Jasper Weekly Courier, Volume 48, Number 38, Jasper, Dubois County, 1 June 1906 — Page 6

SAN FRANCISCANS OWE MUCH TO THE KHAKI-CLAD REGULARS SAVED LIVES OF THOUSANDS AND MUCH PROPERTY

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History Records No More Heroic Fitfht Against Desperate Odds Than That Made by the Soldiers From the Presidio Under General Funston.

(?; "rial Corres-pondence.) Rani! ':as I nited States army been oiille.l upon to wag war upon Nature iu her wrath, but th San Francisco earthquake disaster offered the ftMft port nt .-11 t.u'.e of the at my of a great nati m in anion. From the hour when Uli earliest heavings and quaklngs of the earth began on the morning of April 18 tirril the present hour Cen. Funston and his men have been nhtinK a winnine fight w i:h the titanic cestui, forces of the nether worlil. followed by patient, determined campaign against the laless !i-.-i n uf the human race anl the panic fear of I stampeded populace. 1". inake shock and lire! What possibilities of horror and despair the thought of these two phenomena contains? Let one imagine himself .standing at a vantage point amid the falling

I the Impossible attempt to rescue helongings. Example is contagious, und I it was necessary to keep nre-uia 1 folk out of the area of definition It was ! not projHr or possible to leave It ! to their option whether or not to put their lives in jeopardy. The oaahlci

of bank attempted to enter the tottering, smouldering ruins of his institution to secure some papers. The sentinel halted him and forbade him to pass. He refused to obey, ran by the sentry, and was shot. It seems cruel, but such incidents restrained others perhaps many and thereby prevented loss of life. Hence It was humanity. In a short time the panic stricl.en learned that martial law was inflexible, but kin J: that the hand of federal authority was stretch1 1 out to soothe and relieve, not to smite: that above all one must halt when, the man with the rifle on his shoulder said Halt:Within a few minutes of the time that the troop of cavalry deployed in front of the Palace hotel several companies of regular infantry, armed with axes. fr service as pioneers, arrived In the business 'list riet. The presence of these grim, inflexible regulars was to the affrighted populace like a cool hand upon the brow of a fever patient. It helped calm the panic of the people to see the Midlers faring the lire as if it were a human foe. directing the mnvcm-'n!f the refugees and bringing order out of chaos. Wh it does not Bai Francisco ami the United States owe to the army for its work during the fire? Had there been no train d body of fighting men, disciplined to obey orders Implicitly, yet liscriminatingly and with comm. m sense, to put duty before everything, even before life Itself, there wouid have been a

Guardian of City.

There has been unlimited criticism of the national guardsmen and they have been compared unfa vorab! v with their regular comrades. This Is uot altogether fair. The California national guard-men have the making of splendid soldiers. They are not veterans now, and It would take a long campaign to make them so. They were gathered up from the farm. th-. workshop, mill, office and university, und pushed Into the smoke and confusion under conditions more tryiug than battle, and told to be as steady and show as ripe judgment is the regulars. Like young recruits oa outpost In a louely land, there were times when the temptation to hear the sound of their own rifles was greater than they could withstand. Most of the stories of wanton shooting on the part of any of the trx)ps proved, however, on being run down, to hare originated In the superheated Imagination of somebody unused to the severity of military regime. It is a shock to a free, se'.fgoverning American city to suddenly see all law. all government, concentrated in the person of a young man with magazine rifle, pacing across the street, stopping vehicles, pedestrians, civil officials, and all. and directing the com. im and going ot all classes with Impartiality. It give the average citizen a peculiar and jerhaps not altogether an agreeable t-en-sation to hive this yui:j trail shout "Fall in there, you. with the working squad," and be made to contribute hie services for half a day or more to the general good, unremuuerated A bank president's son does not like tc be directed by a mill hand with a gun to take a broom und clean up a furlong or so of sidewalk or remove the debris of a brick building with s coal fchovel.

