Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-09
BY LIEUT.. ARTHUR J. BURKs,

| BY H An Ss Dumas
U. 8. M c., Resignsd; Former Aide to
| Gen. Butler.
Gen. Butler is an sidealist and e
| dreamer, and loses patience when 9TH
! ers can't see eye to eye with him on
| his dreams But he bulls through on
his own if he can and his superiors
will allow him to do so. He's been
called a good beginner" but a poor
''f1nisher.
Perhaps. He's usually transferred
before he can put his plans through to
| completion, when he Immediately for
gets the problems that occupied him at
his last post of command and gets
busy on something at the new place.
He believes in keeping his men occu-
pied. He doesn't care if they grumb1e
because, as every soldier of experience
knows, the outfit that grumbles is
healthy and in no danger and can be
depended upon. What the Marines
| may call Butler behind his back is OF
| no consequence at all. When he needs
/ them they're ready for whatever he has
for them to do, the loudest grumblers
usually the first to get busy.
Lets Them Be Frank.
Privates, non-coms and officers talk
man to man with Butler, because he
always gives them a chance, and he
listens to stuff from them that would
cause them to be court-martialed by
almost any one else for insolence and
INSTRUMENTATION. Butler looks inside
them and knows they don't mean to
be either insolent or insubordinate.
Marines to Butler are not merely
puppets who have to obey his orders
and be moved from place to place at
ms command simply because he is a
general and they are of lower rank
ana must obey. They're flesh and
blood, and men.
Inns ability to see and know gave
Butier the nickname, among many
otners, OF "Gimlet Eye" which some.
now has an irritating significance. n
could be applied to 80 per cent of the
Marine officers of experience of INV ac.
qualntance, and means that Butler car
Tell IN one look at a man whether he
needs an eighth of an inch cut off his
mar to make it regulation, whether he
whether he really polished his button,
according to Buffers standard Of
rubbed them hurriedly with a dry rae
IN the hope that Butler might overlooE
his careleSSness. Such Marines have
learned that Butler almost invariably
walks right up to them with scarcely
a look, seemingly, at the others.
His Quaker Language.
Everybody knows Buffers a Quake,
and that his "theSs" and "thys" arr
always in current use in his own home
II you are an especially good friend OF
his, thee" are fortunate and thy way
looks promising. People who are moi
his 1ntimates are always A"you" When
he switches from you" to thee" YOU
know that he is beginning to regard you
as a friend. When he switches from
thee" back to 'you," a transfer or g
leave of absence is indicated until what
ever you've done has been lived down.
Butler likes to wear sword and play
soldier and put on shows" not for the
sake of the shows" themselves, but fol
the sake of morale and to keep his Ma
rineS busy during peacetime. The Ma.
r1neS cuSS him out behind his back anc
to each other-and go out and tell ci-
villains who might be tempted to malign
him that they belong to Buffers Ma
rines" and are proud of it.
Butler had one of his dreams at the
Marine base in San Diego, which he
hoped to make into a really beautiful
place. It was some job, and he put
Capt. Ray A. Robinson, who had been
his aide in France and elsewhere. on
the task with whatever men we're avail
able. The Marine barracks squatted
on the sands of Dutch fats, most I'M
prepossessing spot.
Plans for Tree Planting.
BY hook or crook-and Butler is a
good forager and likes to have good
intended to procure and plant on the
Marine Corps base a tree for each and
every Marine who had died in uniform
since the inception of the corps.
He no sooner got the idea than he
began to enlarge upon it. Every pres
ent-day Marine wears what are called
dog tags" circular bits of metal which
hang about the mans neck on string
and bear the name, rank and corps OF
the enlisted men. Identification disks
are regulation for officers, also, as ex-
perience has shown that bullets kill off,
GERS, too, and moppers up like to know
whom they're burying.
When the trees should be planted, in
Buffers scheme, each one was to have
one of these dog tags, and on 1t was
to be stamped the name of the dead
Marine, the names to be procured from
the files of the Navy Department as
far back as they went.
saw DdSC dS WVcCcds
Caring for this forest, Butler believed,
would provide a job for Marines, but
in his dream Butler went further and
saw the San Diego Marine Corps base
become the mecca for friends and rela-
tives and descendants of the vanished
Marines. who would go strolling through
the aisles while the souls Of the de-
parted whispered to them with the
whispering of the trees
He was so eager to get this thing
going that the day after he got the
idea work began. But from the start,
as with so many of Buffers schemes
he was almost alone in his desire to
put it through, could get no official
help, and wouldn't seek contributions
naturally. He couldn't get the trees
without stealing them, as he hadn't
the money to buy them, it couldn't be
appropriated, and the donors of such
trees we're limited.
If there was any foraging done to
procure trees 1 don't know about it.
Neither did Butler But when each day
saw few new trees he didn't ask any
questions.
Gets Memorial Idea.
Butler also conceived an idea for g
military memorial, a sort of cone
shaped affair with circular staircase
arrangement circling it outside from
top to bottom, and with a ball at the
top to symbolic whatever it is that in.
spires men to serve to the limit of theii
endurance.
When he described this memorial tc
me his voice shook. OF course, it would
be for soldiers, sailors and Marines, but
by listening to Butler one knew that
he thought only Of the Marines, for he
talked only of them, and as he talked
you could see the agony on their faces
their distorted lips, the sweat in theil