The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-01
An UnadOrned General.

Recalling Gen. George Crook in the
days of his Indian campaigns, Gen.
Charles King says of him in the
Youths Companion:
Young officers fresh from West
Point looked at him in wOnderment.
Instead of a somewhat unappr0achable
dignitary. in precise uniform and epau-
let's and embroidered sash and belt,
they We're welcomed by cordial hand
clasp from tall, bushybearded man,
with twinkling gray-blue eyes, in an
old SLOUGH felt hat, flannel shirt, rough
canvas shOoting-coat and trousers and
common soldiers boots
"Generally his beard was tied up
with string or red tape-the only use
he had for that usual military .ndis-
pensable. He sat at campfire or In the
simpIy-furnished parIOr of his army
home, listening TO the chat about him,
rarely speaking, and assiduously play
ing solitaire with pack Of cards pro-
duced from an inner pocket He could
play a capital hand at whist, but
fought shy of a game with careless or
fOrgetful players. He heard everything
that was said and saw everything 60
ing on about him, but seldom gave a
sign.
From the so-caIled pleasures of So
ciety dinners, dances and receptions he
Shrank IN diSmay. He ate only the
simplest food. He never smoked. He
hated wine. He wouldn't touch spirits;
he marveled that any man should. 1t
spOils his shooting, said he; and our
general was a capital shot. He could
foot it through an old-fashioned qua
drille or Virginia reel, but nothing else
and would always get away on social
occasions into the first obscure corner
he could find, and then out would come
the old pack of cards.
He rarely read anything but nat
ure's books, although he had a mathe-
NAUTICAL gift, and not only stood we'll
in scientific studies at the Point, as
did Grant, but he helped along his I'M
mathematical roommate, Sheridan.
Writing was something Crook alb
horred. He could hardly decipher one
of his own pages, and his letters and
dispatches, like those of old Rough
and Ready-Gen. Zachary Taylor
were generally penned by some brill
liant staff officer
children he loved and treated with
a shy tenderness that was sweet to see,
but he had none of his own. His wife
was a Maryland girl who won his heart
during the war days, while her broth
er and other enterprising 'rebs' made
way with his body, capturing him by
a daring night raid into Cumberland.
Like Grant, he was simplicity itself
in speech, rarely lifting up his voice,
and only once did | ever hear him
speak an impatient word or one that
family resembled an expletive, but
that was in the thick of the Sioux cam
paign Of 1876, and when he had much
to try him.
I'VE had to eat our horses that year
to keep alive. We had no tents, and
hardly change of underwear could
be found in the whole column: We
were wet, bedraggled and dirty wher
we reached Yellowstone, but the Gen
eral was as badly off as the humblest
trooper, and minded it less. There we
met the spruce command of Gen. Ter
ry, and Terry himself, in handsome
uniform the picture Of the gentleman
and soldier, came over to our bivouac
to call on Crook / was drying my
buckSkins at a fire as he approached.
and stepped forward to salute him.
Where shall | find Gen. Crook
said he
For a moment | could not answer
Then an old trooper grinned and nod
ded toward the river, and there,
squatted on a rock, we'll out in the
stream, stripped to the waist and
scrubbing away at his shirt, was our
General, and Terry was too much of a
gentleman even to look amused at the
sight. + i =
THE Indians called him the Gray
Fox. The soldiers had their pet names.
but we, his officers, who followed him
all over the West, from the Mexican
border to the upper Yellowstone, spoke
OF him always as the General our
General. That meant, of course,
Crook, the simplest soldier | ever
knew. In all the years it was my for
tune to serve under him in Arizona. |
Wyoming, Dakota, Montana, or at his |
headquarters in Omaha or Chicago. [ |
never saw him in the uniform Of his |
rank until he lay dead in his coffin. |
his guard of honor grouped about |
him.