ashes and smothering smoke of perishing Pompeii or Herculaneum. Let him imagine the tide of refugees, stripped of all h iman attributes but the primal instinct r.f self-preservation, madly hurrying along the avenues of then doomed city, ferociously struggling with each other to make their way throK-h the narrow streets Then imagine the jostling mass suddenly cleft by a column of l.haki-clad troopers, bluc-shirted sentinels flung out on every i mer. skirmish lines interceptlog with bayonets the human tide to keep i: from flowing down the most perilous streets and byways. Think of the United States army, tbrouub lis signal eorps. its quartermaster department and medical service, rushing the fnntlc I'oiup lians, in tugs, launches, ferry-boat, automobiles, esrort w igons. Doughertys and anibulan -es, out from the smother and foul ga away from the to;t-ring waits, the burying ash. into the grefn, understated fields of the country.-ide, ac.ro; . friendly arms of the tea. keeping up the Samaritan work, day and night, until, alter a week of such battle as even the defenders of Ba iajos might be or m 1 of. the soldiers, who had never

chance 1 their clothes, never uula ed their Itggtikgi during the whole terrible time, hardly had snatched cne hour s aleep in 48 or stopped even to wipe tne sweat from their grimy faces, saw old Vesuvius stand smoking in rullen, Bai.; uant but futile wrath, cheated of all but a few hundred perhaps a thousand victims. Instead of the tens of th'ni-ands whom the demon of the earth caverns had hoped to claim, tmnpine not only this, but the American tune, If dperate feats of dynamiting Imperiled palaces and blowins: down menaced villas, checking the onward rush of conflagration, and finally defeating parent Nature in her work of destroying her children. Let 'tie picture all this to himself, and then, with a slight change in the ge'ting of the scene he will have an adequate Idea of how the United States regulars fought to save the people ot San Francisco and the remnant of Ihelr city. The shocks legan to heave the foundations Of the city at precisely Itll cn the morning of April IK. It was 131 years ago that night that Paul Revere started on his ride that roused the minute men ot Sandy Middlesex. Loncfellow was a prophet whn he wrote: In hrur of darknes and prll and nd Mi people shall waken, anl llM' ii to hear The hurry in hoof -beat ot that st'ed. and the midnight m age of l'aul lie vera." Soldiers' Presence a Blessing. It was a Godsend to the people of Ban Francisco that 4,(HX) soldiers were quartered at the Presidio, so near st hand. No human police force, of any city, no matter hew brave and efficient Its personnel, how splendid its discipline and organization, could have coped ibBM with such a situation. The work of ghouls and looters had to be anticipated bh reckoned with. Before? the day of disaster had grown hardly three hours older plunderer nnd despoilers of the dead met sudden death at the hands of the soldiers. N questions were askd. no chance for an explanation were given Judgment was grim and summary. It was only by resolute sternness that loss of lite could be curtailed. People would rush into the very ogre of fire in

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PECK'S BAD BOY WITH THE CIRCUS

By HON. GEORGE W. PECK A i ot' Pck bJ Bj Acroad." Ftc.

One of the Relugee Camps.

I iry of horror from San Franc such as would have appalled the ages. Civil law would have been Impotent, crime unchecked. Looting would h ve Lecome an Industry, ravishing and murder pastimes. No hand but the strong hand of the army could have held the bestial passions of the criminal element In check. Praise for Men of the Navy. In praising the regulars li must not be forgotten that the term applies generlcally to the mew ot the navy as well is the army, and that navy Includes marine corps. To Capt. McBride, of the navy, and the men from Mare Island navy yard Is due c redit for the work of wrecking the eastern sb!e of Van Ness avenue, the grewsome work of "blazing a trail" which stopped the flames at that thoroughfare These men, veterans In the handling of high explo

sives, experts at destruction, worked throughout Thursday night. April 19, ' torpedoing alike the palaces of millionaires, aristocratic apartment hotels, ) business blocks ind churches. The destruction of these buildings, whb-h would have leen a crime of colossal magnitude In ordinary times, proved ! to be the sacrifice that saved the pleasant residence district of Pacific Heights and the western addition, the beau l-j ful regions around Golden Gate park. from being obliterated, and with them i the last träte of the once proud city j of San Francisco. A battalion of youthful sailors from the training station at Goat island was among the first regulars sent to the' relief of the burnln.r city. Fresh from the drill ground, they appeared in all the ship-shape smartness of new legKings, white duck trousers, natty blue Jackets and soft skull-caps. They were so tilm and neat appear ine that it did not seem at times as If they could be the real thing, but they were. With them came the far famd handy man," the "Jolly, -' "soldier nd saii r, too," the United States marine, with laurels from (iuantanamo. Tieft! n and Samar, to which he added the credit which long suntnlned rnd trying duty under distressful conditions deserves, and to him. aa well as to his soldier and sailor brethren will the people or the New San Francisco some day dedicate a monument.

