Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-04-25
90 AN ALLEN was a romanticist.
w Incidentally he was a private in
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w Incidentally he was a private in
D troop of the Forty-second Cav
airy. 1t might be better to say that
Van Allen had been a romanticist, for
the word romance could hardly be ap
piled to soldering in the rice paddles
Of Luzon. To begin with, Evan Allen"
was not Van Aliens name. Why he
saw fit to enlist fraudulently was be-
yond the ken Of his most intimate
friends. He had no millionaire paw
paw" to disgrace; he was not crimt-
nal, nor celebrity. 1t might have been
this same love of romance that caused
him to assume the responsibilities Of
such an aristocratic name as Van AL
len.
Sad to relate, Van Allen did not feel
the thrills of patriotic enthusiasm I'M
til long after the war was over and
soldering in the Philippines had degen-
Grated into a one sided combat against
gnats, mosquitoes, dengue fever, mala-
ria and periodical eptdemics Of small
pox and cholera. An occasional hike
through muddy rice paddles to subdue
recalcitrant, though decimated, bands
of ladrones was the nearest approach
to real fighting that the Forty-second
Cavalry had experienced since their ar
rival in the islands the latter part Of
1903.
Van Allen had not intended to enlist
when he asked for information regard
ing the service from the important lit
tie recruiting sergeant who spun invit-
ing yarns for the benefit of gullible as
pirants to military honOrs. But after
he had listened fully an hour to en-
trancing stories of excessive clothing
allowances, large pay on foreign ser
vice, quick and easy promotion, and
the indolent life of a soldier, he decided
that he had at last found his niche in
life, and, besides, look at the romance
in the soldiers career! The next day
he raised his right hand and swore
faithful allegiance to Uncle Sam for
three years.
He enlisted for the mounted service,
and here again his romanticism came
to the fore. He must be a dashing
boy" hiking from dawn to dark with a
"long tom" slung across his shoulders.
He was given half a days rations,
and with a dozen other innocents was
shipped to post near the northern bor-
der Of one of our New England States
to acquire a taste for equestrianism.
To detail the agonies of ''rooky" drill
in the cavalry would only arouse pity
and no amusement. Van Allen knew
nothing Of horses when he enlisted, but
before he had been month in the SER
vice he could tell you more about the
pleasure CD of bareback riding four
hours a day than is contained in any
riding school epitome.
After eight months of state soldier
ing orders at last came which sent the
Forty-Second to the islands, and there
was great rejoicing in d troop, but
after two months, packed like biscuits
in the hold of an army transport, sub
Sisting on steamed food, the outlook
did not seem so cheerful and many
were the prayers that the "chow," at
least, would improve when the outfit
reached station.
Manila was a welcome sight to all be-
low decks, and the twenty mile hike
into the province of Rial was cheer
fully borne, despite the fact that
Cayalryman hates nothing so much as
a long march afoot
Bong Bong was the station for G and
d troops, and as unpromising a barrio
as could be found in all LuzOn. The
cholera had just been conquered, after
ravaging the entire province and the
little cemetery behind the post hospital
gave mute testimony that the command
previously stationed In Bong Bong had
not escaped scathless from that terrible
plague. During the rainy seasons pro-
visions sometimes got to Bong Bong
from Manila every ten days, and often
er failed to. You couldn't take a car
into civilization every evening and must
needs make your fellow soldiers your
amusement and trust in the Lord and
the inefficient mail system for newspa-
pers and letters from home.
Van Allen viewed the situation with
disgust, and wished he was back IN
Boston clerking In the grocery business
he had deserted TO become q soldier Of
fortune (O. He vaguely wished he had
not been so romantic, for somehow he
couldn't find any romance lying around