Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-17
OFFICER PRAISES
NATIONAL GUARD
RELATES SOME EXPERIENCES
IN SAN FRANCISCO
Says Soldiers on Duty In Stricken
City Deserve Eneomiums
From All for Their
Work

The Seventh regiment experienced
many novel as well as pitiable sights
while in San Francisco and Oakland
ON duty and the men have a number Of
varied stories to tell.
"The boys certainly deserve all Of
the credit that has been given to them
and more too," said Lieutenant r. C.
Prentiss of company F, who has now
returned to Los Angeles. "Some Of
them may be little wild while at
home but they have surely shown the
metal that they are made of.
"The night we left here we were all
good fellows together and no formal
tiles were observed between the officers
and the men. When we stopped at
Bakersfield the next morning we were
given some good advice by superior
officers. No one knew where we were
going but the men were ready for
duty.
From then on strict discipline was
observed. The tin soldiers Immediate
ly turned into regulars. All the way
through the boys covered themselves
with glory and received the thanks of
the people in Oakland where my COM
pany was stationed.
Enjoy SuIky LriVes
zone of the things the boys enjoyed
the most was in confiscating drays for
day, the drivers of which were sulky.
When word was sent to us that more
wagons were needed, a detail was sent
out and they brought back what was
needed.
Almost everybody worked with a
will and did what the.' were asked
cheerfully, but we found a few drivers
that had to be handled carefully. One
night / was awakened by the sound of
heavy dray being driven at high
speed through the streets at II o'clock.
stopped the driver and asked him
what the trouble was. He said that
he had been working since o'clock in
the morning taking goods to San Fran
cisco.
They'll have to run some If they
catch me again. he said. l found out
that he would not work except when
a soldier held bayonet over him.
1--WE had charge of one of the relief
camps. Company F has fifty-three
men and tt.J officers. 1t kept us pretty
busy. There were lot of hoboes who
would not work except when they had
to. They were living better than they
ever had before.
Compelled to Clean Tents
Twice a day these men were COM
PEELED to clean out the tents. A sol
dier had to be stationed over them with
his bayonet ready for use, for they
only worked when driven to it. In this
manner the camp was kept in a sani-
tary condition. If this class of people
had been left alone there would have
been a plague in short time.
another of our duties was to guard
the railway stations. Some of the peo-
pie seemed almost crazy to get out OF
Oakland. We would not let any able
bodied men get on the trains until the
women and children were on board
Before the trains started a man went
through each car. Many of the bis
hoboes would get into a seat and make
a woman with little baby in her arms
stand up. They were only driven out
Of their seats at the point of the
bayonet.
zone of our difficult duties was Il
find out where some of the Chinese
were going. We could not make then
understand that the trains which they
wished to board had not yet arrived
On this account we sometimes had t
use them a little rough.
'The men deserve great commenda
| ton from the public. Without tn,
state guard conditions would havi
! been very bad in the stricken CITY,"