Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1915 — Our Soldiers in Hawaii [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Our Soldiers in Hawaii

by KATHERINE POPE

HO taost Americans the United States army is an abstraction, the average citizen is dimly aware that stationed here and there in our wide domain there are groups of men wearing United States military uniforms, going through drills, and timing their hours at the call of the bugle. As a recent writer says of the average citixen: “He knows next to nothing about the army and doesn't take the trouble to find out anything. If an army or navy officer walked up Broadway in uniform, not one in a hundred of the passers-by in Gotham would know whether he was a taxi-cab starter or a head bellman.” But ’way off in the territory of Hawaii the army is no abstraction, it looms large. On Oahu, the island on which Honolulu is situated, more soldiers are stationed than are regularly located in any army post either in “The States” or in the Philippines. The 8,000 men there assembled are divided among six main posts; there are three regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, one of field artillery, eight companies of coast artillery, eight companies of engineers, and a field company of the signal corps. The names of the posts are as follows: Fort Ruger, Fort de Russy, Fort Armstrong, Fort Kamehameha. Fort Shafter, and Schofield barracks. Fort Kamehameha guards the naval base at Pearl harbor, stands sentinel down by the sea. Beyond and upon the tablelands, once a wide ranch country, stands Schofield barracks, where all arms of the service are represented. At an elevation of a thousand feet above sea level, with a plain spreading out from the Waianae range to the Koolau mountains, there is afforded a healthful home for the troops as well as a splendid practice and review ground. The barracks are over twenty miles from Honolulu, but as a railway crosses Leilehua plain, the soldiers can easily get in to the movies" and the other delights of town. It is a splendid location from the standpoint of health. The climate is cooler than in Honolulu, the air is much more invigorating. And the scenery is superb. Fort Ruger is considered one of the most interesting fortifications in the world. Diamond Head, the jutting headland that stands out so plainly to the eager voyager approaching Honolulu, is the center about which the fort clusters. Diamond Head is called an extinct crater, but since the “milingtary” put its seal on it, it has been roused to a new activity. Here is located a powerful mortar battery, and high on the headland a range station has been carved out of the solid rock. The gray old height has been bored into, and one reaches the inside of the bowl now by means of tunnel, steps and ladder. Only American citizens, however, are given this privilege. Townward* from Ruger is stationed Fort de Russy, with two big gun batteries. Then comes Fort Armstrong, which guards the entrance to Honolulu harbor. This fort has a mine-con-trol station and a small gun battery. Beyond, quite at the other end of town from the Diamond Head fortification, is located Fort Shafter, with an imposing array of permanent buildings and some motley temporary structures. Here is the department hospital, and here are stationed one infantry regiment, the engineer and signal troops. The pay roll for the troops exceeds |200,000 a month. Add to this the sums spent on military works, and one can easily see that to Hawaii the army stands for a good deal in addition to protection, it means ready money and steady money. Honolulu has a population of less than 60,000 souls, and the soldier boys, ever in uniform, fill a proportionally large place in the life of this picturesque port The open trolleys are filled and fringed with them, they haunt the bathing beaches, they are interested visitors and generous buyers at the curio shops, the kodak shops are their hunting grounds, and not a few are seen chaffing and bartering with the “lei” folk, the wreath makers and flower sellers. One of the features of Hawaii is the lei, a wreath of flowers or greenery worn on the hat or around the shoul-

