Harper's Round Table, April 21, 1896

Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers. All Rights Reserved.

What the Lincoln Cadets called their armory was a large low hall in the basement of the Brick Church. Here they drilled three times a week during the winter and spring; and here they kept their brightly polished guns in racks ranged along the wall; and here their drums and bugles were stacked in a pyramid in one corner; and old Tom, the janitor, was their armorer. On the walls, in polished oak frames, hung photographs of groups of officers that had commanded the cadets in years past, and one picture of the entire battalion of sixty boys drawn up in parade formation in the park; and over the door, in a gold frame, was a fine steel engraving of Abraham Lincoln that had been presented to the corps by Mr. Dunworthy, the president of the Board of Trustees of the Brick Church, and the chief patron of the cadets. Opposite the door, at the other end of the room, was a closet with glass doors, in which the battalion's colors and the stars and stripes and the markers' flags were kept securely locked at all times when not in use.
The first sergeants had not yet called upon their men to fall in, and the cadets were standing about the hall in groups, pulling on their white gloves and arranging their belts, for they intended to make a brave show that night because Mr. Dunworthy was coming in later to review the battalion. It was early, however, and Mr. Dunworthy need not be expected until after the meeting of the Trustees, which was being held in the vestry-room upstairs.
Perhaps he won't come, anyway, said Captain Tom Taylor, who commanded Company A.
Why not? asked Adjutant Dale, as he struggled with his gold aigulets.
His men have been on strike for pretty near a week now, and Mr. Dunworthy has been obliged to stay at the mills until all hours, continued Taylor.
And I saw in the papers to-day the men were beginning to get ugly, put in a diminutive Lieutenant in short trousers. The police had to be called to clear the yard in front of the mills.