We all like people who do
things, even if we only see
their faces on a cigar-box
lid.
Willa,Sibert Cather
Few, save the poor, feet
for the poor.
Letitia Elizabeth Landol
Tuesday, July 14, 1964
Summer Nebraskan
No.
"I will give them ten thousand
World Affairs Preview
Orton Here
Thursday
A nationally-known educa
tional . consultant, Dwayne Orton
of New York City, will speak at
the second World Affairs Preview
at the University Thursday after
noon. Orton, who is editor of
"THINK" magazine published by
the International Business Ma
chines Corporation, will speak on
"Education-Technology Interface"
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Dwayne Orton
it 1:30 p.m. in the Nebraska
Union ballroom.
A native of Port Hope, Can
ada, Orton holds degrees from the
University of Redlands and the
College of Pacific. Prior to join
ing IBM in 1942, he was president
of Stockton College. He also
served on the staff of the Union
Tool Company and Baylor College.
He holds six honorary de
grees and is a member of the So
ciety for the Advancement of Management.
1 1 Z I
DRAWING BY GUNARS STRAZDINS
square miles of prairie fire."
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I Be Sure I
To Read
Grade Inconsistencies
Exist At NU
Dr. Floyd Hoover, registrar, writes
that grade distributions ought never
be looked upon as absolute measures.
He says that if grades fail to reflect hon
est judgments of learnings, they become
completely meaningless.
"Drop outs reflect a variety of things:
inability of the student to keep up with
the class, the course content is not what
was expected, disatisfaction with the
presentation, personality conflict, and
sometimes, discovery that the course
had been completed satisfactorily pre
viously. This last may seem incredible,
but it happens, nevertheless," Hoover
writes.
Page 2
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This Week
Manley Speaks
On NU Tonight
"Culture on the Frontier, the Role ol
"Culture on the Frontier, the Role of
a University" will be the subject of a lec
ture by Dr. Robert Manley at 8 p.m. to
night in the Sheldon Memorial Art Gal
lery. Manley, assistant professor of his
tory, is preparing a history of the Uni
versity. He will discuss the early devel
opment of the University and the cul
ture of Nebraska.
The Union's Cinema International
series will feature "Viridiana" this
Tiiursday.
This Spanish film is described by Un
ion Program Director John C. Carlisle
as "being the most shocking film show
ing all summer."
The film was banned in Spain be
cause it was considered anti-government.
The film starts at 8:00 p.m. in the
Union Ballroom.
"Flower Drum Song," a musical,
with its setting in China Town, San Fran
cisco will ba shown by the Union's Cin
ema '64 Series.
The plot is based on the conflict be
tween the modem Chinese-American and
the ancient Chinese tradition.
Cavalry
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last
in a series of four stories written by
students in the Depth Reporting Class
of the School of Journalism. This
series represents an experiment at
using the information in a new book
to write a news story.
By Tim Gartner
Soldiering today seems not to
have changed too much from what
it was 100 years ago.
Marches, nights off-duty, drill
ing, and tedious detail outweighed
the fighting and excitement of the
U.S. cavalry officer of 1864.
Capt. Eugene F. Ware was a
cavalry officer of 100 years ago.
He tells in "The Indian War of
1864", published by the University
of Nebraska Press, of the tedium
and tribulations of soldiering and
the modern advances of man not
withstanding it seems not to have
changed much.
It was not particularly difficult in this
war along the frontier to keep the ranks
filled; then as now some young men were
eager to get into the service. The ques
tion in the minds of these young men
was not whether they should go, but
rather where they should go, as each lad
wanted to serve with friends or relatives.
Inasmuch as newspapers recounted
"exploits of the regiments at the front",
it often happened that some exploit would
determine the recruit to go to that regi
ment. The men were brought together
and drilled for two, three or four months,
after which they were forwarded in
squads to the regiment.
At one time, Ware was ordered to
pick up a detachment of 116 recruits
which "I was told to drill ... to the
point of exhaustion . . . When I found
what I was detailed to do, I did not like
the job."
Glorious Indian Campaign
However, Ware, fully aware of his
responsibility as an officer, told the en
listees, ". . . they had come just in time
to get in a glorious Indian campaign, an
I wanted them to be drilled in shape
before they went ... I then went and
telegraphed my arrival and suggested
that someone be sent to relieve me . . .
My telegram received no response."
The consumption of alcohol was a
continual problem for the frontier cav
alry officer. Passing wagon trains pro
vided a never ceasing source with the
result that frequent drunkenness by
many soldiers was not uncommon. Ware
sums it up like this: "The troubles we
had with the men came largely from
whisky . . . They thought that if they
wanted to drink and raise Cain it was
all right providing they were ready to
fight when the emergencies of the ser
vice demanded it."
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THE BELL TOWER Brian "Skip" Soiref shows freshmen and their parents one of the campus landmarks.
Summer Freshmen Orientation
Gives Answers To Over 1000
By Evelyn Rust
What are the teachers like? How are
the classrooms conducted? What do stu
dents wear? How is the studying?
-These questions of major concern to
freshmen students are being answered
this year at the first formal summer
freshmen orientation program.
Small groups of 75 to 100 students
with their parents are invited to this day-and-a-half
program which began June 22
and is expected to continue through Au
gust 7.
