Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-29
CHAPTER VII.
Observation-Disclosures"

The dawn Of another cloudless day was
breaking and the dim lights at the guard
house and the hospital burned red and
bleary across the sandy level OF the parade
The company cooks were already at their
ranges, and a musician Of the guard had
been sent to rouse his fellows in the bar
racks. for the old-style reveille still held good
at many a post In Arizona. before the drum
and fife were almost entirely abandoned in
favor OF the harsher bugle, by the infantry
Of our scattered little army. Plume loved
tradition. At West Point. where he had Of
ten visited in younger days. and at all the
odd time' garrisons, the bang of the morn
drums were the military means devised to
stir the soldier from his sleep. Then, his
brief martial strains of the field musi-
Clans alternating the sweet airs Of Moore
and Burns, the lyrics of Ireland and Aud
Reekie. with quicksteps from popular Yam
kee melodies of the day. winding up with
a grand flourish at the foot Of the Flagstaff,
TO whose summit the flag had started at
the first alarm: then a rush into rafting
double quick that summoned the lag
CARDS to scurry into the silently forming
ranks, and finally. with one emphatic rat
and the gruff voices of the first sergeants,
In swift-running monotone, were heard call
ing the roll of their shadowy companies,
and thoroughly reused. the garrison broke
ranks for the long routine of the day
We have changed all that, and not for
the better. solitary trumpeter steps
forth from the guardhouse or adjutants
Office and, at the appointed time, drones a
Inn 1or{V ~ ,x-
books as Assembly of the Trumpeters."
and to the army at large as First Call"
Unassisted by other effort 1t would rouse
nobody, but from far and near the myriad
dogs Of the post-''mongrel, hound and cur
of low degree'-lift up their canine voices
in some indefinable sympathy and stir the
Winds Of the morning with their mournful
yowls. Then, when all the garrison gets
up .cursing and all necessity for rousing is
ended. the official reveille begins sounded
by the combined trumpeters. and SO, I'M
cheered by concord of sweet sounds, the
soldier begins his day.
The two infantry companies at Sandy, at
the time whereof we tell were Of an hon.
ored old regiment that had fought with
Worth at Monterey-one whose scamps OF
drum boys and f1fers had got their teach
ings from predecessors whose nimble fin
gers had trilled the tunes OF old under the
walls Of the bishops palace and In the re-
sounding halls OF the MOnteZumas. Plume
and Cutler loved their Joyous, rhythmical
strains. and would gladly have kept the
cavalry clarions for purely cavalry calls:
but reveille and guard mounting were the
only ones where this was practicable, and
an odd thing had become noticeable
Apache Indians sometimes stopped their
ears, and always looked ippolite. when
the bra zen trumpets sounded close at hand:
whereas they would squat on the sun-kiss-
ed sands and listen in stolid unmurmuring
bliss to every note of the fife and drum.
Members Of the guard were always sure
OF sympathetic spectators during the one
regular ceremony-guard mounting-held
Just after sunset. for the Apache prisoners
at the guardhouse begged to be allowed to
remain without the prison room until
little after the retreat visit Of the officer
OF the day. and. roasting along the guard