Vanished Arizona | Page 7

cognac before
dinner, but I had always considered that a sort of medicine for a man
advanced in years.
Taken all in all, it is not to be wondered at if I saw not much in those
few days besides bright buttons, blue uniforms, and shining swords.
Everything was military and gay and brilliant, and I forgot the very

existence of practical things, in listening to the dreamy strains of Italian
and German music, rendered by our excellent and painstaking orchestra.
For the Eighth Infantry loved good music, and had imported its
musicians direct from Italy.
This came to an end, however, after a few days, and I was obliged to
descend from those heights to the dead level of domestic economy.
My husband informed me that the quarters were ready for our
occupancy and that we could begin house-keeping at once. He had
engaged a soldier named Adams for a striker; he did not know whether
Adams was much of a cook, he said, but he was the only available man
just then, as the companies were up north at the Agency.
Our quarters consisted of three rooms and a kitchen, which formed
one-half of a double house.
I asked Jack why we could not have a whole house. I did not think I
could possibly live in three rooms and a kitchen.
"Why, Martha," said he, "did you not know that women are not
reckoned in at all at the War Department? A lieutenant's allowance of
quarters, according to the Army Regulations, is one room and a kitchen,
a captain's allowance is two rooms and a kitchen, and so on up, until a
colonel has a fairly good house." I told him I thought it an outrage; that
lieutenants' wives needed quite as much as colonels' wives.
He laughed and said, "You see we have already two rooms over our
proper allowance; there are so many married officers, that the
Government has had to stretch a point."
After indulging in some rather harsh comments upon a government
which could treat lieutenants' wives so shabbily, I began to investigate
my surroundings.
Jack had placed his furnishings (some lace curtains, camp chairs, and a
carpet) in the living-room, and there was a forlorn-looking bedstead in
the bedroom. A pine table in the dining-room and a range in the kitchen

completed the outfit. A soldier had scrubbed the rough floors with a
straw broom: it was absolutely forlorn, and my heart sank within me.
But then I thought of Mrs. Wilhelm's quarters, and resolved to try my
best to make ours look as cheerful and pretty as hers. A chaplain was
about leaving the post and wished to dispose of his things, so we
bought a carpet of him, a few more camp chairs of various designs, and
a cheerful-looking table-cover. We were obliged to be very economical,
as Jack was a second lieutenant, the pay was small and a little in arrears,
after the wedding trip and long journey out. We bought white Holland
shades for the windows, and made the three rooms fairly comfortable
and then I turned my attention to the kitchen.
Jack said I should not have to buy anything at all; the Quartermaster
Department furnished everything in the line of kitchen utensils; and, as
his word was law, I went over to the quartermaster store-house to select
the needed articles.
After what I had been told, I was surprised to find nothing smaller than
two-gallon tea-kettles, meat-forks a yard long, and mess-kettles deep
enough to cook rations for fifty men! I rebelled, and said I would not
use such gigantic things.
My husband said: "Now, Mattie, be reasonable; all the army women
keep house with these utensils; the regiment will move soon, and then
what should we do with a lot of tin pans and such stuff? You know a
second lieutenant is allowed only a thousand pounds of baggage when
he changes station." This was a hard lesson, which I learned later.
Having been brought up in an old-time community, where women
deferred to their husbands in everything, I yielded, and the huge things
were sent over. I had told Mrs. Wilhelm that we were to have luncheon
in our own quarters.
So Adams made a fire large enough to roast beef for a company of
soldiers, and he and I attempted to boil a few eggs in the deep
mess-kettle and to make the water boil in the huge tea-kettle.

But Adams, as it turned out, was not a cook, and I must confess that my
own attention had been more engrossed by the study of German
auxiliary verbs, during the few previous years, than with the art of
cooking.
Of course, like all New England girls of that period, I knew how to
make quince jelly