El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-11

ram Many OF tneIn Will SuueT lroIl Tic
experience. Our northern climate is
much more fatal to tropical men than
is theirs to us. The insular soldiers
wer not as small as 1 had anticipated;
indeed they wer nearly as large as the
average of the other marchers- Nor
were many of them negroes. But they
all had a sallow. foreign color and to
my eyes looked unhealthy. Still. they
were a creditable lot. The officers were
all regulars and they gave their com
mands in English, although l noticed
that they seemed to do most of their
swearing in Spanish. Maybe it was
more convincing that way.
The Horse Marine in Real Life.
Then the marines swung along led
by mounted officers. These latter were
the first specimens of the celebrated
horse marines" have ever happened
to see. Being n law unto themselves,
since the marines are separate force
from either soldiers or sailors. they
had thir own style of uniform and for
some reason they had red TRIMMING s
like the artillery in the army. Their
drill was very good and they maintained
an excellent line in the difficult com
pany 'front.' All the marchers were
company front
Boys From the Dixie. Topeka and
Puritan.
Following came a detachment of sail
ors from the Dixie, Topeka, and Puri-
tan. The Dixie tried to get here but
stuck in the mud below Alexandria
where she still is. The time when
Washington was a sea port is long gone
by and the Potomac has its difficulties
for modern deep draft vessels. The tarS
were in very good line also. showing
almost as good a drill as the marines.
They are drilled on land nowadays,
instead of on shipboard as formerly.
They were we'll loaded down, carrying
cutlass as we'll as rife.
Succeeding was another battalion of
artillery. 1t was officially light ar
tillery'' but the guns were pretty heavy
for field pieces.
, Then came n squadron of cavalry
with their yellow capes flying to the
breeze. Their horses were not nearly
so good as the Cleveland mems, but,
they were good enough. The riders.
owing to their Saner uniforms. looked
more workmanlike.
That ended the regular forces; the
militia following. These interested me
more than their predecessors. The
regular soldier ought to be soldierly
looking: that's his business-but it is
luck when the militiaman is. And I'm
Gle Sam is lucky that way this year.
With the honor of precedence came
the local national guard. They were
all right. barring a lot of fancy rifles,
but including the negro companies. We
had a good representation of the naval
reserve in the Washington naval bat
talon. These latter dragged with them
some old fashioned. bright brass how
itZers. to which they were harnessed
in an intricate way. They had a plenty
with howitZer. cutlass and rifle. The
High School cadets were a nice look
ing lot Of boys and fairly well drilled.
The Endless Line of Pennsylvania
Militia
Then came the great body of the pro-
cession, the Pennsylvania militia The
PENNSYLVANIA national guard always
forms the staple of the inaugural pa
rades. There were myriads of them
To an unprejudiced observer it seemed
as if all the world and his counsins had
put on blue uniforms with keystone
in the cap and joined the Pennsylvania
militia. After watching them come
along, line after line. company after
company. regiment otter regiment. di-
vision after division for hours l was
willing to take an oath -on information
and BELIEF that there were ten million,
glanced at the statistics-I am willing
to compromise on $500. But there
were 4 plenty. They were good look
ing men for the most part. | have
been meeting them all over town
which they are painting vivid GRIM
son. Still there are some who are i'm
! proving their minds The patent Of
flee is full of them wandering around
looking at the models and displaying a
T. IT, n
that sort of thing. In line there is no
nonsense about them. They wear the
| regulation blue uniform with CATERS.
but they have a cap instead of the
SLOUGH hat which they would use in ac-
tual practice. They were mostly in
fantry although there were few bat
teries and troop or so of cavalry.
Major General Wheeler.
After the three brigades of Pennsyl-
! vaniars, followed the third division OF
the procession led by Major General
Joe Wheeler. better known as Fighting
Joe. He was popular figure with the
crowd ard his hat was off most of the
time He had brilliant staff, all col
or and glitter and dash and clash. and
! he was not so unorrate himself in all
| the full paraphernalia of a major gen
eral. A major general in Uncle Sam s
army is no violet-he is a fullblowr
radiant sunfiower.
! He preceded the New Jersey men
who were much like the Pennsylvan-
| ians except that there were fewer OF
them and that number of companies
were fancified. Georgia was represent
| ed by a coon company" of artillery
bringing along a brass gun that they
had dug up somewhere. utilizing the
reluctant aid of two or three horses o.