Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-27

: whose stuff you've got, whereas de
: sorting Is an offense against every las
citizen of this bunch Of states ant
, territories you have sworn to serve
Never heard tell Of one that didn't &C
rotten bad and keep right on getting
worse until some proper patriot come
along and put his light out.
Its mighty seldom an officer goes
'oco. that way. luckily, but when he
!, does you can always gamble that
much quicker than a private. he'll 60
NANCY as starved wolf gets in the
sprIng and as little particular of the
carrion he gnaws.
Plenty of young ones get the monte
or the poker bee and just blow up du-
plicnting their pay accounts to try to
win back their losses; lots OF them
set their traps to snare all the rot-gut
whisky the sutler can get hauled out
from the Missouri. and wind up losing
their shoulder straps.
But even such I've known to steady
down to an honest mans gait, and
keep it. Just let an. officer desert
once. though, boys. and you can take
Kits word brand new outlaw is
ranging the country that will never
quit till he is planted.
1T was back in the f1fties we had in
the Second Dragons a specimen OF
this sort that shone like new Hawk
ms rifle, West Pointer, too.
"At that time the Second was serv-
ing at Fort Union. | was the scout and
guide of the post. A cleaner, straight
er youngster one could not ask to meet
than Second Lieutenant, assigned
/ to troop B. But from the start he had
his troubles. B troop was made up of
the human refuse of the overland In
dependence-Santa Fee trail.
! "All kinds came or got pushed along
that old trail; and while few hit it in
those days that were not as full of
fight as trapped grizzly, plenty
there were whose only idea OF hard
work was slick sneak Of somebody
elses horses, dust or goods.
Courts weren't thick in those
times, of course, but Judge Lynch and
his posses soon put the bad ones of
the new camps on the run. Many a
one found temporary asylum in the
army, shifting base and enlisting at
distant posts. And it was a lot Of
such thieves and holdups that our
young lieutenant got assigned to the
junior command Of
THE discipline of the frontier
forces was pretty loose-rightly
enough, too. Drill didn't help much
! in the rough work against Indians, and
the older officers realized it.
! But our lieutenant, fresh from the
regulations and iron-clad rules Of West
Point, came near going plumb loony
in his effort to whip his unkept
slouching, drunken and disorderly
troop into proper regulars.
HE was at them morning, noon and
evening, drilling and marching, until
he had them near ready to break out
into open mutiny.
. Dandy and Toy Soldier were
about the only names they had for him
that care to mention. But, curiously.
in time the men dropped into the spirit
OF the work themselves-sorta got
stuck, reckon, on the superiority OF
their drill over all the other COM
panies at the post-until most OF them
were about ready to eat out or his
hand. =.
Just about then, however, when
ne must have been thinking his
troubles were douhle-Quickening to the
rear. he got it good and hard from an
unexpected quarter
Every week his own troop had been
growing smarter and smarter ana the
other soldiers, jealous perhaps, or
fearing the example was likely to start
troop Off GERS making them pound the
parade ground on all-day drills, got to
cursins him worse than his own men
had
They managed at last to lash them
selves into such bitter hatred of him,
that only needed chance to show It.
self openly, in some raw form.
And that chance came when, one
night, q detachment of one or the
other troops which had been off on a
scout returned to the post, tired, dry
and out of humor. Before mess call
they had succeeded in tanking up to
a point that ought to have satisfied
them, for it didn't take many slugs OF
that suffers whisky to put soldier in
the disposition to slit the throat OF his
own daddy, mad as a snake-dancing
Zrnt medicine man. But that might
what they had seemed to just give
them a good running start.
TAPS sounded, and regulations
called for everybody in barracks and
al! lights out Shortly after taps,
therefore, our young lieutenant, who
happened to be officer Of the day,
was outraged to see a trooper entering
the suffers store. Following the man
in, he found an old dragon OF one OF
the other companies urging the sutler
to sell him several bottles Of whisky.
Promptly the lieutenant ordered
the man TO his barrack, in arrest. IN
stead of obeying, however, the man
drew his pistol, covered the lieutenant
and insolently growled:
Here's we get our whisky or you
get what's been long time overdue
coming to you, you id little brass
mounted imitation of a real sure
enough dragon! Been laying for
chance like this, several of US. Now
YOU Just cut yourself loose and see II
YOU can make me go to the barracks!"
"Pale with rage, the youngster drew
his saber and thrust savagely at the
man: but the willy old dragon deity
parried the thrust, and snapped his
pistol in the Eeutenant's face.
Three times the plucky little ter
rier so iabbed at the nlutineer, was