The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-01-22
10, The Regular
in Ariz0na
in The Sixties.
By JOHN A. SPRING

When Lieut.. Harrington had arrived
among us, he had at once begun to pre-
pare terrain upon the eastern plateau
above the camp, for cavalry drill. Up
right posts had been fixed into the ground
with targets, for revolver practice, and
later these posts had been surmounted
with dummy heads of canvas filled WITH
hay, for sword practice from horseback.
There were also few bitches and hurdles,
to train the horses in the long ana hish
Jump, in both of which strawberry de-
lighted and excelled. But from the fact
that the commanding officer kept nearly
all the men constantly occupied with Ia
Dor of some kind, these drills were gen.
orally not well attended, except by such
non-commissioned officers as were NOT on
duty for the day as overseers of working
squads, and were therefore soon aDan-
doned. o,
As soon as the Winter of lS66-
81 was well over and the sun began to
shine from day to day without ntermls-
sion, the manufacture of adobes was re-
sumed; by that time our men had acquired
the "knack" of it to such an extent that
six of them would turn out about 4OO
good, serviceable ones in one days work.
These adobes were simply made OF clay,
spread and packed down into wooden
moulds of three partitions each; as soon
as the mould was well filled ana the over
tapping mud detached, the former would
be lifted up and shifted to the adjoining
space previously leveied and freed from
all projections, as clods, etc, and the
process would be repeated. These mud
bricks were 20 inches long. eight inches
wide and four inches thick, and would
weigh, after being thoroughly dried in the
, sun, about 60 pounds each. After about
four to six days, according to the season
and weather, they would be hard enough
for handling, and would then be set upon
edge, in order to allow the air to circulate
all around them.
There is never any fog in southern Ari-
IONA; with the exception of the rainy sea-
son in Summer, lasting about six weeks,
and the Winter rains, occurring at uncer-
= tain intervals for about four weeks, and
sometimes, as we have seen, interchanged
with snow for rain, the air is perfectly
dry and pure and the sky absolutely clear,
30 that within two, or at the utmost three,
weeks these sun-dried adobes could be
safely put into the walls, the mortar en-
ployed being the same mud mixed some
what thinner than the adobe material.
was kept busy by the commanding Of
6cer at making crude drawings of the
buildings to be erected, laying out the
lines upon the ground for the foundations
and marking the places where doors and
windows were to be placed, there being no
professional builder present. There were
Two bricklayers, who found no difficulty
b erecting perpendicular walls with the
uncouth, voluminous bricks. Mendoza IN
dertook to "boss" the erection of the
hearths or fre-places and chimneys as an
expert, and l will admit that if our in
<outiou Iod ham IN huild Smota- houcac hic
work was deserving of prize medal, as
the future showed. Our camp carpenter
WAS given some assistants to help in pre-
pairing the door-sills, lintels, and door and
window frames.
Z With the exception of few windows
with glass panes places in the hospital
building and the officers quarters, which
were furnished by the depot Quartermas-
ter at Trcson, everything in and about
the buildings was made and put together
by the enlisted men of the garrison, who
worked without extra pay. They worked
$50 well and steadily that by September,
1887. the aspect of the camp had COM
pietely changed.
SICKNESS IN CAMP.
The hospital was. of course, built first
Although the general health of the garrI-
son had been good so far, we experienced
almost an epidemic. as many as 10 men
being seized in one day with chils that
shook their whole frame, accompanied in
some cases with vomiting ard followed III
every case by burning fever and I'M
Quenchable thirst. These chills would oc-
eur every other day, and after few days
OF the sickness the patients bones would
ache so that we called 1t the break -bone
fever The doctor, l believe, pronounced
4ha dtcn IN, hn into -
fever. In most cases it yielded after
about one week to a treatment with strong
doses of sulphate of quinine, leaving the
patient somewhat weak for sometime
longer, with strong desire for something
sour.
There existed at the time patent med.
icine called cholagog, or colagog, which
was sold at Tucson at So per (smalD bot
tie. Our mail rider was allowed to bring
Q great deal of this medicine with the
outlandisn name, when our supply of uuin.
Inc began to run short; it proved to be a
very effective medicine. Our Surgeon, DR.
Jaquette, pronounced it to be a prepare
ton whose principal ingredient was ar.
0enic.
Although our men worked about eigh:
hours in the burning sun while the ther.
mometer registered from 102 to no in the
shade, none were ever overcome by heat,
9Hu we uaC NOT one case OF SunStrOke
They perspired freely, but soon became
accustomed to the work, which they new
er interrupted on account of the heat dur.
Ing the hottest hours of the day.
During the Summer of 1867 my friend.
Leslie b. Wooster, sold out his suffer store
to Mr.. James Toole, who had received the
appointment from Washington, and went
into business at Tubac. Mr.. Tooe had
been a Lieutenant in the California Vol.
unteers and reached the Territory of ri.
iona wit, the so-called California column
IL 1862. He built convenient sutler
store, the rear of which was utilized by
our officers as a club-room. Later on he
became banker at Tucson.
Of course, when Lieut. Harrington wa
not out scouting, his tin. would hans
heavily on his hands. He had hardly ans
man that he might have drilled, and sr
he turned his mind to hunting and fishing
STALKING DEER.
When Lieut. Harrington went on q
hunt for large game he would take m,
along, even though he had to wait seyera
days until the business of the Office wouIf
allow of my taking day off. We had a,
the camp an Apache who was carried OF
the rolls of civil employees as herder, bu
who did nothing except to provide thu
officers mess with deer and antelope mea
and wild turkeys. We had furnished hin
with an old horse, upon which he would
start out in the morning with his huntins
gear and return towards nightfall with ,
deer, antelope or several turkeys | neye
knew him to return empty handed. TIL,
deer he brought were generally "blacl
tail" bucks. His manner of hunting thes