Show 4 flight ht on on the Field F For r nearly a week the hostile rain- rain clouds had kept posts out-posts stationed over the camp and they had poured in a fire upon anyone who ventured ventured ven ven- to hang his clothes and blankets out outto outto outto to to dry Once this morning they had ceased firing and had apparently retired to the reserve line away over to the westward west ward ward ward-by by the China Sea But it was only a ruse for when the blankets were thrown out but ut in iri the battery park the whole black host bore Dore down upon th them m opening opening opening open open- ing with heavy artillery at short range Therefore it was a gloomy sullen camp of fifteen thousand men that cursed the tropics under its breath while preparing to go goto to sleep between wet blankets Then too it was against orders to take your clothes off and this was the sixth day since the since the Johnnies had commenced to wear wear their trappings all the time time and and to grease instead of po polish ish their shooting- shooting irons because someone had discovered that a gun with plenty of grease greas on the barrel will shoot longer without getting hot One of the section tents had been lost lostin lostin lostin in landing on the Malate beach and some of us had to sleep out in the wet But we had our tarpaulins or ponc ponchos os as we called them and I had built me a bed of bamboo twigs over which I had stretched hed the poncho as a roof open at both ends it was true but able abl to keep off the rain Into Into Into In In- to this I crawled as the regimental bugles took up the melancholy song of slumber and lights out First was a gentle pleading pleading pleading plead plead- ing sort lullaby of song from across the road that led up to our advance line It came from a group of lighted tents scattered among the mango trees which we knew to be bethe the Provost headquarters As th the song was finished the big patch of forest became inky black for all the lights went out from the hundred tents The songs coon coon and the stories died half 1 uttered uttered and nd everything was very still 1 Then over to the right in the cane fields a avery avery a avery very aristocratic sort of bugle took up the Y 1 story with N Now to sleep to sleep doncher 3 kno awful sorry but I got to fellahs now to sleep seep I A And nd then the j Astor Battery camp became one with the the darkness around it Down toward towar the beach spoke up a a bugle an and it loudly bawled out with a a South of twang N Now ow key down all guys Stanford push aint all dis cheese so key And blackness reigned over the land of the first Californians In quick succession the bugles of the and and other regular regiments regiments' f olio folio wed one another They each sang the same song for they played strictly According ac according Ac- Ac c- c cording to regulation It was simply to sleep all all' lights out out that's that's the the- orders and youve you've got to do it all all' lights out Sharp and clear and confident confident confident con con- was the song for it knew it would be obeyed obeyed obeyed-it it always had been ob obeyed obeyed- and so so the fields behind us melted into the thickened cloud-thickened gloom Out of our lighted light light- ed guard tent stepped our own bugler With his form silhouetted against the the blacker night he sang for us our own lullaby which he had taught us over the the- ocean and over the ocean and away beyond be be- be- be yond yond where where Red Butte Canyon looks down over the Valley of the Great Salt Lake Battry Battery A slumber now and dream of the loves in Utah h. h slumber now And the whole of Camp Dewey was dark and black and all of its fifteen thousand soldiers were were officially asleep Behind my little shack a a lone sentry crouched low as he made his hi's way vay from the battery cook tent tent to the the big mang mango tree tre by the road U Unmindful nm o of the h storm th the fire flies fire flies flies' clustered ir in the tle S' S and all you could s see e w were were re their little lanterns arid all you could hear waS the lashing of the angered w waves waves ves upon the beach mingled with the spluttering of the rain lain upon the bronco In tune with the music wave wave music and the storm a womans woman's in the heart voice voice one one that used to sing of Gods God's Country Country beg began an old bId song For the ways are far a a and d ther theres there's s 's na naught g t tto to mar So sleep dears while you are are able Sleep my d darling children childre All in your olden cradle A maiden came strolling down North Temple Street with a lot of books under her arm Jimmy and I started a game of marbles under the shadow of the Tern Tem TempIe pie wall where the trye policeman wh who clears the street could couldn't t see us The sheets