bv Edward B. Claris
hmASHINGTON.—In the last year or two congress has
$ shown a disposition to be generous to the army.
Among the other measures passed with a special
view to the decreasing of the number of desertions
was one which increased materially the pay of en
listed men. The non-commissioned officers partieu
ISa larlj were well treated by the bill, for it was the
intention to make army life so attractive for the
sergeants and the corporals that they would be willing to re-enlist.
Then again the amount of pay given the "non-coms" was intended
to act as an incentive to the privates to behave themselves well
and to stay in the service so that in time they might secure pro
motion.
There is an army post at FortMyer close to Arlington, the na
tional cemetery just across the Potomac from the capital. A good
TT
TRAINING
'CAVALRY HORi _
ro LIE TOWN
AT COMMAND
many old soldiers are stationed at Fort Myer
men who have enlisted and re-enlisted unti
the sleeves of their dress coats are pretty wel
covered with the stripes marking their yean
of service. These old soldiers tell many stories
of the old days when the army life was not as
pleasant as it is to-day and when the recruit's
lot was far from a happy one. In those oh
days desertions were many and some of th<
stories which the veteran regulars tell to-da;
of the time when they were recruits lets on<
know readily enough why some men under tin
old conditions did not care to follow the flag
Here is one story of recruit life in the arm3
20 years ago that is rewritten with no changes
of fact and with only a little change of lan
guage from the vray that an old soldier told it
“In the winter of 1888 I was stationed a’
David's island, New York harbor, a recruiting
rendezvous of the army. There were about
800 newly enlisted ones stationed there at thal
time. The island is a little affair lying fairly
low in the water and without any protection
from the storms which blow in from the east
through Long Island sound.
I “.January and February, 1888, were months
<oi sunshine, and flowers were peeping on the
sunny side of things before anyone could guess
■whether March was to roar in like the lion or
to bleat like the lamb. Early in the second
week of that March month Newr York was over
whelmed by a tempest of wind and snow. It
was in that storm that Hoscoe Conkling met
with the exposure which caused the illness
leading to his death in a few days. It was the
■worst storm known to the history of the east
ern country. The New' Yorkers, however, did
not experience its full fury, for their buildings
gave them shelter.
“It was left for a few recruits of the United
States army, the men on guard, to bear the
brunt of the blizzard and to face the elements
that gave them battle. On the night of March
II the storm broke. At. nine o’clock the sky
over the sound was unclouded, and there was
not a whisper of wind over the water. Within
ten minutes the black clouds had banked up
and in another ten minutes they were shaking
out their burden of snow, while the wind which
had sprung to its full strength almost without
warning, was roaring down the sound from the
Atlantic. At midnight there were great drifts
of snow against every obstacle which offeree
the least resistance to the wind. Out of doors
speech was impossible for the blasts tore ths
words from one’s lips and smothered then
with their howlings.
"On that night I was on guard as corpora
of the first relief. The sergeant of the guarc
a few moments after midnight stepped fron
the doorway of the guardhouse and was swep
from his feet by the wind. He saw what a ter
rible night was ahead of 11s, had already com*
to us in fact, and he sent a man to the quar
ters of the officer of the day to ask permissiot
to take in the outlying sentinels or to give or
ders to them to seek such shelter as they coulc
bud. The officer of the day’s quarters were sur
founded with heavy evergreen trees and thi
officer, looking out, did not I
comprehend how terrific the
storm really was, and so 5
1 woi'd was passed that the I
1 chain of sentinels should
1 not be broken,
i “At one o'clock my guard
relief was ordered out to
‘ relieve the men on post. No
man who was on that is
' land that night has in his
' keeping words strong
enough to describe the aw
ful fury of that eastern a
gale. The combined thun- I
ders of 20 mountain storms I
could not equal the noise of |
the roaring of the waves ■
as they pounded the shore.
The wind added its bellow
ing to the uproar and its strength almost took
away the powers of motion and of speech.
“The relief started from the guardhouse. No
man through the darkness brought by night
and the tempest could see the outline of his
nearest fellow. . The whiteness of the snow
would have relieved the blackness had not
ihe lashing of the elements blinded the vision.
I ordered the men to unfix bayonets because
of the danger of cutting one another, and I
gave the order passing from one man to the
other and fairly bellowing it into their ears.
Then the order was given to ‘secure arms’ and
to clasp hands. It was only by the handclasp
that one man could tell that he had a com
panion.
“Into the teeth of the tempest we edged our
way. Twice within 50 yards of the guard
house the little squad was thrown from its
teet. All sense of direction writs lost and noth
ing but a collision with one of the low-lying
barracks buildings after ten minutes' toiling
progress gave the little command knowledge
of its whereabouts. A half frozen sentinel
whose post luckily was under the lee of the
barracks, was relieved and took his place at
the rear of the hand-clasping column.
