Faye Was Made Post Quartermaster And Commissary As Soon As He Reported
For Duty Here, And Is Already Hard At Work.
The post is not large, but
the office of quartermaster is no sinecure.
An immense amount of
transportation has to be kept in readiness for the field, for which
the quartermaster alone is held responsible, and this is the base of
supplies for outfits for all parties - large and small - that go to the
Yellowstone Park, and these are many, now that Livingstone can be
reached from the north or the south by the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Immense pack trains have to be fitted out for generals, congressmen,
even the President himself, during the coming season. These people
bring nothing whatever with them for camp, but depend entirely upon
the quartermaster here to fit them out as luxuriously as possible with
tents and commissaries - even to experienced camp cooks!
The railroad has been laid straight through the post, and it looks
very strange to see the cars running directly back of the company
quarters. The long tunnel - it is to be called the Bozeman tunnel - that
has been cut through a large mountain is not quite finished, and the
cars are still run up over the mountain upon a track that was laid
only for temporary use. It requires two engines to pull even the
passenger trains up, and when the divide is reached the "pilot" is
uncoupled and run down ahead, sometimes at terrific speed. One day,
since we came, the engineer lost control, and the big black thing
seemed almost to drop down the grade, and the shrieking of the
continuous whistle was awful to listen to; it seemed as if it was the
wailing of the souls of the two men being rushed on - perhaps to their
death. The thing came on and went screaming through the post and on
through Bozeman, and how much farther we do not know. Some of the
enlisted men got a glimpse of the engineer as he passed and say that
his face was like chalk. We will not be settled for some time, as Faye
is to take a set of vacant quarters on the hill until one of the
officers goes on leave, when we will move to that house, as it is
nicer and nearer the offices. He could have taken it when we came had
he been willing to turn anyone out. It seems to me that I am waiting
for a house about half the time, yet when anyone wants our house it
is taken at once!
For a few days we are with Lieutenant and Mrs. Fiske. They gave us an
elegant dinner last evening. Miss Burt and her brother came up from
Bozeman. This evening we dine with Major and Mrs. Gillespie of the
cavalry. He is in command of the post - and tomorrow we will dine with
Captain and Mrs. Spencer. And so it will go on, probably, until
everyone has entertained us in some delightful manner, as this is the
custom in the Army when there are newcomers in the garrison. I am so
sorry that these courtesies cannot be returned for a long time - until
we get really settled, and then how I shall miss Hang! How I am to do
without him I do not quite see.
FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY,
July, 1884.
THIS post is in a most dilapidated condition, and it - also the country
about - looks as though it had been the scene of a fierce bombardment.
And bombarded we certainly have been - by a terrific hailstorm that
made us feel for a time that our very lives were in danger. The day
had been excessively warm, with brilliant sunshine until about three
o'clock, when dark clouds were seen to be coming up over the Bozeman
Valley, and everyone said that perhaps at last we would have the rain
that was so much needed, I have been in so many frightful storms that
came from innocent-looking clouds, that now I am suspicious of
anything of the kind that looks at all threatening. Consequently, I
was about the first person to notice the peculiar unbroken gray that
had replaced the black of a few minutes before, and the first, too, to
hear the ominous roar that sounded like the fall of an immense body of
water, and which could be distinctly heard fifteen minutes before the
storm reached us.
While I stood at the door listening and watching, I saw several people
walking about in the garrison, each one intent upon his own business
and not giving the storm a thought. Still, it seemed to me that it
would be just as well to have the house closed tight, and calling
Hulda we soon had windows and doors closed - not one minute too soon,
either, for the storm came across the mountains with hurricane speed
and struck us with such force that the thick-walled log houses fairly
trembled. With the wind came the hail at the very beginning, changing
the hot, sultry air into the coldness of icebergs. Most of the
hailstones were the size of a hen's egg, and crashed through windows
and pounded against the house, making a noise that was not only
deafening but paralyzing. The sounds of breaking glass came from every
direction and Hulda and I rushed from one room to the other, not
knowing what to do, for it was the same scene everyplace - floors
covered with broken glass and hail pouring in through the openings.
The ground upon which the officers' quarters are built is a little
sloping, therefore it had to be cut away, back of the kitchen, to make
the floor level for a large shed where ice chest and such things are
kept, and there are two or three steps at the door leading from the
shed up to the ground outside. This gradual rise continues far back to
the mountains, so by the time the hail and water reached us from above
they had become one broad, sweeping torrent, ever increasing in
volume.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 88 of 109
Words from 88748 to 89765
of 110651