on oJ Mrs Claytons Clayton's clothes line began to flutter flutter flut- flut t ter tel and flap in the wind coming down F City Creek Canyon Louder and louder they flapped and louder yet no it was wasi i f not the clothes on the line it was the ff jr f Battle of Winchester t and Gen Sheridan was riding into the field Now he was wast t rallying the troops and they were cha charging chargI ging g- g I ing a and d shooting and yelling t Ge General eral Greene take me away General General General Gen Gen- eral Greene the Spaniards are coming theve blown up the battery the Pennsylvanians Penn Penn- are out of take me e away save av me The bed fell down under the leap I I gave in getting out A form A-form form fell over a aguy aguy guy rope lope of one of the tents a s sentry and andI I rushed thither It was a soldier without without with with- out hat belt coat or gun He was breathless breathless breath breath- less for it was three miles nearly to the outposts and he had run all the way in A wild sort of glitter in his eye visible even in the darkness told us we we had to todeal todeal todeal deal with an insane man one man one whose nerves nerves' had got the better bettel of him in his first baptism baptis of fire He had only one onedea dea idea and that was to keep running And it was no wonder for to the thee sky toward arc Manila was aflame with a spiteful glare and there was an awful noise like a thousand thousand thou thou- sand telegraphic instruments going to together together together to- to gether it was every now and then with deeper sounds like sledgehammer sledgehammer sledge sledge- hammer blows on a hollow tree Great Grent 1 lines of fire flared up from the beach spreading far inland and old Fort San SanI I Antonio on the shore sent up blasts of fire like a small volcano volcan in action I IYe's Yes Ye's Yes too as we watched other flashes flashes' appeared nearer appeared nearer too us and another t sort of thunder rolled through the mists It was a sound unlike any other mortal noise Only once before had we heard it it and that was in Utah when we were using sing old Betsy and T Jane ane and Sal to blow the top of the ridge between Red Butte and Emigration tion Canyon just Canyon just for target pr practice Then we knew that the Spaniards Spaniards Spaniards Span Span- weren't making all that fuss themselves themselves themselves them them- selves and a feeble cheer arose from th the forms that that- that straggled straggled out of every tent What a jumble of bugle songs now It isn't any quiet pleading its it's just a savage scream a wild scream scream and and the great i camp flashes up out of the darkness in a myriad of lights There is a tramping of pony hoofs as orderlies fly toward the j front Loud commands to put all lights out by order of General Green are are echoed and echoed re-echoed through the camp And then it all becomes dark ark agai again V Volunteers for the front t this is way lay and Ethan Allen great g grand song on of him hm who mixed things at TiC Ticonderoga d disappeared disappeared dis dis- s. s appeared in the d direction of the firing g line with a a. a following A low muffled cry half cry half cheer half shriek arose fro from the left A line of dar dai dark k shadows passed out of the California camp and we heard their bayonet scabbards s clicking agai againsT s the cartridges in their be belts ts as they di disappeared disappeared dis- dis appe appeared n d t toward ward the front 4 A AA series series of t t sharp s a loud counting off co com comb iL 1 d anies a business like like command to for ward march dou double lc time a rumble of a thousand feet rising and falling together falling together I and a regiment of regulars started up the ther r road ad a.d. With teeth chattering arms all knees knocking together and sl shivers ivers running up and down our spinal columns those of us who remained in camp watched the battle The loud cra cracking king of to the right light and the low h hissing of in front told us that the enemy enemy's s flanking party had been checked and that the Californians had hadre re reached ch d the front Soon everything commence commenced commenced com com- mence to blaze away together the theM M sers the the the fort fort- the battery and the the Spanish volley guns The front became one blaze blaz of fire and andone andone andone one hell of noise Then all of a sudden it itcea cea ceased ed like the end of an orchestras orchestra's tune in the theater just as the curtain goes up The sea commenced to howl again the rain and the wind redoubled their fury a gentle glimmer appeared in inthe inthe inthe the east for the dawn was coming and the night was over The he above sketch was written by Isaac Isaac- Russell an old U. U of U. U student and it appeared originally in the Stanford Sequoia |