Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-12-02
EERl1HHN News and notes Of the Service 5N@NZN
kNElzAN4G y y in Hawaii and Elsewhere V e N-AAy
SOMEWHERE IN HAWAYEE'
BY coRPL. JAweoNE


to Sergt. Barney Cahill, lin looking
over the retained muster rolls OF our
troop of some 20 years ago. It APP
peared TO me that the troop in those
days was composed mostly OF Irish
men or of Irish extraction.
Me Dye," said Sergt. Cahill. 1T
certainly was fine throop in thin
days. made up OF fighting men. which
is characteristic Of the Irish. We had
tap cutter be the name of Jerry
O'Donohue from the County Tyrone. a
finer soldier never lived Had il bin
left to Jerry he would inlist no wan
but an IrishmGn for his throop. but
you know the war departmint wouldn't
stand for that, so Jerry had to take
whoiver was sint by the recruiting
officers
In those DAYS TO be a Top you
had to be livery inch soldier, not a
clerk, although we had no typeyriters.
The first sargint had to make out the
mushter and pay rolls and this was
some undertaking for Jerry,
While stationed at Fort Made
there arrived wan day from the re-
cruit depot about 10 recruits for the
throop. Jerry lined up the bunch, took
their descriptive cards and called each
mans name, which, as | reminder,
ran as follows:
tNo. l, Stanlsiaus Tobinowitz.
mo. 2, Samuel Bernstein.
NO. 8, Emil Prczeminidowski.
Jerry stopped and looked down the
af hn iOh
criptive cards, scratched his head and
thought about the trouble he had
making up last months Fay rolls and
what he would be up aginst at the
coming muster. He goes over to No.
1 and says, Your names Tobin.' No.
2, Your. names Burns, and YOU says
Jerry to No. 3. your names Murphy,
and Murphy 1t was. So me bye IL you
judge be the muster roll we had an
Irish throop.
THE muster rolls for that month
were completed In good time. In
fact, our throop was the firsht in
ithe rigimint to forward theirs to
washington and the only sthroop to
have them returned, and with the
statement, That the only inconsisten-
ICY in the rolls was the fact that they
were bound together with yellow
string
me bye, in thin days this was a
foine throop; our old man had been
lootenant 26 years before he took
command Of our throop. And he
wasn't with us two weeks before he
received a letter from the war de-
partment, stating that the man whose
name Jerry changed to Murphy was a
married man and had left his wife
somewhere back East. Well, bye, in
thin days they did not slap you in
the mill and put four different charges
agin you, thin bobtaii you and let both
your family and yourself starve to
death. The old man didn't trouble
himself about such small matter, but
turned the case over to Jerry for ac-
ton. Jerry called Murphy into the
orderly room, closed the door and
blackened of Murphy's eyes, jabbed
him in the nose and called him a
skunk Cor leaving his wife. He gave
Murphy $40 for car fare, told him to
send for the girl and that when she
sue WOuiu " WI n 40 a
servant in the old mans family for SIS
month. That they would have quar-
tiers for themselves and that every
time he went on a spree and got
milled HIS wife should threaten to
quit work If he was rot released, and
the captains wife would surely force
the old man to release him.
Whats that you ask? Did we have
married men in the service in those
days? Why, most of the men were
married and some Of them twice. Did
they wrangle over quarters? No, me
bye, most of the men couldn't read
and those that could were too busy
at the canteen, so that any order SINH
lar to changes No. As A. r. never
bothered them. They all did their
duty; they had to. They would seek
substantial promotion not rank, for
they all realized that one was ranker
than the other. So you see that's why
I'm still a sargint"