Evening star., 1931-12-06
Sudden Tom Campbell
Picturesque Career of Civil

the mistake of keeping this shock to
himself, letting his memory eat in. He
win talk about 1t. 'Dildy was spinning
and jerking up and down-and they
hadn't covered his face :" he SAYS
There he usually stops.
But down from the tree he came, half
sliding, half falling He landed on tie
ground like wet sack, managed to
crawl away into the bushes and lay
there for while, very, very sick. His
mother, after she rebuked him for run
ming away from the picnic to the hang
ing, tried to comfort him; his older
brothers, on the other hand. called him
sissy. But didn't take much inter-
est in life for while" he says. And
to this day, the very mention of an exc
cution brings up this sinister vision.
Nevertheless, he went on living to the
full the life of the range, learned the
trade Of cowpunching in a time when
the stuff which we now see only in
rodeos was a reality Of life, and de-
veloped an ambition to go to West Point
and adopt the military career. He at
tended the first high school of Arizona
in Phoenix, from which he was the first
graduate, while his father pulled wires
TO get him an appointment. 1t was
promised; and meantime young Tom
entered st. Mary's College Mt Oakland.
He later was appointed to West Point
but as an alternate. And the young
man for whom he was to substitute in
case of failure to pass the examinations
was healthy and well educated. Also.
the hard times Of 93 had reached the
cattle business. He must come home
and go to work.
Works in Post Office.
He got job as post Office clerk. And
although Tom Campbell's life. is such
that it probably attracts good story
once a week. shall skim over the next
four or five years. The important thing
here Is probably the fact that he didn't
stop his education with his schooling.
He had seen that mining was the next
stage of progress in Arizona; he aimed
his career in that direction. With the
help Of night school and correspondence
courses, he boned up on the geology,
civil engineering. chemistry and mathe-
matics necessary to make himself II not
graduate mining engineer at least a
competent mining man.
Then the Spanish War broke-and
here at last came his chance to be q
soldier. "Bucky" ONeill appeared in
town, commissioned by Theodore Roose-
velt and Col. Alexander Brodie to re-
cruit troop of Rough Riders He saw
Tom Campbell; together they filled out
the roster. Campbell was to have a
commission. But here the elder Camp
bells intervened. Tom was only 20
years old. Mrs. Dan Campbell, while
quite willing that her boy should go to
West Point, was unwilling to send him
to be killed before he became of age.
Tom Campbell behaved like chip Of
the old block. He went to San Antonio
and enlisted in another company.
Everything was going well when the
Army officer in charge discovered the
secret Of his age. And this man had.
it appears, one special prejudice arising
from an. episode In his family history.
When, toward the end Of the Civil War,
Northern nanpower had begun to
dwindle, his father had raised COM
pany Of raw boys and taken them into
the Wilderness campaign. The officer
came home alive, though wounded, but
most of his boys died in the trenches
around the Bloody Angle. His son had
| sworn that no boy under age should get
into his command.
| So Tom Campbell went back to his
| Job, passed over into the mining game
on which his ambition was bent, began
CONTINUED on Fourth Page.)