ders. The lei makers, men and women, young and old, seatejj on mats on a shady, sidewalk deftly string their lets and as deftly dispose of their fragrant wares. The enlisted men of army and navy take to the Hawaiian lei as a duck |o water; it adds not a little to the gayety of the passing show that so many manly heads are crowned with carnation wreaths, so many tall lads in khaki are not ashamed of the picturesque Hawaiian custom. When a transport is in and the visiting soldiers are seeing the town, then the lei sellers reap a rich harvest, then the streets of Honolulu are very much alive, business is as brisk as the trade wind that blows down from the mountains. As to the effect on island life of the presence of the army, it goes without saying that there are good and bad consequences. In the interest of “keeping things up” It is a pretty good thing to have such a lot of people about whose white clothes are so very white, whose shoes are so shiny, whose apparel and accoutrements are so well brushed and well put on. It is good for beholder and beheld, there is a moral value to it as well as to the soldierly posture of chest up, chin In. Taken as a whole, taking into consideration this huge body of familyless men, the soldiers impress the Honolulu folk as remarkably well behaved. Rudeness to women on street cars or street is seldom noticed; on the other hand, the men in khaki display old school courtesy in public that it is heartening to find surviving. And courage as well "as courtesy has come to the fore in the army’s residence in Hawaii. Life-saving at the beach again and again, is the record; quick and heroic action in times of emergency. And daring rescue work in the mountains, is to the credit of the soldier in those mountainous islands out there at the crossroads of the Pacific. Does the army like Hawaii? Yes, and no. Would ever 8,000 people be unanimous in approval of anything? Officer and officer’s wife with experience ,of the heat and lassitude of the Philippines, vote Hawaii delightful, wish their term of service there might be lengthened. Enlisted men fresh from inland, midland regions are eager and enthusiastic at first Tirelessly they tramp the narrow streets of the oriental quarter, peer into the little shops with frank curiosity: with frank curiosity stare at kimonoed Japanese and trousered Chinese maidens, enjoy trying to make acquaintance with the doll-like Oriental babies that overrun the sidewalks, with relish attack the Hawaiian mango, with somewhat less relish the Hawaiian pol and salmon. They throng the beaches, sport in the water themselves or seated on shore watch the natives after sea-moss, squid or shrimps. But in course of time the novelty wears off, they vote monotonous the constant sunlight, the myriad flowers, the good old summertime that never changes to the remembered frost and snap of their northern homes. They begin to complain that there’s nothing doing, begin to want to move on. For the deserter, Hawaii is a pretty difficult place. You can’t hide for

long, no matter how you change your name, your clothes and your job. They are sure to get you and take you away from mill village or pineapple field, from the wife and baby that you have attained In your role as civilian. And if you try escape by water, pursuit Is even quicker. For today there is that lightning nemesis, wireless, that will get you before you can reach, the next port. On a recent trip of the steamer “Matsonia” from Honolulu, just twenty-four hours out, a message came to the captain to look for two deserters that were known to be hidden somewhere on board. Search should be made for them at once, and if found they were to be transferred to the returning “Wilhelmina’’ Officers, stewards, everybody In the ship’s employ went on the hunt. Before long both men were found and were put into the “jail.” But one, a man of years of experience, a deserter from the United States army, got away andsecured in the ship’s dark corners a hiding place that was not ferreted out for days. Meanwhile the mina” was signaled; It halted, the two ships lay rocking there in the moonlight in mid-ocean while the rowboat carrying the lone stowaway bobbed over the waves and the lone stowaway was put aboard the vessel headed for the port of missing men. During this dramatic, flash-lighted incident, where was the United States deserter? Down in the hold among the bananas. In time thirst drove him out; he stole forth at noon when folk generally were at their food and drink. But the first officer was not so engaged; he was on the watch, and the deserter’s hours of freedom came to an end. At San Francisco an extra passenger had to be disclosed. Turning from deserters • to those that stand by, let us speak of the women of the army. Army women are noted for their adaptability, and their courage in situations where many women would weep and fall down. Transplanted thousands of miles to some new post, they arrive to find provided for them a row of whitewashed shacks or some eerie combination of canvas and boards. They cheerfully set to without loss of time, and presently the shacks are homes, pleasing and hospitable; presently the bare ground around the humble dwellings sports shrubs and blossoms, the whitewashed porches are wreathed in vines. The interiors of the homes show that the dwellers are citizens of the world; there are weapons and embroideries from the far East; there is the polished calar bash of Hawaii, Hawaiian mats cover the floors, Navajo blankets and cushions are piled on the couches; there are pictures and pottery bespeaking old civilizations, there are pictures and pottery of primitive man. Nowadays army residence in Hawaii has advanced beyond the shack and canvas stage, there is now a somewhat settled air at the various posts. Fort Shafter is established looking and neat and trim, the sizable buildings are surrounded by well-groomed lawns; there are well-made roads and walks. Schofield barracks is a considerable city in itself, does not look as though it could fold up its tent and steal away in a night. Fort Kamehameha is of no mushroom growth, and assuredly not so the naval station near by. Fort Armstrong seems anchored. Fort de Russy has an air of belonging on the sandy stretches by the sea. And on the edge of town, with the range station there on the top of old Diamond Head, Fort Ruger stands guard, a strong rock of defense.