Imperial Valley press., 1914-06-29
HAVE HARD WORK
TO KEEP DICNIFIED
(Bv William q. Shepherd

! era CTuH, June 10 (py man "
New York. How to keep yodr dig
nifty. That seems to be the big prob
lem IN Vera Cruz these days. Some
folks succeed and some don't. It's
hard to hang onto your money, be-
cause of the Klondike prices. it's diff
ficult TO keep cool; it's even hard to
keep clean. But how to keep your
dignity-there's the rub.
It's problem that seems to bother
the army and navy officials more
than it does common everyday folks.
Only the other day General Fun
ston's dignity almost got away from
him. He was trying to eat meal
under the sidewalk arcade surround
ing the plaza, chatting meanwhile with
one of his officers. The newsboys,
bootblacks, and souvenir sellers pester-
ed him like flies, in Mexican style
and, after being interrupted a score
of times, the general suddenly rose,
and sent after the flying Mexican ur-
chins, kick that would have disabled
horse, had it struck home. Every
body under the arcade agreed he was
right and was sorry he had missed.
Then there was the case of Captain
Sticbney, navyman, who was made
chief of the port Of Vera Cruz. Two
busy, hustilng chaps named Robinson
and Poole from the postoffice depart
ment had been hustled across the gulf
to Vera Cruz to get the postoffice
here into order The first day, the
admiral of the fleet announced to the
postoffice that one of his ships would
be sailing soon for America; it would
carry mail.
"Advise postoffice department when
ship leaves" was the message which
Poole sent to Captain Stickney of the
navy.
Wow! That little message raised hop
with Stickney. 1t seemed to hit him
right square in his dignity. He wrote
a letter back to the busy postoffice
men.
"When you address me-" he said, in
effect. kindly use courteous terms and
always place your matter in the form
of request, not an order" Then he
signed his name and put all his titles
after it.
The postoffice took the matter up
with the admiral himself. "The navy
is one branch of the government,
they pointed out, "and the postoffice
is another branch. We've got our or
ders in the postoffice department not
to use titles and lot of courteous
words, but to make all our letters
and kilograms as short and concise IS
possible. That's what we did to Stick
ney"
"You're right" ruled the admiral.
And now the messages that Captain
Stickney gets from the postoffice de
partment are shorter than ever with
a, lot of business in them, but not
much balm for wounded dignity.
And there's q lieutenant who hal
charge of the stub train which used
to run out, twice day, to the gap
in the railroad to pick up American
refugees from Mexico City. These re-
fugees were always footsore and tired
and sick at heart, having left nearly
all their possessions behind them in
Mexico, and their first glimpse of the
American flag, ON the train at the
gap, always thrilled them.
Some of them were inclined, in the
joy of their spirits, to give three
cheers for the flag and slap every
soldier and officer on the back and
call them "Good boys" It was only
natural, but the lieutenant couldn't
understand it that way. Pretty soon
reports began to reach General Fun
ston, from refugees, that after pass
ing through the hands of scores of
Mexican officials on the way from
Mexico City, the first dictatorial and
unpleasant officer they met, was the
lieutenant in charge of the stub train
The lieutenant kept his dignity, all
right, but, by orders of General Fun
sfon, who acts like lightning in such
cases, he lost his job on the train
There's a soldier chap on the train
now who helps the arriving refugees
to cheer for the Red, White and
Blue, if they want to, and who only
smiles happily, if an enthusiastic
American slaps him between the
shoulders and says "You fellows are
all right"
Even Rear Admiral Sir Craddock,
who had charge of the two English
ships in the harbor, and who out
ranks Badger, Fletcher, Mayo and
Winslow, has had hi stroubles, though
he took them gamely and with a smile.
He walked in "cits" clothes to an