The Cordova daily times., 1919-09-18
SOMETHING CONCERNING CAREER
 OF AMERICAS HONORED GENERAL

ulduSut Lltle LII SSueIdI upOu JOuu J. Pershing he was the fourth man to hold that coveted title in the army of the United States. The other three were Grant, Sheridan and Sherman.
 As the central American figure in the world war, with the single excep- tion of President Wilson, so much has been written about Pershing, and his life and history are so fresh in the public mind that it is difficult to tell the average American anything new about the man who commanded the great army on the battlefields of Europe.
 When some of Pershing's friends speak of his rise to a position of great military importance in world annals, they refer to a story quite commonly told of Charles M. Schwab, the iron master, who is said to have remarked to his old Scotch gardener, a friend of his childhood:
 1Ou never CApSClSu LO oCC hAC AAA this place, did you?"
 And the gardener is said to have replied: You never expected it yourself"
 AS late as the time of the Russia Japanese war in 1904, Pershing, over 40. still was a captain in the regular army. His associates say he never grumbled but always kept plugging at his iOb. Reams and reams have been written about how he took a prominent part in the pacifcation of the Philippine islands and how Pres ident Roosevelt made him a brigadler general, jumping him over the heads of exactly 862 other men who were senior to him on the service roll
 When Pershing took the punitive expedition to Mexico after the bandit Villa, he became the only living ottl- cer in the American army who had commanded any body of troops so large as a brigade in anything ap- preaching action. It is true that the late General Funston commanded more than a brigade on the Vera Cruz expedition but Funston's troops never got into action.
 From the time Pershing graduated from West Point in 1886 he had his full share of active and valuable ser vice in the army. Like his class mates he immediately was plunged into the Indian wars. He entered a campaign against the great Apache chief Geronimo, who. for many years had kept the great southwestern country almost closed to immigration by his skill and bravery. It was in those campaigns that many young American officers received that spe- cial training evolved in combat with the willy savages which proved ot peculiar value in certain phases of the highly scientific modern warfare in France and Belgium.
 They were taught the art of scout ing, of trailing and of perfect self reliance in the school beyond the ken of any European soldier, and many a midnight raid by the Americans into No Mans Land doubtless found it's inception and clever execution In the brain of one of these one-time Indian fighters of Pershing's type.
 It is recorded officially of Pershing that at the beginning of his career, for instance, he was complimented by General Miles, his commander-in- chief in the Geronimo campaigns, for marching his troop, with packtrain, over rough country, 40 miles in 46 hours, bringing in every animal and man in good condition" Until he reached command rank Pershing al- ways was a cavalry officer and the records of the war department show more than one honorable mention of his conduct during his ten years ser vice in the department of Arizona. Tn the Spanish war, as an officer of the Tenth cavalry, he was promoted for gallantry at the battle of El Caney to be major in the volunteer army, ! and after a short detail in Washington in the bureau of insular affairs was sent out to the Philippines as adjutant general of the department of Minda- mao and JolO.
 That was the turning point in Per- shing's career. He began to take his profession of arms more seriously and to display the powers of concen- tration upon difficult problems that stood him in good stead in the great