Requisitioned for Work.

A salesman traveling out of San Yanclsco returned immediately upon hearing of the catastrophe, to succor his aged parents. He found UmM homo destroyed, the family vanished. Frantically he searched the crowds packed in the parks snd vacant lota, Suddenly a soldier in one of the streets barred his way. "Fight Are!" "I can't. I am searching for my aged parents. They havo ulsappeared." "Fight fire!" was the still stern-r mandate. Again the MnlthCf p ed. The sentry lowe.cd hi; run ail the breei h bolt snlgged menacingly. "Fight Are!" "O, yes, 111 tight fire, willingly!" exclaimed the exhatt te n::tn. and Tir 4$ hours he work.- l with tt.e firemen, volunteers and "In volunteers," if one may coin the won!, snatching a moment's repose beneath the frucks when the work lagged. After tw days, with a crowd cf fellow workers, he was released, f miebody who küew of Ms mission suggested that his folks might have been taken to Oakland by the authorities. He started Q m ferry. By the time the Oakland mols a neared he fought h's way to the bow of the boat. The Instant before th gate was raised be 'ooked lies! le him, There in the press at his elbow stood bis aged father and m -rh-r. hm in hand. The soldier wV ped hint to fight Are bad leen the means of hi finding his parents. ALI) ICE QOULD FAMES.

How the Old Man Subdued the Indians with an Electric Battery and Phosphorus He Tries His Hand at Roping s Steer The Disastrous Result. Gee. bot 1 thought pa wa all In when I closed my last letter. aen the Indians had him bound on a board, and had lighted a fire and were Just going to broil him. Jealousy Is bad enough in a white man. but v-hen an Indian gets Jealous of his sipiaw there is going to be something doing, and wnen a w hole tribe gets Jealous of one old man, 'cause he has taught the squaws to be Independent, and rise up as one man against the tyranny of their husbands, that white man is not safe, and as pa lay there waiting for

' ilka a llgbtntng bug. and told ber to go snd fall on pa a remain and yell nmr der. The IndiaL had started to grab 1 pa and put him on the tire when pa turned on the battery and the big chief i got a dose big enough for a whole : flock of Indians, and all who touched , pa got a ahoi-k, and th 'y all fell back ni i t .a ' ' ! K aid just ttu i! the siiuaw with the phosphorua on h r svstem camo running nut and he fell across pa's remains, and he shone so you could read fine print by the ligat she gave, and that settled It with the tribe, cause they all laid down flat and were at pa's mercy. Pa pushed the illuuminated squaw away, and went around and put his foot on the neck f tack Indian, in token of his absolute mastery over them, and then he lade them arise, and he told them he bad only done these things to show then the power of the great father j over his children, and now he would reveal to them his obje t in coming amongst them, and that was to engage M f the best Indians, and 20 of the best squaws, to Join our gnat show at an ei.onn u- salary, and be ready In two weeks to take the road. The Indians were delighted, and began to quarrel about who should go with the show, and to quiet them pa said he wanted to shake hands with all elf them, ami they lined up. and pa took the strongest wire attached to the battery In his pistol pocket, and let it run up under his coat and down his sleeve. Into his right band, and that

The Chief s Knees Knocked Together.

