Trooper Tales — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

THE DEGENERATION OF LADDIE. In trouble was his normal condition. Laddie was considerable of an artist in the first place, therefore he could not have found himself in a worse predicament than to be in Uncle Sam’s service. If his artistic nature had only been in his fingers, instead of his whole being, Lad- die might have found hapiness in the troop, for we all loved him. ) In that affected brain of his there was another dis- torted idea. He was possessed of the wild notion that he was as clever a chap mentally and with his muscles as any of his superior officers—oh! Laddie feared neither black man nor white. He had been in Porto Rico three months, and had enjoyed only ten days’ liberty. In spite of this handicap, the smiles of the richest and prettiest senoritas in Manati were for him solely, and I honestly believe that he had more friends among the natives than any other cavalryman. His was a genius for making friends. Three soldiers were standing on a mountain side just out of Ciales. It was early evening. Twenty miles away, through a rift in the mountains, they could see the Eomichooks