Young Eager To Serve
Didn't Just Fight
Once, during a camp crisis, Ware
notes, ". . . Capt. O'Brien . . . told me
to go and put on my saber, and both
revolvers loaded, right quick, and join
him. He said the whole camp was drunk
. . . Some of the men were ugly . . .
He (O'Brien) tied up 16 of them to the
wheels of six loaded wagons . . . The
captain's prompt and decided vigor had
a good effect on the company and en
abled us afterwards to command the at
tention of the men and keep them fully
in line of duty."
The camps at which the men were
stationed were in various stages of de
velopment and repair, but none were
particularly plush.
One of Ware's early duties was to
help establish a post at Cottonwood
Springs, "a seep in a gully which had
been an old bed of the river." Here, they
pitched their tents, marked out the areas
to be used as the different sections of
the post, unloaded supplies, and started
from scratch to construct a post. They
cut logs, erected the buildings and even
tually built a fort in desolate and arid
Western Nebraska.
Meanest Whisky On Earth
On the other hand, Fort Kearny was
an old frontier fort, said to be estab
lished in 1848. At this fort, a vast ware
house stored great quantities of supplies.
Not only were these supplies used as
army rations, but they were also sold to
travelers at the low army price. Ware
calls Fort Kearny "a little old rusty
frontier cantonment." She also notes,
"Large quantities of the meanest whisky
on earth were consumed here, but,
strange as it may appear, there were
also quantities of champagne sold and
drunk here." He adds that the cemetery
was larger than the town.
About the only form of recreation
was listening to stories told by scouts,
chief among them Jim Bridger, and
watching amateur theatricals. "There
were always some soldiers who were
good at private theatricals, and occas
ionally there was one who had been an
actor. They (the entertainments) were
generally of some light, witty, flashy
kind with an occasional heavy piece
from Shakespeare." On one occasion,
John Dillon, the actor, who was passing
through, put on a performance.
But the lighter side was usually sub
ordinated to the dreary and monotonous.
Even nature posed problems. Wind
storms of tremendous scope brought dis
comfort, stampeded horses, and scattered
supplies. Surgery was performed with
out the benefit of anesthetics. Rations
ran short. Men were forced to supple
ment their food supplies by hunting
wild game. Desertion was frequent, and
deaths and disappearances through non
military skirmishes were all too com
mon. Indians Smoked Peace Pipe
Ware also describes how a group of
4
1 ' v:
Already invitations have been mailed
to 2,400 pre-registcred freshmen students,
according to Curt Siemers, cocdinator
of student activities, and many have yet
to return their cards.
To date 529 students and 532 parents
have attended the program. Families are
coming from as far away as Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, Ohio and
New York. It is estimated that half of
the entering freshmen will participate in
this program.
The curriculum Is designed to give
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Indians would come to the post for a
parley. They actually did smoke a peace
pipe prior to talks. The cordiality of one
conference was highlighted by one army
man who, after receiving the pipe from
the Indians, drew the pipe under h i s
sleeve. His reason: "I don't believe I
wanted to swap saliva with that crowd."
Fortunately, the Indians did not speak
white man's tongue.
The quality of the officers varied
greatly. One General Robert B. Mitchell,
an exceedingly handsome man, in a pow
wow with the Indians, was the only
man seated in a camp chair. "He looked
like a king," but his speech seemed to
nettle the Indians because he laid down
provisions and issued ultimatums that
they resented.
General Mitchell was later to reveal
his solution to the Indian problem: "I
would put these Indians on reservations,
dress them up in broadcloth, feed them
on fried oysters, and furnish them mon
ey to play poker with, and all the tobac
co and whisky they wanted, and then I
will be a million dollars ahead of the
game in my little district every year."
During a skirmish with the Indians,
in which the army could neither catch
nor locate them, General Mitchell hit
upon an idea. "I will give them ten thou
sand square miles of prairie fire." He
did. By setting fire to grasses and in
structing other camps to do the same
while the wind was right, the p r a i r i e
burned from Fort Kearny to Denver.
Ware wrote, "The country was fired for
300 miles."
Bullet Whizzes Over Head
Tomfoolery also accompanied the ex
ploits of the western cavalryman. One
day while Indians surrounded the p o s t,
Ware spotted a lone buck in the distance.
As he walked out of the fort, the Indian
dismounted and started toward h i m.
While still some distance apart, Ware
fired his rifle at the Indian, but the shot
fell short. The Indian reciprocated "and
a bullet when whizzing over my head."
Apparently the Indian had a more pow
erful rifle and Ware "began to march
obliquely back to the post," somewhat
subdued by the Indian's effrontery to
have a longer range rifle.
But the men in the west did not lack
courage and the acumen for surprising
tactics. Once Ware and 14 of his men
were cut off from their post by a band
of Indians who were burning and plun
dering a near-by stage station. As Ware
puts it: "What could 15 men do with a
thousand Indians on the war-path in
front, with no outlet for retreat and no
place for defense?"
With bugle blaring, Ware and his
14 men galloped and shouted their way
past the startled Indians. The Indians
apparently thought a whole regiment was
coming, because the men passed through
them without incident and safely reached
the post.
r 1
f
mi-rimc BY JUDY KOEPKE
students and parents an opportunity to
get acquainted with the campus and to
learn about the social, cultural religious
and extracurricular activities available
to entering freshmen. Students and par
ents are also able to meet and talk in
formally with faculty, advisors and up
per classmen.
During the first day students partici
pate in the orientation program for the
college which they will enter this fall.
Continued on Page 4
