Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-05-21
CHAPTER VIII.

Vinton's fiotilla came steaming in
to Honolulu harbor just as the smoke
OF the Doric was fading away on the
western horizon.
Cheers and acclamations, banquet
rendered to the entire force in the
beautiful grounds about the palace,
and welcome such as even San
Francisco had not given awaited
them. Three days were spent In coal
ing for the long voyage to Manila,
and during that time officers and men
were enabled to spend hours in sea-
bathing and Sightseeing.
Vinton, eager to push ahead, fumed
with Impotence over the slow and
primitive methods by which his ships
were coaled, but the junior officers
found many cause for rejoicing
over their enforced detention. Din
ners, dances, and surf rides were the
order Of every evening. Riding parties
to the Pail and picnics at Pearl Har-
Dor and the plantations along the
railway filled up every hour of the
long, soft, sensuous days
The soldiers explored every nook
and corner of the town and, for a
wonder. got back to ship without
serious diminution in their number,
and with high opinion of the police,
who seemed bent on protecting the
blue-coats from the states and maxi
ing the best of their exuberance Of
spirits.
Only one row of any consequence
occurred within the forty-eight hours
of their arrival. Three of the Colo
RADIO volunteers playing billiards in a
prominent resort were deliberately
annoyed and insulted by some mer-
chant sailors who had been drinking
heavily at the expense of a short,
thick-set burly fellow in loud check
suit and flaming necktie, stranger
to the police, who knew of him only
that he had landed from the Doric
and was waiting the coming of the
Miowera from Vancouver for Aus
tralia, and she was due on the NOR
row.
He had taken quarters at second
rate sailors lodging house and at
first kept much to himself, but, once
starting to drinking with his mari
time neighbors, he became noisy and
truculent, and sailed forth with four
of his new-found friends, all half
drunk and wholly bent on mischief.
The sight of three quiet-mannered
young fellows playing pool in the
saloon was just the thing to excite
AL the blackguard instinct latent in
their half sodden skins, and from
sneering remark they had rapidly
passed to deliberate insult.
In less than minute thereafter the
young volunteers, flushed and pant
Ing, were surveying the police and by
ISLANDERS engaged in dragging out
from under the tables and propping
up some wrecks of humanity, while
the head devil of the whole business,
the burly civilian IN the loud checked
suit. pitched headlong out of rear
window, was stanching the blood
from his broken nose at the hydrant
OF a neighboring stable.
The volunteers were escorted to
the landing with all honors, and their
antagonists, barring the ringleader,
to the police station. The affair was
over so quickly that few had seen
anything of it, and only one man had
pitched in to the support of the sol
diers-a civilian who came over on
the Vanguard by the authority of
Gen. Vinton, the ex-brakeman of the
Southern Pacific. While the Colorado
men had little to say beyond the
statement that they had been wan
tonly insulted II not actually assailed
by gang of strangers, the railway
man was ablaze with excitement and
wrath over the escape of the leader
OF the vanquished party.
1--WE seen that cur dog face of his
somewhere BEFORE" said he, "and the
quicker you find and nab him the
better. That mans wanted in more
than one place or I'm duffer."
And SO the police spent hours that
night In search of the stranger, but
to no purpose. He kept in hiding
somewhere, and their efforts were
vain. Search of his luggage at the
lodging house revealed the fact that
he had lot of new shirts, under
wear, etc.. but not paper or mark
that revealed his identity. The pro-
priesor said the man had given the