Trooper Tales — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Recruit in the Black Cavalry. 19 black recruit to answer back a white commissioned offi- cer, who was so wet and ugly. Sadie was enough of a soldier to know this. He stood at attention and saluted gracefully every time his superior officer finished a sen- tence. After that he was placed under a guard. ‘The sentry who had done an extra hour for the recruit the night before was Sadie’s friend for life. This was brought about because the second plump pullet had also been broiled at dawn. ‘The two friends conferred together during the first hour of the recruit’s incarcera- tion. | > 99 “Ah mos’ cert’ny feels strong dis a-mawnin’,” observed the black boy. “Dat Spanish chickum did mos’ glori- fusly do her duty by a-me. But Ah had to gibobah mah shootin’ ir’ns to dat Gawd-a-fearin’ cawpril. What foh does yoh s’pose he dun wanted to make trouble foh a-me dat away? . . . Is de troop dun a-gwine up de hills ‘dis a-mawnin’ ?” The prisoner was told that all the horses were to be kept back with one troop to guard them—that the others were going to start up toward the city as dough boys early in the afternoon—that there were a half dozen dough-boy regiments farther up the hills—that there were acres of block houses and miles of barb-wire fences and trenches, and a whole Spanish army hidden some- where within the sound of cannon—that the American fleet was laying off the coast in front of Santiago, and that the Spanish squadron was behind Castle Morro in comicbooks: co