The daily sentinel., 1907-03-26
CAPTAIN GREER's HIGHBALLs.
A Few of the Items of Expense In the
Great War Debt for Which Items
Capt. Greer is Responsible.


In Sundays Denver News there ap-
peared a most interesting article re-
garding the Infamous 100000 war
debt and graft. incurred during the
reign of Sherman Bell and Governor
Peabody, and about to be paid by
the present legislature.
The article goes ahead to enumer-
ate a few of the items that make up
this war debt, items such as cocoa
nuts for the privates, Wallets for
servants, booze for captains, trans
portation for majors, opera music
for dough boys" on Bull Hill. and as
the red head lines announce, Greer s
highballs, which cost the people twen-
ty-fiye cents each"
Captain George L. Greer's high
ball BILL" and account for other little
luxuries were sleeper than We
thought our fellow citizen would have
tolerated. The captain of the Meeker
huzzars who followed General Sher-
man Bell from Telluride to Cripple
Creek with side trips to Denver and
other cities and camps, under the
leadership of Capt. Greer. certainly
did go some" along with the rest Of
the soldier boys who saw service in
that campaign. In connection with
the movements of Capt. Greer and his
company George Knapp, in his article
in the Denver News, has the follow
ing to say:
But don't imagine that our militia
heroes adhered to that old supersti-
ton about plain living and high
thinking. Nit. You may recollect
that there was courtmartial on
General Chase during those strenu-
Gus days. The officers attending that
historic trial stayed at the Brown
Palace hotel while In town, and the
cafe bill of Captain Greer amounted
to S66S.65. Prices are rather steep
at the Brown. YOU know, and the
captain'h highballs were charged to
the state at the rate of 25 cents
apiece. Then there were the charges
for Wallets. Every truly great officer
has to have a valet while attending a
court-martial, you know.
Sergeants Had Wallets.
You couldn't expect a man whose
mind is engrossed with so weighty
subject to be able to get his trousers
on right side afore without help, and
think how twisted his evidence would
be if the landscape got turned around
at the start. So they all had Wallets
nearly all. anyway. Sherman Bell
had one at SIPS a day to be paid by
the state; the valet who served Ser
geant Hoover charged the same, by
way of upholding the democracy of
the country: but Major Naylor was
overcome with a streak of economy
and made his valet work for 81
day. If this matter is not looked
into, the state of Colorado is likely to
find itself in trouble with the Anal
gamated Association Of Wallets and
Hair Brushers, and then what on
earth would we do If there was an
other court-martial?
Candy and Cocoanuts.
There are one or two other items
that will bear inspection-or not.
Here is a sample quartermaster bill
from Cripple Creek:
Steaks (23 cents per pound) 81 GO;
grapes. $3.50; doughnuts. GO cents
watermelons SO; Cantaloupes s2.75;
figs. 10 cents; sauerkraut, 81 peach
es. sS.25; apples. S3.75; Swiss
cheese, 1925; cocoanuts, $3.50; ice
cream. $1.0O; candy 10 cents.
What the dickens were those cocoa
nuts bought for? That's what the
public wants to know. The rest of
the bill is all right, of course. Some
carnal-minded brute has asked
whether all those peaches had the
bloom on, but that is mere slander.
AS to the watermelons. the G. o. p.
was running the show just then, and
the G. o. =. has always believed in
helping out the colored man But
those Internal cocoanuts! If there
were any monkeys in the National
guard of Colorado the public wants
to be informedof the fact This de-
mands searching investigation.
Grcer's Cafe Bill.
And there Is another thing to
which the attention of the present ad-
ministration should be directed This
is the disposition shown by some of
the lesser officers of the service to
outshine their betters, an attitude
manifestly destructive of discipline
To illustrate this IL is necessary to go
back to those cafe bills again.
The cafe bills of Captain Greer
seldom ran above $50 per day, and
though he had one luncheon which
cost the state S19.55, this was quite
exceptional. But Sergeant Hoover
turned in a cafe bill for one day of
1925, twice as much as Captain
Greer's highest. This is all wrong
Democracy is all right in theory, but
there should be decent respect for
those whom God and the governor
have placed in a position of author
ity. It's not the mere money. It's
the principle of the thing. How is
captain going to maintain proper
control of a sergeant who doubles his
superior officers cafe bills Just like
one. two three? Things like this
have got to stop.