Evening journal., 1913-04-18
FORT MYER
DRILLS Are
THRILLERS
President Wilson Sees His
First ManOuverS There
and is Delighted
STUNTS MAKE VISITORS
HUM TIE NATIONAL AIR

WASHINGTON, April 17.-If any
blase visitor to the nations capital
finds it impossible to become duly
thrilled with that feeling of patriot
ism that makes people hum The Star
spangled Banner" standing, all he
has to do is to go out to see one of
the cavalry drills at Fort Myer.
About half an hour of that glitter
ing iangling, hoof-beating daredevil
ism is guaranteed to instill the feel
Ing into the coldest human iceberg.
Il is the lure of soldiery that swings
and climbs, and stands, and jumps, in
mad vortex of horses.
The drills are weekly events and
ire always popular as society" af-
airs although the neck-risking feats
Ire done by the enlisted men who ap-
pear on the program merely as
company so-and-so" under command
of Lieutenant or Captain Somebody
The riding hall is about 500 feet long
and 200 feet wide, and each drill is
generally participated in by about
fifty men.
few days ago President Wilson
saw his first drill at the fort, and a
program of unusual merit was given.
That means everybody took an extra
chance. Cossack riding was the CEN
trail number on this program, in
which twenty-five young troopers on
saddleless horses did almost impos-
sible feats. standing on running
horses which leaped five-foot hurdles
and performing other feats that we're
as much circus stunts as cavalry ex-
ploits The troopers made their
chargers Jump over a mess table. set
with china and surrounded by sold
iers apparently at dinner. Others
made their mounts leap over a hand
kerchief stretched between two men.
This was to show the accuracy of the
riders guiding and the perfect obed-
ience of the horses to the rein. Other
less difficult but more beautiful
manoeuvres we're the tandem events,
where soldiers standing on one horse
and driving another would execute
similar feats.
But the artillery drills are always
the most spectacular laundering
around the great hall in a storm Of
dying tanbark, the heavy wagons
rumble between narrow spaces mark
ed by stakes. cut figures, cross in
front of each other at wild gallop,
horses, wagons and drivers swaying
madly at each precarious turn.
The things the madcap cavalrymen
do would make a circus performer
turn an envious emerald They do
il not only when elegantly dressed
men and women sit and applaud, but
also when an unsympathetic riding
master urges them on without any
audience" at all It's all very fine
and very thrilling, and with the band
playing and the horses weaving in and
out in dizzy evolutions, while the
riders turn fipfops and otherwise
throw the def at fate. it's sad hui
man who isn't inspired to yell,
'Hooray for the U. S. A."
In the twenty years that Isaac, the
colored messenger outside the office
of Second Assistant Secretary OF
State Adee, has been on the job. he
has attained what might be styled
"omnipotent independence"
Naturally of a quiet disposition, the
years have added a lustre and adj
pose tissue. so recently he attached a
tlIlHE W llt ub,i' ihlO AAAI "e'riNAoit =
waiting room. When troublesome
diplomats called. he didn't have to do
anything but pull the string and let
them in.
The secretary had just completed
his afternoon tea recently when a
diplomat entered unannounced and
sat down. At that moment Isaac came
out with a cup, saucer, and long
towel In transferring them to his
right hand, he made a grab for the
diplomats hat with the other.
Then he slipped. the towel flirted
up in the diplomats face, the tea
sprinkled on his trousers, and the
diplomat. with a cry of astonishment,
ducked. Isaac secured the hat, how
ever, gazed calmly at the diplomat,
and then finding no other place for
the hat, slammed il on the wood box,
where the little logs for the CRATE
4 fires are kept. Then. whistling soft
. ly. he bumped himself out of the door