Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-03-26

&
Fighting Wolves and waEinS
Small wars Against UnruIy Ma
tives-DespIte RIGOrs of Climate
and Their Lonely Life, Social
Amenities Are Not Neglected.
There are no soldiers in the world
who get a finer training for the rough
game of war than the cars officers
who are scattered over thousands of
lonely outposts throughout Russian
Asia, says a writer in the New York
Post Siberia. the Caucasus, central
Asia and Manchuria are four vast
training grounds for the cars legiOns-
The number of garrisons. large and
small, distributed oven those immense
territories runs well into the thou
sands At some important points, like
Irkutsk, Khiva, BIagovechesk. Pc
trovsk. Hardin and Askabad. large
bodies of troops are kept, and the life
of the officers and men is much Ike
that of soldiers in ether military posts.
1t is at the small posts. where u couple
of officers and fifty or a hundred men
are stationed, that adventures occur
almost as regularly as the rising and
the setting of the sun. and it is there
that the finest training is gained.
lima CINE a remote outpost in the CEN
ter of desolate steppe, where the mo-
notony of rock and sand is unbrOken
for several days journey save by the
skeletons of horses, capels and men
who have persisted in trying to cross
il, or in the midst of u dense forest
thickly clad in ice and snow for the
greater part of the year and haunted
by focks OF ravenous wolves and still
fiercer men-cOnvictS escaped from the
lead mines, who would dare any dan
ger and commit any crime rather than
return 10 the chain gang and the knout.
1t is the sport of the officers at the
outpost TO Stay the wolves. though the
quarry, numerous and starved, is more
terrible than the fierceSt Bengal tiger.
1t is their duty to track down the eS-
capped convicts and their pride to try
to capture them single handed with
out the help of their men.
The lonely, adventurous life they
lead makes daredevils OF even the
quietest of these men. knew 4 lieu
lEllIuL w III tOIllLlItltiNu III Il lC444OLC
post on the banks of the Amur. He
was student at the military academy
with me and a quieter, more studiouS
fellow could hardly DO imagined. He
could seldom be induced TO join in the
field sports and athletic exercises.
Years afterward l visited him at his
outpost and found him changed man.
The dreamy look had gone from his
face: he had the eye of n leader of
men. the eye of the man who had look
ed death in the face Il hundred times
without fiinching. There We're hardly
dozen books in his quarters. but
there were plenty of guns, saddles,
fishing rods and hunting knives.
After dinner as we sat over our
cigars and vodka. we heard the howl
ing of great pack OF wolves in the
forest which struggled to within half
Il mile of the post. My host had been
interested in my light chatter about
old friends in st. Petersburg and Mos
COW. but when he heard the wolves
he became strangely excited and couh
hardly listen to what l was saying. AT
last he rose and said: It's no good,
my friend; 1 cannot resist. 1 must go
TO them" And he shouted to his serv-
ant TO harness the dogs to his sleigh.
"Are you mad:" I cried. surely
you are not going out to the wolves in
the forest?'
Il can't help it," he replied in the
most matter of fact tone. Whenever
l hear them bowling it seems to me a
challenge, and every nerve in my body
is on edge to respond. Last winter
A. -
then l have gone out to kill a few of
them whenever I have heard them
bowling like this at night. Pardon my
rudeneSs in leaving you. 1 will be
back in a short time-possibly. If you
want anything ring for Ivan"
Imagine the madness of il! OF course
I couldn't let him go alone, so 1 picked
out a rife and 4 revolver from his
armory and insisted on taking my place
in the sleigh beside him. He drove
over the snoWclad meadows to within
n hundred yards of the outer edge of
the forest. Then he pulled up the
trembling dogs and waited. Pretty
soon we saw dozens of shadowy gray
forms skulking out from the bIackness
OF the trees on to the moonlit snow.
We fred at them, and almost before
the reports Of our rifles had died away
the whole pack was upon US.
Quick as lightning my friend dropped
his gun, shook out the reins and fog
ged the dogs until they literally flew to-
ward home, fear squirting them far
more than the whip. The foremost
wolves of the pack were within few
feet of the rear of the sleigh. and al
though we shot them down as fast as
we could fire our rifles the rest We're
not halted by the massacre. They
gained on US rapidly. and as we neared
the fort they were swarming all around
the sleigh and had actually pulled
down one OF the leading dogs But
crowd OF soldiers rushed out with
torches and rifles and fired a voIley
which put them TO flight just In time
TO save OIr lives