“The hospital of the garrison stands, or did
stand at that time, at the extreme east end
of the island. Back of it along the stretch of
beach runs a sentry’s post. A man walking
there and looking straight eastward finds no
land upon which his eye may rest. That night
the lashing fury of the waves was spent main
ly on that lonely sentry beach. The first re
lief managed to reach the front of the hospital
which gave some protection. I ordered all the
men except the one who was ko relieve the
sentry on the beach to huddle under the piazza
while I took the relieving recruit to find the
man on post.
“We rounded the end of the hospital. The
blast threw us down. The wind was tearing
down the sound and the salt spray and the
snow commingled dashed into our faces. We
I dragged our rifles and edged our way through
a walfof wind. A few feet of progress and
t the blast again threw our feet from under
us. Holding
li a n d s we
crawled dig
ging our free
* hands and
our knees in
to the ground
until we
reached a
point where
the wave s
stopped our
progress.
“Thence we
turned by the
Hank and
toiled along
the sand for the entire length
of the sentry's beat, but no
sentry could we find. I
raised my voice and shouted.
The man within two feet of
me did inj| know that 1 had
snuffer and tore liis “Springfield” from his
hand.
Then rlie garbage barrel was removed and
the recruit was threatened with death if he
made an outcry. He was forced to march at
the bayonet's point to the shore of the island
and then to run over the ice toward the main
land with his former prisoners at his heels.
When the deserters and their victim arrived
near the New Rochelle shore a hole was
chipped in the ice by means of the bayonet and
the rifle was dropped through into the waters
of the sound. Then the recruit was told that
if he chose he might return to the garrison.
He told his former charges that he preferred to
throw in his lot with them, for if he went back
he would be certain to get a heavy dose of the
guardhouse for neglect of duty in suffering his
prisoners to escape, and for the loss of govern
ment property in the shape of the Springfield
rifle which was now at the bottom of the
sound.
The deserters told the recruit that he could
ViT ESidE'''
uttered a word. Back over the sand we went
through the howling and the lashing. We lost
our bearings and ran into an obstruction. 1
traced its outline and knew what it was. It
was the hospital morgue, a wooden structure
not more than 15 feet square. We crawled
around it until we had reached the west side,
where the shelter gave us breath; from the
doorway of the morgue came a challenge that
even the noise of the storm could not smoth
er—‘Who comes there?'
“The answer. 'Relief,' was yelled back by two
voices in unison, and we crawled into the dead
house. There, standing guard in the grewsome
place, was a colored lad, only four weeks a
soldier, and within touch of hjs hand, resting
on its zinc bier, was the corpse of a man.
“Driven by the storm to seek shelter, that
black recruit, rather than leave his post to
get the protection afforded by the hospital,
had chosen in the blackness of midnight, and
with wind and wave raging without, to take
up his watch by the dead, because the place
where the body lay was on his post, which he
was under orders not to desert.”
Two army deserters convinced a certain
raw recruit that there was something more
than words in the saying he had once heard
to the effect that republics always are ungrate
ful. It fell on this wise;
The recruit had marched on guard for the
first time. The sergeant in charge turned two
prisoners over to him with instructions to
guard them while they drove a mule team and
collected the garbage from the barrels in the
rear of the quarters. It was the dead of
winter, and for the first time in years the
channel betw’een David’s island and the town
of New Rochelle was frozen over.
The recruit plodded along after his prisoners,
but, being green to such work, he kept close at
their heels instead of trailing along at a dis
tance of five paces as he should have done.
Guard and prisoners reached a point near the
shore directly in the rear of the commanding
officer’s quarters. There one of the deserters
seized an empty garbage barrel and an oppor
tunity at the same instant. He threw the bar
rel over the sentinel’s head like a candle
come with them if he chose, and they started
for a saloon in the outskirts of the town, a
place known to them, there to wait until it
was time to go under cover to the depot to
take a train which made no stop for many
miles beyond the place of boarding.
About an hour before the train was due the
recruit told the deserters that he bad “weak
ened” and that he would go back to the island
to “take his medicine.” They offered no ob
jection and their companion started for the
shore while they took a back road to the de
pot.
The recruit had soldier-making stuff in him.
He had been maturing a plan all the time that
he had been in the saloon. The deserters once
out of sight, he made for a farm house, told
his story hurriedly, secured a horse and rode at
a cavalry pace for a hamlet a few miles-east
of New Rochelle. He was afraid to go to the
depot to which the deserters had gone because
he feared that they would see him and, suspect
ing his motive, would take to the woods.
