekeeper on Cingalese te
: plantation. He was apparently pretty ga,
to see me, think; any how, know had
terrible headache when woke up on tn
morning after thus strangely running acros
1 !, Me Lud' l saw him number of time
: while | was taking in the fair, and when
!; left he told me he expected to go back t
Ceylon and finish the game Of growing u
! with the island.
"I'was leaning on the rail out at the Ber
ming race track on Thanksgiving Afternoon
watching the horses parade on to the trac
| for the Washington cup race when | hear
: la voice behind me excaim, in a well-lsnow
accent, say, there, you soldier locke
5 around, and there was Me Lud.' He wa
I gotten up regardless, as they say, and
was good deal the SWEETEST looking ma
: at the track. After he had collected hi
winnings on the big race, we got into hi
: trap and he drove me to hotel that's nc
more than a mile from LAFAYETTE squar,