The mirror., 1922-12-28


company's personnel includes some sixty
odd "skinners" or teamsters, non-commis
stoned officer for each squad Ia corporal
I should say), buglers, cooks and student
cooks, line sergeants, and the quartermas-
ter or supply, mess, stable, and top SER
geants.
While men in the army were not al
ways assigned to duties that were in keep
ing with their qualifications, this was not
the case in any Ammunition Train as it
is an important branch of the service, and
the work highly specialized.
You have heard doughboys, artillery
men, cavalrymen, and men from the var
ious branches brag of the Importance of
the particular portion to which they be-
long, no doubt The A. T. was not the
most important, but it was necessary
cog in the service wheel, and indispensable.
The "skinners" were former farm or
ranch hands for the most part while every
man on the regular stable crew was
dyed-in-the-wool puncher. When man was
too tough and hard-boiled for the lily-fn-
gered, sik-stocking outfits he was trans
ferred to G. Co. That is fact.
G Co. may not have been the hardest out
fit in the Sandstorm Division, but it
claimed the honor, and it is significant that
the claim was never disputed. Ask who
led the raid on Codytown. G Co. To
what outfit did the mug who stuck up the
sheriff of the border county and relieved
him of two quarts of hooch, belong? G
Co. Who kicked the back door off the
"spig" saloon in Hurley, during the hike?
1t might have been G Co. But that is not
an admission.
The Sunday morning gatherings were
far from peaceable, for morning without
at least one fight was as rare as feathers
on a centipede. 1t was a company tradi-
tion that a member was under no cir
cumstances to refuse to battle anyone who
chose him, and this unwritten law was
rigidly adhered to, as it was throughout
the army.
There were gentle pastimes far more
dangerous than fstic encounters, however.
In the corral were 140 head of California
mules, and every one of these had been
unbroken when they came from the re-
mount station. Every horse, with the ex-
ception of the officers mounts, was bronco.
You may we'll imagine the nature of the
sport.
Perhaps the general atmosphere was re-
sponsible for the strange obsession that lin
gered in the mind of every buck that he
knew more about riding outlaw horses
than Yakima Canutt. harbored an
opinion to that effect myself until about
one-ffth of a second after l was in the
saddle on one. Needless to state I know
better now.
Baldy, of eognae fame was the best
wrangler and all-around horseman in the
outfit, and it was his task to break the
mounts for all who were unable to do the
JOD tHCIuSClVcSs Hat lOI luICC-
fourths of the company.
Bronco-breaking is always an interesting
procedure, but for real amusement it
doesn't touch mule-breaking. To ride, l
mean. A mule is rode without saddle
or surcingle, for it does not, as a general
rule, indulge in bucking. A mule will roll,
paw the air with front feet elevate the
pedal extremities to the rear, bite, kick,
and go through series of violent actions.
Woe be unto the rider who is unseated
when no one is near, specially if the ami
nal be of the jug-head type for such are
vicious at all times.
1t was the custom to- rope the selected
victim, snub it to the fence to permit the
rider to mount then everyone sought
point of vantage and safety atop the corral
fence. Then around and around went
the rearing, plunging quadruped with the