I Was With Mrs. Joyce In One Scene
Of Her Pantomime, "John Smith," Which Was Far And Away The Best Part
Of The Entertainment.
Mrs. Joyce was charming, and showed us what a
really fine actress she is.
The enlisted men went to laugh, and they
kept up a good-natured clapping and laughing from first to last.
It was surprising that so many of the Sun River and ranch people came,
for the night was terrible, even for Montana, and the roads must have
been impassable in places. Even here in the post there were great
drifts of snow, and the path to the theater was cut through banks
higher than our heads. It had been mild and pleasant for weeks, and
only two nights before the entertainment we had gone to the hall for
rehearsal with fewer wraps than usual. We had been there about an
hour, I think, when the corporal of the guard came in to report to the
officer of the day, that a fierce blizzard was making it impossible
for sentries to walk post. His own appearance told better than words
what the storm was. He had on a long buffalo coat, muskrat cap and
gauntlets, and the fur from his head down, also heavy overshoes, were
filled with snow, and at each end of his mustache were icicles
hanging. He made a fine, soldierly picture as he brought his rifle to
his side and saluted. The officer of the day hurried out, and after a
time returned, he also smothered in furs and snow. He said the storm
was terrific and he did not see how many of us could possibly get to
our homes.
But of course we could not remain in the hall until the blizzard had
ceased, so after rehearsing a little more, we wrapped ourselves up as
well as we could and started for our homes. The wind was blowing at
hurricane speed, I am sure, and the heavy fall of snow was being
carried almost horizontally, and how each frozen flake did sting!
Those of us who lived in the garrison could not go very far astray, as
the fences were on one side and banks of snow on the other, but the
light snow had already drifted in between and made walking very slow
and difficult. We all got to our different homes finally, with no
greater mishap than a few slightly frozen ears and noses. Snow had
banked up on the floor inside of our front door so high that for a few
minutes Faye and I thought that we could not get in the house.
Major Pierce undertook to see Mrs. Elmer safely to her home at the
sutler's store, and in order to get there they were obliged to cross a
wide space in between the officers' line and the store. Nothing could
be seen ten feet from them when they left the last fence, but they
tried to get their bearings by the line of the fence, and closing
their eyes, dashed ahead into the cloud of blinding, stinging snow.
Major Pierce had expected to go straight to a side door of the store,
but the awful strength of the wind and snow pushed them over, and they
struck a corner of the fence farthest away - in fact, they would have
missed the fence also if Mrs. Elmer's fur cape had not caught on one
of the pickets, and gone out on the plains to certain death.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 120 of 213
Words from 61739 to 62322
of 110651
