Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-01-01
PAYS TRIBUTE TO
ThESECONDIDAHO
G. j. Iisle Takes Off His
Hat to Gem State Troop
ers After Seeing Them
Pass in Review.

c. ]. Lisle. of Richfield, well known
former newspaper man, present maya
zine writer. and southern Idaho resi-
dent, paid a tribute today in an inter-
view to the soldiers Of the Second
Idaho regiment after he saw them pass
in review. Mr.. Lsle is in Boise with
Mrs. Lisle and their children for few
days. This is what Mr.. Lisle said:
You can't tell offhand just what a
soldier is going to look like. The same
general shape and color Of uniform
may cover a lot Of types of men. There
are young men in the Second Idaho
boys with hardly suggestion Of fuzz
on their faces, and with cheeks that
bloom like a girls. Touching elbows
with one of these boys, may be her
culean old miner or woodman, broad
of shoulder with black beard that
shows back a week under the skin;
with cheeks scanned with the exposure
Of two score years. and with strenu-
Gus life carved deep into every line
of his brawnN figure. But you can't
tell just which of these was or is the
better soldier-indeed, there isn't like
ly to be any better where all are
good.
COURAGE LIKE GOLD.
1.-THE one thing that makes the SOL
der lies below the surface; 1t is in the
heart and soul. If courage were en-
trusted only to the broad shouldered,
strong armed man, it would be a sorry
enough world-there wouldn't be any
thing left for the women and the
slighter men whom Nature has not
given bulk and stature. But courage
is like gold-it's wherever you find it.
And some of these rosy checked boys
make soldiers such as would conquer
the world. In the end, the great Civil
war was won by boys in their teens;
the south that lives in the military an
nails of the world was defended by
boys. One doesn't have to be big of
frame or hairy of face to be a soldier.
|UNFAILlNG MILITARY PRECISION.
1.-THE six months sojourn in the
southland has not taught the Second
Idaho an unfailing military precision
on the march. There was hardly
company that did not have anywhere
from one to a score of men out of step
to the beat of the music. That, how
ever, is matter merely to be laughed
at. The manifest fitness of the boys
was the one great. overshadowing i'm
preston. Rosy checked and black
jowled, tall, short. fat, thin, old, young
they swung along with the easy
grace of men who can march.-and
march-and march--and fight a good
fight at the end of the longest road.
Some machines work smoothly, with
out much power; others make a tre-
mendous chatter, and some of the ex-
posed parts of the mechanism look
awkward enough. But the chief end
of all mechanics Is to do the work;
and If the Second Idaho isn't the
primest fighting unit of all the state
troops that have visited the border.
appearances lie like the truth itself
The easy swing of that marching step
would carry such troops wherever men
could go.
HERE'S TO SECOND IDAHO.
When Robert Bonner, the great
horseman. owned Dexter. the then
greatest trotter In the world, he offer
ed $4,000 for a horse to match his
peerless animal Some curious person
wrote in to ask just what sort of a
horse he wanted for that money -
what color, age, sex, and all that. Bon
ner was quite explicit: don't care
d about the age, color appear
ance. sex; | don't care how many spav-
ms, how many blind eyes. how many
broken legs that horse has-the only
thing I want is a trotter' that can trot
with Dexter And that's the way SOL
diers are chosen-the army wants men
who can fight, and who can last long
enough to get where the fighting is
good And If the Second Idaho doesn't
fulfill those prime military require
ments, there is no body of troops in
America today which can. Here's to
the Second Idaho.
vita NOW MAyyTNN