The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-09
Army and
Navy News

y L
frontier, miles and miles away from the
center of civilization; when the escort
wagon with its boxes full of gold and
silver, and surrounded by troop of
cavalry armed with carbines and sabers
traversed dusty road in the alkali
desert and through the tortuous wind
ings of wild canyon; when knights
of the road or painted savages lurked
in all dark places, then the life of a
paymaster was full of danger and many
tragedy of the army was told when
the remnants of the escort arrived in
camp without the money boxes and pos
sibly with the news that the paymas-
ter and many others had fallen in the
fight to save the money entrusted to
them by Uncle Sam.
But today, when the army paymaster
starts off from Honolulu to visit the
new cavalry post at Leilehua, with bags
of gold and silver to gladden. the hearts
and load the pockets of the troopers,
the danger is mostly eliminated and the
romance is gone, but the armed escort
remains just the same. Yesterday when
Major Beecher B. Ray, Paymaster, Uni
ted States Army, left Honolulu at Z
0 o'clock for Leilehna, he rode in big,
speedy, ea-goingo automobile. His
gold and silver, tied up in canvas sacks,
had place in the bottom of the tom
neau, and three khaki-clad troopers
with carbines and cartridge boxes
they re wearing the old-style cartridge
box again-sat in the extra seats, while
the paymaster, his clerk, E. S. Gee, and
plain everyday civilian, occupied the
comfortable, even luxurious rear seat.
The driver was not a understanding,
whip-cracking, goddess pilot of army
kickers, but silent, expert chauffeur
of the auto-helm.
Through paved streets and out upon
smooth country roads, through cocoanut
groves, rice fields, sugar plantations,
beautiful country estates where flowers
bloom ever gorgeously and watt. their
fragrance over a landscape which only
can be seen in Hawaii nei, the modern
horseless, muleless Dougherty speeds.
There is no thought of road agents,
painted savages with tomahawks, or
"bad men, True the auto traverses
fiat lands and narrow canyons, but ever
on fine roads, safe from danger, and
finally out upon plateau where there
is no desert and where the eye is be-
wildered by the perfect lines and rows
of pineapple plantations stretching for
miles until the rows are merged into
one common perspective. Far off to the
left patch of glistening white shows
clearly in the morning sun.
"'There is the cavalry post says
the Major.
And SIRE enough the regular plan of
military camp can be diseerned in the
patch of white, the latter proving to be
the white roofs of the temporary shell
tiers erected last January. Nesting
under semicircR of mountains and To-
Gated upon a rise of ground, gently
sloping away from the foothills, is
Uncle Sam s newest cavalry post. Three
months ago there were but few tents
on this slope. Today there is an army
post housing two squadrons of one of
the gallant cavalry regiments-the
Fifth. As the auto speeds on it dashes
through gateway where a momentary
glimpse is had of a trooper standing
ing his cap. Another gateway and an
other trooper. A cloud of dust rises
from the road and when gust of wind
drives it away troop of cavalry is
disclosed out for practice. They salute
the officer in the rear of the auto and
an expansive grin overspreads their
sunburned features. The man in the
rear seat means gold and silver, and a
squaring of debts, and good time,
when leave of absence is obtained.
AS the auto approaches the new post,
army activity is observed on all sides.
The farrier is busy among the horses;
troopers are looking after their mounts;
the baker is working at his open-air
ovens; the band is tuning up for prac-
tice; some prisoners pass by with
brooms on their shoulders with armed
guards behind; wagons are being I'M
loaded at the commissary shed; troop
ers are Furnishing up their accouter-
ments; on the platform of the stockade-
prison armed sentries are pacing slowly
a bugler is blowing call; horsemen are
cantering along the parade driveways;
and as the auto comes to a stop at the
headquarters building there is more or
less activity, orderlies passing in and
out; sergeants going in on business bent
with the sergeant major.
The armed guard picks up the money
sacks and carries them into the hall
way of the headquarters and deposits
them on row of three tables covered
with army blankets-fer the paymas
ter's visit has been anticipated and
everything is in readiness for him
Colonel Schuyler, commandant of the
post, and his adjutant, Captain Sturges
greet the paymaster, and the sergeant
major calls upon the paymaster's clerk
for the payrolls which are dispatched
to the first sergeants of each troop.
The Major opens his money sacks and
pours out, in shining heaps, twenty
dollar gold pieces, ten dollar pieces
fves, and silver dollars, halves, quar-
tiers, dimes and niekels He does not
pile the coin up, just leaves it in
tempting-looking heaps. He sits before
this mass of coin-about thirteen thou
sand dollars-his clerk sitting at his
left with payrolls. At the end of the
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