The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-03

y y ~ y y ~ ~ - y ~ " " ~ ~ - - !
Honolulans have not as yet aecus-
toned themselves to having full
fledged military post in their midst.
For this reason, probably, few of the
townsfolk ever go out to Fort Shafter
to watch the regular Thursday after
noon dress parades on the beautiful
parade ground there, although in most
places where Uncle Sam has stationed
his regulars the dress parades are events
which always attract number of
watchers There was no parade last
week because the boys in khaki have
been having holidays the same as ev-
sarybody else and the drills were cut
out, but there will be one this week
with the Hawaiian band present to
play the quickstep. Major Dunning
welcomes visitors to the post and would
be glad to see the people of Honolulu
turn out and get acquainted. He wants
to have Fort Shafter identified as a
part of Honolulu, place of which
Honolulu will be proud and not the
hostile camping place of lot of mali
hinis some here seem to consider it.
That is, the boys at Fort Shafter feel
that they are considered outside of the
city S life; as a matter of fact Homo
lulu hash It awakened to the fact that
one of the best equipped military posts
IN the Union is right at our door and
one which viii be, in the course of a
very few years the most beautiful.
Very few Honolulans ever get as far
from the corner of Fort and King Eva
wards as Fort Shafter. When they dc
any travelling they go the other way
to Waikiki, and that is one of the rea-
sons why all the building at the post
all the extensive improvements that
the past eighteen months have brought
about and all the doings there have
been allowed to go on practically un
noticed. 1t is rather complimentary
too, to the four hundred boys at the
post, that the fact that they are il
town has not created more talk. Il
used to be thought that that many
soldiers would necessitate the doubling
of our police force, the double lock
ing of doors and the purchasing OF
watchdogs, instead of which the boys
have come, settled down to their dutie:
and behaved the same as any other law
abiding citizens. When Honolulu gets
around to thinking about this, we viii
have. to revise our preconceived ideas
concerning regular soldiers.
Major Dunning is proud of the clean
upright young men in the four com
panies of the Twentieth Infantry un
der his command. Perhaps he managed
to get a picked lot of men, or perhaps
the Army has changed the same as the
Navy mas in its personnel. At any
event, the Fort Shafter troops have
given Honolulu a new idea as soon a.
we get around to it.
The men are proud of their post ant
of their officers. They like Honolulu
too, the only grumbl;ng heard being a
the fact that Honolulu service is no
E., II
However much the rest of us want i
to be strictly understood that Hawai-
is in and a part of the United States
the Fort Shafter boys are unanimou
in declaring that this is foreign soil
If it is, in military sense, their pa,
will be raised, and they are all hopeful
that the bill now before Congress pro
viding for the boost will pass.
At the present time the men are jus
finishing up their holidays Tomorrow
they get back into the regular pos
r0utines. drill in the morning, fatigu,
duties IN the afternoon, instruction il
craftsmanship and the other thing
which make life at Fort Shafter b,
no means all play. Then there are thu
baseball practises and games, an ex
citing series bling now on for the Majo
Dunning cup between the four com
panies; the basketball in the gymna
SUM, the boxing contests and othe
NEATLY sports encouraged by the officer
and enjoyed by officers and men alike
The men are worked just hard enough
to keep them in condition. There ra
tlons are good, their amusements plen
~ On Christmas day, the soldiers sa
down in their Immediately clean mes