Show FEW QUIT AT CHRISTMAS there are few desertions from the a before christmas and the company commander is almost as sure of holding his men gh the holi days as the sunday school teacher is I 1 of having an overflowing class until the bespangled candle lit tree has been pruned ot its gifts A recruiting sergeant is responsible for the statement concerning christ and desertions aren t men apt to desert their gar ansons at this time to get to their homes for the holidays 9 he was asked no replied the sergeant whose many service stripes several of which had the white edging to indicate actual field service in the islands indicated that he might be relied upon as an au then he it this way you see the man who has got a home that s fit to go to on christmas or any her time wouldn t have the nerve to go to it as a deserter be cause his folks would be respectable and they w t have any use for a man who had run away from the army then again the man who has a sort of hankering to get to his own home must have a streak of decency in him that wouldn t let him desert and the fellows who just take the hoi days as a time for a lot to eat wouldn t desert now for you can t beat a cook on roasting turkey and baking mace pies we re great eaters in the arav on christmas it doean doesn t make much difference whether we re round new york or on the plains or in the islands that Is the philippines every company has its holiday beast we did miss one christmas dinner in the seventh cavalry though that was about 1890 when we had a fight with the sioux on wounded knee creek the fight gasn wasn t on christmas but two or three days later although tor a beeb we had been ejecting it that was in the bad lands and our new years day we spent in digging enough graves in the frozen ground tor 29 of the cavalry who were killed that a fair fight it was treachery after surrender we had captured about bucks and were disarming them there were nearly as man more squaws hanging around w h rifles hidden under their blankets tl p medicina man was mumbling sone hins all the time which dian didn t so nd well but nobody really expect ed a then but finally that medicine man stooped down scraped up a 1 fr sand and threw it in the clr wag the signal in an instant bu and squaws fell on us with knives binl guns for 20 minutes it wis hand to hand and with muskets clubbed that s when we lost oui 29 men so that holiday seab n on wounded knee creek gasn wasn t inn h v christmas and happa sew adai soil of a time but take it year in and yead out ohp soldier chasn t any fusa mak inthout bl |