Part 15 (2/2)
After the firsthis way as best hesome more direct road, to the ”shop,” or maybe he had dropped out entirely, as soon, and was on his way to the nearest railway station
At any rate, as Culhane sat down at his very s-rooe point, as it were), he looked about and, not seeing the new guest, inquired, ”Has any one seen that alleged ar?”
No one could say anything more than that they had left hiht so,” he said tersely ”There you have a fine exaeneral and major--we had 'em in the army--men who sit in a swivel chair all day, wear a braided uniform and issue orders to other people
You'd think a man like that who had been trained at West Point and seen service in the Philippines would have sense enough to keep hiet a little way up in their profession they want to sit around hotel grills or society ballrooms and show off, tell hoonderful they are Here's a ood horse after hiet on hi”
He subsided About an hour later the room with a horse had been sent out after him, and, as the latter confided to some one afterward, he ”had to help the major on”
Fro, as well as on those horseback tours which every second or thirdere supposed to take, the et He loved to pick on hiuts”--a phrase which literally sickened me at that time--to ask him how he expected to stay in the arood was he to the ar like him, and so on _ad infinitum_ until, while at first I pitied the major, later on I admired his pluck Culhane foisted upon hi, the meanest anih he forced on him all the foods he knew the major could not like, still there was no complaint; he insisted that he should be out and around of an afternoon when h he was accustomed to them The major, as I learned afterwards, stayed not six but twelve weeks and passed the tests which permitted him to remain in the army
But to return to Culhane himself The latter'sand pester which, along with his brazen reliance on and pride in his brute strength at sixty, ht have brains and skill but here they were in his institution, more or less undone nervously and physically, and here he was, cold, conteat theed Now and then it was rule individual in whom he would take an interest, but not often In the main I think he despised them one and all for the puny machines they were He even despised life and the pleasures and dissipations or swinish indolence which, in his judgment, characterizedus how as a private in the United States Army when the division of which he was a unit was shut up in winter quarters, huddled about stoves, s tobacco and spitting, actually lousy, and never changing their clothes for weeks on end--how he, revolting at all this and the disease and fevers ensuing, had kept out of doors asno other way of keeping clean the single shi+ft of underwear and the one uniform he possessed he had, every other day or so, washed all, uniforht coet to the water, and dancing about naked in the cold, running and ju, while they dried on bushes or the branch of a tree
”Those poor rats,” he added most conteh and jeer, hovering over their stoves, but a lot of them died that very winter, and here I am today”
And e knew it I used to study the faces ofconfined to their comfortable offices, restaurants and homes that two hours on horseback all but wore them out, and wonder how this appealed to them I think that in the main they took it as an illustration of either one of two things: insanity, or giant and therefore not-to-be-iard to them Culhane was by no means so tolerant One day, as I recall, there arrived at the sanitariu Hebreith a ses, who applied to Culhane for aduests, I think, as to torture this particular specimen into some semblance of vitality, he admitted him And thereafter, from the hour he entered until he left about the time I did, Culhane seeave hie horse, one that kicked and bit, and attime would place Mr
Itzky (I think his name was) up near the front of the procession where he could watch him Always at mount-tireat stable a kind of preli that we had to saddle and bridle and bring forth our own steeds This particular person could not saddle a horse very well nor put on his bit and bridle The anie when he came near, to fix his Culhane seeuests feel the pressure of necessity in connection with their work he was happy To this end he would e comment Thus to Mr Itzky he was most unkind
He would look over allthe saddles and bridles, and then say, ”Oh, I see you haven't learned how to tighten a belly-band yet,” or ”I do believe you have your saddle hind-side to You would if you could, that's one thing sure How do you expect a horse to be sensible or quiet when he knows that he isn't saddled right? Any horse knows that much, and whether he has an ass for a rider I'd kick and bite too if I were so a lot of damned fools and wasters to pack all over the country Loosen that belt and fasten it right” (therewith it) ”and move your saddle up Do you want to sit over the horse's ru There was of course the accepted and perfect way--his way: left foot in stirrup, an easy balanced spring and light descent into the seat One should be able to slip the right foot into the right stirrup with the saine fifty, sixty, seventyconditions of health and mood A nu here and were as nervous and frightened as children Sucharound, once they were in their saddles, for the right stirrup! And all the while Culhane would be sitting out front like an ar us with a look of infinite and weary contempt that served to increase our troubles a thousandfold
”Well, you're all on, are you? You all do it so gracefully I like to sit here and ad over his horse's back so artistically that he alham does his best to fall off on the other side And where's Itzky? I don't even see him Oh, yes, there he is Well” (this to Itzky, frantically endeavoring to get one fat foot in a stirrup and pull hih? Here's aa cloak-and-suit business and eet on a horse! Iine!
Five hundred people dependent on that for their living!” (At this point, say, Itzky succeeds in ) ”Well, he's actually on! Now see if you can stick while we ride a block or two You'll find the right stirrup, Itzky, just a little forward of your horse's belly on the right side--see? A fine bunch this is to lead out through a gentleot a bad reputation throughout this section! Well, forward, and see if you can keep froh the stable-door and the privet gate at a sallop a little farther on down the road To the seasoned riders it was all well enough, but to beginners, those nervous about horses, fearful about the uncertain as to my skill, I could scarcely stay on Several days later, I by then having become a reasonably seasoned rider, it was Mr Itzky who appeared on the scene, and after hi of, Mr Itzky fell or rolled off and could not again mount He was ht, was by no means sympathetic We had a short ride back to where he sat la disconsolately the cavalcade and the country in general
”Well, what's thehim most severely
”I hef hurt my foot I kent stay on”
”You mean you'd rather walk, do you, and lead your horse?”
”Vell, I kent ride”
”All right, then, you lead your horse back to the stable if you want any lunch, and hereafter you run with the baby-class on the short block until you think you can ride without falling off What's the good ofa stable of first-class horses at the service of a lot of mush-heads who don't even kno to use 'eood horse is put in the stable, he's not fit for a gentleman to ride They pull and haul and kick and beat, when as a htItzky alone Thethree abreast--scoffed under their breath at the statement that ere furnished decent horses ”The nerve! This nag!” ”This bag of bones!” ”To think a thing like this should be called a horse!” But there were no outward murmurs and no particular sympathy for Mr Itzky He was a fat stuff, a sweat-shop manufacturer, they would bet; let hiay real to restore their own little bodies, whatever happened
So reatly in their looks, capacities and troubles that they were always a Thus I recall one lean ironand switch”
company, who had come on from Kansas City, troubled with anaees He was over fifty, very much concerned about himself, his family, his business, his friends; anxious to obtain the benefits of this celebrated course of which he had heard sonear ard to Culhane, the life here, and later on confidences as to his own condition It appeared that his chief trouble was his heart, a kind of phantom disturbance which made him fear that he was about to drop dead and which ca hi he had confided to Culhane the mysteries of his case, and the latter had exahly,” as he explained to me), quite fit to do ”all the silly work he would have to do here”
Nevertheless while ere out on the short block his heart was hurting him At the same time it had been made rather clear to him that if he wished to stay here he would have to fulfill all the obligations iing he was saying to me, ”You know, I'm not really sure that I can do this
It's very severe,very well It feels very fluttery”