(he fire to get hot enough for them to lay him on the coals. I lelt almost like er cause 1 didn't want to take pa's remains back homo so scorcbnd tha they wouldn't be an ornament to Ödet?, so I went up to pa's couch to j get bis instructiots as to our future course, when he. should be all in. I said. "Pa. this is the most serious cao- you have et mixed up in. 0. ; wimmen. how you do ruin mcu v ho put their trust in you." Pa winked at me. and said: "Never you mind me. Hennery. I will ciime out of this scrape and have a.l the Indians on their knees in les than an hour, begging ni pa-dm .' and theu a whispered to nu, and 1 went, to pa's valise and got an eieetric battery and put it in pa's pocket and scattered copper wires all around pa a : body, and Axed it so pa could t ich a button tnd turn on a charge of electricity that would paralyze an elephant, ami thn I cot ?omn ma'cfies ! an 1 tuek the phosphorus off and p it It all over pa'- face an 1 hands and clot lies, and as it became dark and the '

was the way he shook hands wTh them. I thought I would die laughlhK. i'a took a posit UM, like a president at a New Year's reception, and shook hands with the tribe one at a time. Tne old chief came first, and pa grasped his hand tight, and the chief stood on his toes and bis knees knocked together, his teeth chattered, and he danced i can can while pa held on to bis han l and squeezed, but he finally let go and the chief wiped ha hand on a dog. and the dog got some Of the electricity and ki yled to beat the Land. Then pa shook hands with everybody, and they all went through the same kind of performance, and were scared silly at the supernatural power pa seemed to have. The squaws seemed to get more electricity than the btic'.t Indians, 'err;- - pa squeezed harder, and the way they danced and cut up didoes wou 11 make you think they , bad bfeti drlnkinn Finally pa touched them all with his magic wand, and ti-n th y pr pa:..i .t f -a.-t and celel rated their engagement to go with the circus, and we pa. ked up and got

Pa Only Touched the High Places

phosphorus began to shine, pa was a tight He looked like moonlight on the lake, and 1 got the cowboy nnd the big ::ame hunter and the educated Indian to get down on their knees around pa. and chant somethincr that VMM sound terrible to the Indians Th n! thing In the way of a chant tha all of them could chant was the foothail tune. "There'll M a Hot Time In the Old Town To-night." and we were whooping It up over pa's Illuminated remains when the Indians came out to put pa cn the Are. and when thev saw the phosphorescent glow all over him. and his face looking as though he was at ieae with all the world, and us whites on our knees, making motions and singing that hot dire "hey all turned pah, and were scat-d, and thy fell back reverently, an 1 gazed fixedly at poor pa. who was winking at us. and whispering to us to keeh It up. and we did. The old chief was the Arst to recover. an". he saw thst something had tn be don pretty quick, so he talked Indian to some of the hrtvea, and I lipped away and put tome phosphorus all over a aauaw, and ab looked

ready to go to a cattle round up the next day at a ranch outside the Indian reservation, where pa was to engage some cowboys for the show. As we left the headquarters on the reservation the next morniog all the Indiana went with us for a few miles, cheering us, and pa waved his hands to thm and said, "bless yon. me children." and looked so wisa, and so good, and great ha: I was proud of him. The squaws throw kisses at pa and when we had Ml them and had got out of sight, pa said, "Those Indians will give the aquaws a walloping when they get back to camp, but who ran blame thm for falling In love with the great fata er." and then pa winked, and pat spur, to his pony and we rode across the mesa, looking for other worlds to conquer. On the way to the ranch where we were to meet the cowboys and engage enough to make the show a success, the cowboy pa had along told pa av it might be easy enough to fool Indans with the great father dodge, and the edectrle battery, and all thM. but wlen he struck a mess of cowloya he would fin I a differ-:.. proposl'lon. 'raus be

