Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/39

 the Pinal or Sierra Ancha. There in the trader's store was a pleasant, cool room, with a minimum of flies, the latest papers, perfect quiet, genial companionship, cool water in "ollas" swinging from the rafters, and covered by boards upon which, in a thin layer of soil, grew a picturesque mantle of green barley, and, on a table conveniently near, cans of lemon-sugar, tumblers and spoons, and one or two packs of cards. My readers must not expect me to mention ice or fruits. I am not describing Delmonico's; I am writing of Old Camp Grant, and I am painting the old hole in the most rosy colors I can employ. Ice was unheard of, and no matter how high the mercury climbed or how stifling might be the sirocco from Sonora, the best we could do was to cool water by evaporation in "ollas" of earthenware, manufactured by the Papago Indians living at the ruined mission of San Xavier, above Tucson.

To revert to the matter of drinking and gambling. There is scarcely any of either at the present day in the regular army. Many things have combined to bring about such a desirable change, the principal, in my opinion, being the railroads which have penetrated and transformed the great American continent, placing comforts and luxuries within reach of officers and men, and absorbing more of their pay as well as bringing them within touch of civilization and its attendant restraints. Of the two vices, drunkenness was by all odds the preferable one. For a drunkard, one can have some pity, because he is his own worst enemy, and, at the worst, there is hope for his regeneration, while there is absolutely none for the gambler, who lives upon the misfortunes and lack of shrewdness of his comrades. There are many who believe, or affect to believe, in gaming for the excitement of the thing and not for the money involved. There may be such a thing, but I do not credit its existence. However, the greatest danger in gambling lay in the waste of time rather than in the loss of money, which loss rarely amounted to very great sums, although officers could not well afford to lose anything.

I well remember one great game, played by a party of my friends—but at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and not in Arizona—which illustrates this better than I can describe. It was an all-night game—ten cents to come in and a quarter limit—and there was no small amount of engineering skill shown before the first