The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-18

a hot fatiron ON the mahogany dining
room table, thereby leaving its distress
ing autograph in white, that table Is
not forever ruined, but in the hands of
even an ordinary carpenter of skill may
be quickly scraped and revarnished and
made to look as good as new, and the
mahogany having its own color will ac-
quire increased beauty as time passes.
No other wood can be relied on to do
this. Oak has to be stained and repair
work usually shows. 1t would seem to
a rank outsider that the furniture sup
piled to the Army was of the very best.
1t is heavy and strong. 1t is the fur
niture of refinement and character. The
children that grow up around the ma
hogany dining table are, according to
ordinary standards of Judgment, for
tuDate. The fact may have its value
in character that other wood might not
affsrd. And if the Quartermaster S
Department had chosen to furnish oak
or some other wood and not mahogany,
the criticism might be more general
and better founded.
Oldest. Army Officer.
General Daniel II. Rucker, retired,
|%the oldest living army officer, celebrat
ed his ninety-seventh birthday yester
day at his home, 1924 jefferson place
A steady stream of callers visited the
house all day long to pay their respects.
The general was born April %, 1872,
at Belleville, n. J. Seventy-fve years
of his life have been spent in the ser
vice of the Army, either on the active
or retired list, and he has been honored
repeatedly for his deeds.-Wa Washington
Star, May i.
Oldtimer on the Dix.
Lieutenant James B. Ferguson, Medi-
cal Reserve Corps, attached to the
transport Dix, is said to be the oldest
man in the active service of the United
States Army, being now in his seven
tieth year. He is an oldtimer in SER
vice.
When young man of twenty-one,
DR.. Ferguson enlisted in the Sixth New
York Cavalry, and took part in many
of the desperate struggles of the Civil
War. He was attached TO General
Sumner S corps, in General Mcclellan IS
campaign on the Peninsula, and on
June 20, 1862, when his troop took part
in two OF the bitterest cavalry attacks
in the rebellion, the battle at Allen IS
Farm and at Savage Station, he was
taken prisoner and for four weeks was
kept inside the Confederate lines. He
o1c he la+ IL e ~ I
in 1864, and was in the famous charge
and raid of Todd s command of g Vel
| low Riders when Sheridan made his
attack on the veteran cavalry leader
Jeb Stuart, which resulted in the lat
ter's death.
From 1864 to 1870 Ferguson served
as a hospital steward in the Regular
Army. During that period he employ
ed all his spare time studying medicine,
and upon his discharge went to Wash
ington and applied for a position as
contract surgeon, which he obtained.
His entire service with the Regulars,
with the exception of the past five
years, during which time he has been
detailed on the transport Dix, has been
| served in the Department of the Da-
kotas. His first station was Fort Tot
ten, then Fort Seward, where he was
succeeded by Colonel Davis, the pres
ent Acting Chief Surgeon of this di-
vision, and subsequently at Forts Yates,
Sisseton, Hale, Randall and Bennett,
| covering period of twenty-one years.
Dr. Ferguson was post surgeon at
Fort Totten when Major-General John
F. Weston, then a lieutenant in the
| Seventh Cavalry, was stationed there.
In sounding the praises of his old
| friend, DIR. Ferguson said:
| Had not Weston been transferred
about that time to the Subsistence De
| partment, he would have been massa-
cred with that noble band of troopers
under Custer, for Weston was Custer s
most dashing officer, and would surely
have been at his side during the last
stand against Sitting Bull. =
| DIR. Ferguson left the service in 1891
to enter private practice, but, when the
hostilities with Spain began, the old
war fever returned and he again en-
tered the service. During the five
years he has been detailed with the Dix
he has made fourteen trips across the
Pacific.