The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

rent Joseph J Ivers Lawrence Money Hater,” “Playing the Man,” ete. Author of “The WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED ARTLEY STUART TRENT, a snobbish scion of wealth, was greatly annoyed at a disrespectful write-up in a newspaper when a poor man of the same name joined the 31st Infantry, N. G. N. Y. He resoived to make his numble namesake a man of position and wealth or, if the fellow refused such gracious largess, to break him. Hartley Stuart Trent, the poor man, scornfully rejected the rich man’s offer; whereupon the other, acting through a lawyer, deprived him of his position and alco managed to make his military experience unpleasant. The poor Trent, however, was a fighter. He found a friend in Jack Ives, a regiment acquaint- ance, whose very attractive sister he had met. The sister thought she was engaged to “ Snookums ” Buckingham, a member of the aristocratic set, who really had no intention of marrying her. Trent, persecuted by a man named Hallock who actually attended to the details of the rich man’s scheme, lost job after job until he had not a penny left and had to walk the streets all night. He procured a breakfast of fish beside the Hudson River, and proceeded to the armory to look at the bulletin-board. A first sergeant asked him if he was free to do guard duty, as a declaration of war seemed imminent. The poor Trent replied: “T can shoulder a gun and shoot, and I can assure you that it won’t interfere with my business.” CHAPTER XI. IN UNIFORM. “7~O and get into uniform then,” ordered the sergeant. “ If you can stay on the job, you can have a cot to sleep on in the company room, and there’s a cook on duty in the mess kitchen who will feed you. You'll be on duty two hours, and off four hours, and you can go outside the armory if you want to, so long as you are here for your tour every time.” Trent, listening to the instructions 4 little doubtfully, brightened perceptibly at the mention of food and quarters. Those two details formed a solution of his most perplexing problem, and he lost no time in getting to the locker-room for his uniform and equipment. This story began in The As soon as he was ready, the first ser- geant turned him over to a corporal from another company. The latter ordered him to fall in with three other men, and they were marched to the street in front of the armory to relieve the men on guard. Trent’s post covered the eastern end of the large building, including the gateway and entrance for horses and wagons. The corporal instructed him to allow no one to loiter near the building, and to admit no one who had not the proper credentials. The new sentry shouldered his rifle and began his first two hours of monotonous patrolling with something very like elation. ‘He was now serving his country and State, actively engaged in an important duty; and even if there was to be no pay for him until the regiment was mustered into the Federal Argosy for December 15. 97 Comicbooe CO