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Image provided by: New York State Military History Museum
THE WADSWORTH GAS ATTACK a n d RIO GRANDE RATTLER 9 “ THE WEARING OF THE BLUE.” New H a t Cords Cause W eeping and Gnashing of Teeth Among Erstwhile Cavalry- . men, He couldn’t have been more than 21 or so—a m ere kid. B u t he slouched down the road past H e a d q u a rters like an aged man. In his once cherubic face there were etched a thousand dry w rinkles, like those of a man who has passed through m any terrors. H is eyes w ere furtive, self-accusing. N e r vously he shifted his hat, averting his glance. H is once lovely h a ir had w h itened and the clever p a rt th a t was w o n t to cleave hack over the centre of his no longer pink scalp had vanished. Reggie? Reggie Van Rye, of E a s t Sixty- th ir d street, Beverly and Ormond Beach? To be sure! Reggie! B u t w h a t a change! W h a t terrible thing had been visited upon jolly old Reggie? “Old dear,” groaned Reggie as I gripped his fevered hand, “they’ve done it at last. A fter slipping our good nags over to the bal ly Rem o u n t we rath e r expected it was the beginning of the end, but—” Reggie began skidding. H is voice choked up on him and he bowed his head—possibly to hide from me a tear or so. “Forgive me, old m an,” he gulped once, he had regained him self. “It has me by the throat. Did you see it—-see it on my hat? G h astly; w h a t? Blue, old dear, blue as blue and I’m afraid its going to break the good old sp irit of a lot of the chaps back there in the cavalry. By jove, I ju s t can’t bring m y self to say m achine gunners, somehow. Good work, m achine guns and all th a t but there’s not the old sm artness, somehow or other. “As I say, we could stand the loss of our horses. Between you and me, old fellow, we thought they were spoofing us a bit; th a t they would send the jolly old beasts back to us. “But then they took our riding breeches— the breeches most of us had tailored our selves ; m o unted breeches some of the artil lery fellows called ’em. Then they took our currycom bs—even the im ported ones, and our spurs—crested ones and all. “L ittle by little they underm ined our fra ternity. It was a good bit like a frat, after all, old man, the troop. Our saddles and sabres, next. Yes, and then our pig-skin puttees. By jove, it m addens me, to think of it. See w h a t we wear now, instead. Look like ju s t anybody w ith these canvass and leather affairs on our legs. “B u t we managed to preserve our individ uality to a certain extent w ith our yellow h a t cords. We still had those. “B u t look! Look at us now ! Look at my dam ned hat! Look a t the cord! Blue! Doughboy blue. Who is to distinguish us now? W h at girl is going to pick us out of the crowd, now ? How could she? W e’re just like all the rest of the men now. I tell you, old fellow, it was hard, rotten hard ITZ KOMINOFF SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK IN RUSSIA. (In order th a t those of our readers who are planning to go to R u ssia on furlough may have no doubt as to who is in power at any tim e we will p r in t the official schedule for each week, furnished by our Vlodivlo- stock correspondent, Itz Kominoff. The schedule is subject to change by anyone a t a m om ent’s notice.) M o n d a y —Bolsheviki in power. Army to be reorganized and all officers and non-commis sioned officers destroyed. All mem bers of the K o inski (w ealthy class) owning property to the am o u n t of 1,000,000 kopecs ($2.67), will im m ediately be throw n into jail and their property taken by whoever happens to be chief of the Bolsheviki to be held in tru s t for the W o rking People. T u e s d a y —T rotup and Kanteroff, form erly of the K eith Circuit, organizing new party, nam e still uncertain, for the protection of the w o rking class. All members of the w o rk ing class will tu r n in all their money to the party leaders for which they w ill be is sued m em o randum receipts. The afternoon and it has just played hob w ith us, I can tell you. “We buried the dear old past, the other night. Oh, yes, buried it. Believe me, old fellow, we were fearfully attached to the old life. Had a regular funeral cortege or w h a te v e r you call it, you know. Jack Fitz- m a u rice played Chopin’s Funebre on his ukulele and some chap or other blew taps on his bugle. “We buried them all together—a yellow h a t cord, a pair of Bobbie Lexington’s spurs, a pair of my old puttees, an old troop cur rycomb and a few good old h a ir s out of Jim m y B a x ter’s thoroughbred’s tail. Jolly, w asn’t it? Rotten, really. Thanks, old man. Knew you’d sym pathize. So long.” And the broken youth slunk along, cling ing to the shadows. —'W. A. D. NIGHT IN CAROLINA. It’s night-tim e in Carolina, And the camp is wrapped in sleep; The w a n d e ring breezes whisper, The dusky shadows creep, The bugle notes m elt fast away, A farewell song to dying day, And then flash out, from chilly height, The sparks from God’s anvil, flaming bright. N ight throw s her nocturne tresses far To clasp them w ith a diam ond star; And then her silver dipper dips, To wash w ith dew w ith flush-red lips; Of golden sunset is her crown, W ith moonspun silver bound aroun,’ W hile, from the tip of each tiny spire, Burns the pure light of celestial fire. Thus, above the sleeping fort, Tim e’s dark beauty holds her court. A herald m eteor flashes by; W h a t is it?—a passing soul, Or ju s t stard u s t ^ across the sky. The m u rm ’ring grasses w h isper “Sleep,” Safe in the tender w atch they keep. W ith steady pace w alks the sentinel, The w o rld’s a t rest—all’s well. D. S t a n l e y B e a t t i e , Hdgts. Co, 105th Inf. “ WAY DOWN SOUTH IN GREENWICH VILLAGE.” A request has been m ade for the nam es and organizations of the men in the 27th Division residing in Greenwich Village, N. Y. City. A d d ress: F ir s t Sergeant E. Sulli van, Supply Company, 107th Inf., Camp W adsw o rth. has been set aside for a battle royal between the schzecks, the chzeks and the kszeks for the control of the governm ent on Thursday. W e d n e s d a y —New governm ent, headed by Lenine and Kerosene. This w ill be known as the Polular party and will he composed of six men. L ittle else is known about it. The regular W ednesday afternoon holiday will be observed for w ashing clothes and a general clean up. T h u r s d a y — The party w inning Tuesday’s battle royal will be in power. All lands of the K o iniski w ill be confiscated and divided up among the party leaders to be held in tru s t for the w o rking people. A committee of the IW W and the RSVP will m e et to con sider a separate peace w ith the Canary Is lands. F r id a y —The regular Friday afternoon co alition governm e n t has been called off on ac count of the shortage of coal. ' S a t u r d a y —B a ttle between the Cossacks and the Hassocks for the control of Ubbuk. This is the key to the entire situation as here are stored the W inter supply of sam ovars for the whole of Russia. • S u n d a y — R e g u l a r v / e e k l y d i s b a n d i n g of th e a r m y . — E . S.
