Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-08
Fifty-Eight Army Officers Do
Some Tall Walking.
HAD TO KEEP ANNOYING
Mr.. Roosevelt Leads Merry March
Through Rock Creek Park.
SAN JUAN HILL NOT IN IT
And the Famous Exploit of the
French King Is No Longer
Worth a Mention,

President Roosevelt gave fifty-eight
army officers and two civilians in the
persons of Secretary Garfield and Assist
ant Secretary Bacon the walk of their
lives yesterday afternoon through Rock
Creek Park, and, while the President Is
feeling tiptop, rumor has it that most of
the officers are in terrible fix. Stiff,
lame. sore, mad. trousers spoiled, tempers
ruffled-oh, dreadful!
That's always the way It seems that
no one can ever walk as fast as the Presi-
dent. Everyone who comes to Washing
ton remarks about the secret service men
who follow the President and then some
old Washingtonian is bound to say:
Yes. and when he goes out walking
he nearly kills en-
But one would think that fifty-eight
officers could walk as fast as one Presi-
dent. Nobody thinks anything about the
civilians because no civilian has any bust
ness walking more than three miles an
hour Imagine all the clerks in Wash
ington walking down to the Office at a
pace over three miles an hour. The chief
clerks would all have seventy-five kinds
of conniption fits If the Grand Army of
Walk to Works walked any faster than
they do.
But to resume.
The Stone Lions Winked.
At O'Clock yesterday the lions on Con-
necticut avenue bridge turned their heads
and winked at each other when they saw
the bunch coming. Headed by Gen. Bell
Gen. Duvall Gen. Murray and Gen. Woth-
erspoon. the army officers marched along
the bridge. tramp! tramp! tramp! the two
civilians keeping step occasionally and
saying to each other taht 1t was delight
full afternoon. The lions knew. They had
a right to wink. and it is good thing
down on the shooting license that GER
tain party is going to take to Africa. and
any domestic lion getting fresh around
here may get shot before the ship even
starts for Africa So there!
The President met his class in Little
Steps for Baby Feet" at one end of the
bridge-so far no one has been found
who knows which end. but all agree that
it was one end or the other-and with
CLEAN of satisfaction turned his face
the other alternately began to show. the
army just what a high-powered. six
cylinder. runabout man can do when 1T
comes to walking. And did they walk?
after them. picked up by the wake of
their swishing feet. Ask of the chickens
who fed madly across the road and back
again. Ask of the country folk who saw
them coming for one brief moment and
then as briefly saw them receding In the
trees which famed their heated brows.
Ask of the scared rabbits. which could
scarcely escape the onrushing column as
it went straight ahead. And If any one
can get near an army officer, ask him.
Ofrer him a bottle of arnica and offer
to rub him down, and perhaps that will
suffice as an introduction. Then get him
to tell YOU the Real Story of the Second
Charge of San Juan Hill or the Romance
and Stiffness of the Rough Walkers.
San Juan Hill Outdone.
There are hills in Rock Creek Park
sleeper and more terrible than San Juan
Hill or Bunker Hill. Up these heights
the President led his followers. always at
that awful pace, never Stacking. never
stopping for breath, never saying:
well, old man. this is pretty rough
here. let's sit down minute
Through many bitches. filled with mud
over barb wire that ripped and tore and
gouged and smarted, making old pants
out Of new ones and entering the soul as
we'll as the flesh.
Over hedges that only a winged steed
should rightfully jump. climbing rocks
which even a chamois or an antelope or
an akopi, whatever that is. might shun,
falling tussling, scrambling, putting.
swearing. mayhap for 1t was an army
affair.", the walkers continued. And while
the fifty-eight painted the leader smiled
and smiled and wondered why they We're
SO slow.
Every schoolboy knows the Charge of
the Light Brigade" Every schoolboy
knows the story of the storming of those
beetling heights on t.ie Hudson. wherein
our army, led by Mad Anthony Wayne.
put it all over the redcoats Trafalgar is
so famous that London Is built around
its pillar; but what are these? What,
pray are such trifles against f1fty-eight
painting hearts and fifty-eight pairs of
lungs that ache and seem to have turned
to leather?
The King of France Nothing
And it was dusk when they returned
The King of France and thousand men
marched up the hill and down again"
In the Mother Goose rhymes little chill
dren learn that cOuplet and that is all
they know of great and wonderful
maneuver in the fourteenth century.
Who knows but that in some far-on day
creep. when Bryan has ceased to be
candidate. when Uncle Joe quits smok-
ing. a new Mother Goose will paint a
picture in which the great exponent of
the strenuous life Is shown upon this
wonderful walk, and underneath it the
lines:
IAN army stopped and looked aghast to
see this walker walk SO fast"
Skin Drafting Operation Fails.
ANSONIA. CONN. November 7.-Lubov
Hodio eight years old. who was terribly