couldn't fool cowboys a Kttit 11 i said If I waa going to hire 00 he had got to be a oowUy himself if he couldn't rope steers he w. have to learn, 'cause OOWbOft, If were to ba led In the show by would want bun to be pp-pan d .- r anything that had four feet. p wnile he didn't claim to be an c he had done some roping, and throw a lasso, and while he di ways catch tlo m by the f. ct w! tried to. he got (ho rope over somewhere, and if the bor e he knuw its business he ultimahis steer, ami be would be .show the boys what he could do. We got to th. cow camp in ' dinner, and our cowboy lntrod to the cowboys around the chuck w on. and told them pa was an boy who had traveled the Tex pom ago. and was one of the horsemen In the business, a Bat of a show hat was adding a wild v department and wanted to hire i more of the best ropers and rid. rlarge salaries, to join the show that pa considered himself the I mate successor of Buffalo BUI money was no object. Well, the I were tickled to meet pa. and OOflM they had heard of him when ha roping rattle on the frontier, and tickled pa. and they smoked clj;ar. and finally saddled up and began t rand calves and rope cattle to them where they belonged, each ent brand of cattle being driven a different direction, and we ha I mos interesting free show of Lu. hersea and roping cattle I ever Pa watched the boys work for a time and complimented them. Of cized them for some error, until 11 crazy spirit seemed to get Into 1 and be thought he could do It as ore! as any of the boys, and be told cowboy that whenever the boys p c tireJ he would like to get or. a l skin iKiny that one of the m: riding, and show them that vb : little out of practice he could Stand i steer on Its head, and get off his ! and tie the animal in a few : beyond the record time I told pa be better hire a nan to it for him, but he said. "Hennery. I Is where your pa has got to make p or these cowboys won't affiliate. V take my watch and roll, 'cause r.o i can tell where a fellow will land tTl he gets his steer." snd I took pa's uables and the boys brought up buckskin horse, which smelled of and snorted, and didn't seem to v. pa to get on. but they celd the h;-. by the bridle, and pa finally got 1, . self on both sides of the horse, :. took the lariat rope off the pommel the (addle and began to handle it. kind of awkward, like a boy with a riot!. -UM I didn't like the way the cow boys winked around among them selves and guyed pa. and I told i i aboL it, and tried to get him to it up. but he said. "When I get no steer tied, and stand with my foot a . his neck, these ylnking cowboys 0901 take ft their bats to me all right I am Long Horn Ike. from the Urazos and ou vat h my smoke." Wi il. the boys tightened up the c n h on pp's saddle, and pointed out a rar.g black steer In a bunch down on th flat, and told pa the game was to cut tha steer out of the bunch, an 1 r it. BBS tie it. and hold up his r hand for the time keeper to record I Gee. but pa spurred the nurse, and fl : into that bunch of cattle like a wl wind, and I was proud of him. a: cut out the black steer all rlglr rode up nar it. and swung his snd sent It whizzing through th and the noose went out over the and neck and fore feet of the sie the horse stopped and set itselt on ha haunches, and the ro; around the belly of the steer, and I the rope became taut, and th ought to have Leen turned bottom I up the cinch of pa's saddle brake. I ' saddle came off with pa hugging h i legs around it, and tht black iteeC started due west for Texas, gallop;!. g anil bclkiwing. and yot' couldn't see ps and the saddle for the dust they n.a.ie following the eteer. If pa had let go of the saddle, he would have stopped, but he hung to It, and the rope watieil to the saddle. The buckskin hoi relieved of the saddle iooked around at the cowboys as much as to say. "wouldn't that skin you." and wen1 I gra; ng, the other cattle looked on as though they would aajr. "Aaother tender''Mt gone wrong." and as the black teer and pa and the saddle went 01 a hill, pa only touching the high places, the boss rowboy ssid. "Come on and help head off the ster, and sen. I a wagon to bring back the remains I I Lon Horn Ike from the Brazos, ' an then I began to cry for pa.

Boy Tries to Wreck Flyer. Cincinnati Samuel Sweeney, 1 years old, who lives nar Junction Citv. Ky.. is under arrest on the charge of attempting to wreck Queen t Crescent's Florida specla . whlrh passes his home dally. A knnrklc from a patent freight car had wen saddled across the track by the youngster and the heavy train was raved by a track walker, who ibieovMl It Just In time. Detectives lay in wait at the spot, supposing that t perpetrator wonld return, as he had not been apprehended. The b.j i bis appearance next day with another of the knuckles and was arrested. He was taken to Stanford, where his trial was held recently At the place whero the wreck was attempted Is one of th steepest embankments along the road

Collar Town. Teacher Tommy, can you tell m anything about Helen of Troy? Tommy -Sure. She lived In Troy on de- Hudson river, an' supported he widowed mudoer aa" little brudJer b work in In a collar factory .-Chicago Dally Nowt