The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-24
WELL DRILLED
SOLDIER
BOYS
CONTINUED from Page II


ants ]. K. Mauloa and Thomas Kaka-
liza, came down the field. and the drill
was on. This, first of the companies
entered for the competition, came on In
close order, and made most creditable
appearance, but there was just a slight
hitch in the cadence of their step. II
was so slight, indeed, that no one but
an expert would have seen it, and IL
seemed to be due more than anything
else to the stature of one man in the
rear rank. He was too short to swing
with his mates. The company was met
in the field by the military judges of the
drill Colonel Jones and his staff having
retired after guard mount, and the COM
pany was put through it's PAGES under
the eyes of the severest critics militia
men can have, officers of the regular
army. At that, it acquitted itself well
The average percentage made by the
company will show that. The men were
most soldier-like in appearance, their
equipment was in good order, they were
dressed correctly to a hair, and no fault
could be found with them when they
fired nor when they held their guns for
the inspection of the judges. Every
evolution was made as soldiers Woulo
have made it. and the men were most
quickly obedient, and the officers thor
oughly up in their work and In their
Judgment of distance-a difficult matter.
The company seemed better in move
ments of evolution than in the manual
at arms, where were some few, very
few. ragged pIaces-but Company
need take no shame for the showing it
made 1t was second in the drill, and
only a company as near perfection as
any company of soldiers in the whole
world is could have beaten them. That
is the judgment of the military experts.
Captain Nahora Hipa's men probably
have no superiors, and few equals out
side the Hawaiian National Guard.
They could be taken anywhere, and
would do the Territory credit.
The crowd may or may not have
grown tired of drilling soldiers while
the first company was on the field.
There was no sign of WEAKNESS. New
ertheless, by way of breaking the
monotony, as the band struck up while
E Company marched off the field,
squad of men from Company H, led by
Captain Thompson, came marching
down and was put through a bayonet
exercise that thrilled the crowd so that
a great cheer ran along it's WHOLE length
while the boys drilled. 1t was clever
bit of work, most cIeverly done by all
lands
Company G, Captain Gustave Rose
and Lieutenants S. K. Kamaiopili and
Daniel Kekaulike, was the next to drill.
The company came on the field in
platoon formation, which seemed their
favorite order. No matter how they
wheeled and turned and charged and
laid down and fired as skirmishers, and
came down the field toward the grand
stand, shouting, with fixed bayonets,
almost impaling Captain Pearce upon
one occasion, they still broke into
platoons again They knew how to do
it, moreover, but they were up against
the same real thing in the competition
that confronted their comrades of E.
Company. The boys of Company were
being saved to the last, and every mill
tiaman on the ground was living in
dread of what Captain Sam Johnson's
boys would do. That they would do
wonderful things, everybody knew.
Small wonder that the men who drilled
but overcome by nervousness. 1t is to
the lasting credit of the companies that
failed to win prizes that they did as