At the little village to which he had gone
headlong on his horse, he secured the services
of a constable readily enough—for there was
a reward for the arrest of deserters—and by
telling his story and by threatening the station
master with all the penalties possible of inflic
tion by the federal government, the recruit in
duced hfm to flag the train.
The deserters were caught, handcuffed and
sent back to the island.
The board deliberated long if not wisely, and
finally reached the conclusion that the coun
try’s treasury could not well bear the burden
of the loss of the money represented by the
]>fice of one rifle, and so it was decreed that
the cost of the weapon should be taken out of
the pay of the recruit who had done his duty
by the government and had showed pluck and
understanding, even if he had lost a rifle.
There was a disgusted young soldier on Da
vid's island. He was not made of the stuff
of deserters, but desert he did. The channel
was still frozen and the morning after he
learned of the order stopping his pay there was
one sold'er less to answer "Here,” at reveille
roll call.
WORLD’S RICHEST PRINCE A STU
DENT AT HARVARD.
Jaisingrao Gaikwar, Who Will Some
Day Rule 3,000,000 People of
, Baroda, Preparing Himself
for Future Position.
Boston.—The future ruler of 3,000,
000 subjects anrl the heir of riches
that make the famed wealth of Midas
pale into insignificance, Prince Jaisin
grao Gaikwar, the son of an Indian
rajah, is now preparing himself at
Harvard for his future position.
When the Gaikwar of Baroda, sec
ond in importance among the rajahs,
visited America two years ago, he
was so pleased with the methods of
teaching at Harvard that his last
word to President Eliot was that his
sons would be sent to finish their ed
ucation at Cambridge.
Accordingly, Jaisingrao Gaikwar, 19
years old, elder son of the rajah, is
now installed in a sumptuous suite of
rooms in upper Westmorley court, one
of the most exclusive "outside” dormi
tories.
The heir to an annual income of
$12,000,000. Prince Gaikwar, as he is
known, asserts his democracy by a
comparatively modest college exist
ence, and an attitude of good fellow
ship which has already made him
popular among Harvard men.
Among the many heirs to vast for
tunes who have attended Harvard, the
future rajah of Gaikwar can probably
boast of the most fabulously wealthy
father.
To-day the maharajah's public rev
enues reach a total of $0,000,000 a
M
Jaisingrao Gaikwar, Heir to Indian
Province.
year, while his private resources are
said to bring him as much more.
The education of the young ruler to
American ways is but a step in the
revolution of the Baroda state.
Born of a race which once delighted
in most inhuman cruelty, the gaikwar
of Baroda now seeks to give his peo
ple the best that modern civilization
of the west has to offer. He comes
from fighting ancestry, being a de
scendant of that great Mahratta sol
dier^ Damaji Gaikwar. His title,
Shamsher Bahadur, was won by that
warrior at the battle of Bellapore, at
the end of the seventeenth century,
when the imperial army of Delhi was
defeated. The title was conferred by
the shahu raja of.Satara in admira
tion of his bravery.
He is fond of the theater and of the
usual freshmen amusements, but never
allows pleasure to interefere with his
college studies.
He declares that American prosperi
ty is the result of one of the most
equitable forms of government in the
world, and he hints that the future
progress of Baroda will owe much to
the example which is held up by this
country.
While the prince could have half a
dozen automobiles at his command and
enjoy the most sumptuous luxuries
ever conceived by a college student,
he is entirely averse to things of that
sort.
Every morning at eight o ciock ne
rolls out of bed in a very plebeian
manner and ducks into his bath in a
scramble to reach the lecture room
before roll call.
College he 'ikes. He says that he
enjoys it as much as anyone else, anil
from the large number of friends that
he has already acquired it is safe to
say that the prince is liked by the
college.
In personal appearance Prince Gaik
war is olive-complexioned, with oval
face, plump cheeks, lips a little thick
er than those of the average Ameri
can, and with luminous, dark eyes. He
is slightfy undersized in height, but us
ually carries himself erect and square
shouldered.
Prince Jaisingrao's studies at Har
vard have been selected with a vie"
to the responsibilities which will t;|ll
to him when he returns to the fat
east. As the elder son he is fitting
himself to carry on the work of ruling
the destinies of the 3,000,000 subjects
over whom his father is now absolute
ruler.
In the '70's Mulhar Rao, gaikwar,
spent enormous sums of money upon
contests of athletes and animals. He
was passionately fond of cruel sports
in which the lives of men were endan
gered, and personally superintended
the arrangements that concerned
them. Elephant fights and rhinoceros
lights were of almost daily occurrence.
He kept in his courts many perfect
athletes, celebrated throughout the
whole of India, and wrestlers who came
from the Punjab and Trabancore.