The National tribune., 1901-03-28
ROUGH RIDING.
Continued from first psSe.1

leather and other substances as substi-
| tutes; but nothing seems to satisfy them
like tobacco.
There is now and then soldier who
has reserved plug or two for hard times
and he now brings it out for speculation.
A silver dollar will buy just as much Of
plug as it will cover. But the devotees of
the weed willingly part with their dollars
for the filthy stuff.
Our marches now are dreary and cheer
less in the extreme. Men seem TO be
growing weaker each day. 1t requires
an effort for NE to mount my horse now.
All mirth and Sayety seems to have aban-
doncd our command. Everyone seems
down-hearteG and cross.
Ely BUNKIE.
Those days of short rations and no ra-
| tions were truly 1.-The times that tried
mems souls" Put a man on scant rations
| and hard duty, if you want to develop the
ittleness or bigness of his soul. / could
see men around me every day who by
their actions proved that they hadn't
| hearts as big as mosquitoes, and others
who by constant acts of unselfshness in
| being always ready and willing to do more
| than their share of all hard duty and take
less than their share of the little bit we
| had TO eat, showed that they were men in
| the noblest sense of the word.
| hJu'h a phC "dS NY DuIEit, JtIu ,upIlleo
| Always cheerful and ood-naturcd-look-
| ing at the bright side OF every adverse cir
cumstance; always ready to do two or
| three mems duty if need be; always anx-
| ious that /, his bunke should have more
| than my share of the miserable little mite
| we had to eat. And 1 always made it a
point to meet him half way in generosity,
| and in looking out for his interests when
| he was absent on duty, he never failing
| to do the same kindness for me.
If our mess CHANGED to secure an extra
allowance of meat-we had nothing else,
| and very little of that-by killing a coyote,
or cutting out n chunk from some dead
! horse or mule that played out and was
abandoned and shot on the trail, and
either OF us happened to be away on guard
or other duty, the other would see that
good share of the stew was saved for
the absent buniiie.
In these hungry times one could not
prevent his mind from running on some
thing good to eat. Day and night it was
the one absorbing thought. / kept TAX
ing up my belt another hole occasionally,
as Jim suggested, in vain endeayor ito
make my stomach fit my rations," till it
seemed that my belly and backbone would
meet All night | would dream of tables
piled with good things, and the smell of
delicious grub cooking. and suddenly, be
fore | had eaten n bit of it, the bugle
would recall me to a sense of our misera-
bic, starving condition by sounding the
empty and hungry as ever, and as mad
as wet hen, to think L hadn't filed my
self while l had a chance
Among Jim's jokes he had been telling
us was story he had heard somewhere
of an old niger down South who was
riding mule along the road, with a little
Niger boy behind him, which little mig
w1g huSy fniIipp hiDncaif Of cnrna oF ba
good things he was fond of. The old mig
ger was unwittingly becoming much abb
sorbed in the little nig.'s rehearsal Of de-
liciOus compounds that are said to be raw
ishing to the African appetite, and his
absent-minded heel was working an abb
sent-minded spur vigorously among the
mules ribs, causing an effort on the mules
part at n corresponding increase in
speed which the old man was compelled
to restrain by stout pulling on the reins
Finally the climax was reached when
the little niger appealed to the elder:
Uncle, baked 'possum wild sweet taters
an gravy is jist awful good, aint it?''
At this declaration fresh squirt of the
mule compelled the old man to squelch
the youngster with:
Hush, chile, you's gwyin ter make dis
mule run away an kill bofe on usr'
This soon got to be by-word in the
camp, and whenever anyone was heard
speaking OF something unusually good to
eat some fellow would interject:
Hush, chile, you's gwyin to make dis
mule run away an kill bofe on u.s."
Even the officers had caught on to the
gag, as occasionally we could hear one
ask another II there was anything on the
bill of fare that would make a mule run
away"
Thanks to old "Bull-of-the- Woods the
officers were faring just as hard as we
~ i'll
us" on that score. The grand old warrior |
declared that his officers should not feast |
while the men were starving; and when |
someone suggested that, on account of his |
age, he ought to allow himself something |
more than the mems allowance, he dis |
dained the idea Indignantly, declaring:
No, sir; I'm not too old to share with |
my men any hardships or dangers they !
may have to endure"
And when this speech came to the |
knowledge Of the soldiers, which it did |
through the Colonel's dog -robber," who |
overheard it, he was elevated, if that were |
possible, in their estimation, many de-
grees.
But I am sorry to have to say that |
such officers were exceptions, the majority |
Of our commissioned officers seeming to |
flatter themselves that they were made |
of so much better material than the CON-
mon soldiers that they were entitled to /
appropriate to their own use the softest |
duty and best fare. These very things
that made ''Old Bull' so popular with the
men made him unpopular with a majority
of his officers. He always insisted that
they should lead and set an example to
their men In taking their share of all pri-
vatlonS and dangers. Some officers yolun-
tarily did so, but many were fond of shirk-
ing the disagreeable features of soldier
life, especially when it came to going with
out grub. Then they seemed to think it
their first duty to look out for No. l.
CTo be continued)