^
 
 GUY HAMILTON SCULL
 
 
 ^ea*l*s----rr55
 
 Guy Hamilton Scull 
 
 SOLDIER, WRITER, 
 EXPLORER AND WAR 
 CORRESPONDENT 
 
 Compiled and with an Introduction 
 
 By 
 HENRY JAY CASE 
 
 
 New York 
 
 DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 
 1922
 
 Copyright 1922, by 
 DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the United States of America
 
 -/Sto471 
 
 To 
 
 Guy and David Scull 
 
 this book is 
 affectionately dedicated
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Acknowledgments ix 
 
 Introduction xi 
 
 I. Ancestry 1 
 
 II, Boyhood and School Days 8 
 
 III. Harvard, 1894-1898 t6 
 
 IV. The Rough Riders, 1898 31 
 
 V. Boer War, 1900 45 
 
 VI. Newspaper and Magazine Work, 1898-1901 . 60 
 
 VII. Venezuela, 1901 80 
 
 VIII. Balkans, 1903 88 
 
 IX. Manchuria, 1904-1905 106 
 
 X. Russia, 1906 131 
 
 XI. The Loss of the Mayflower, 1908 . . . 148 
 
 XII. New York City Police Dept., 1908-1909 . 159 
 
 XIII. Nairobi, 1910 174 
 
 XIV. Mexican Border, 1910 197 
 
 XV. Nicaragua, 1912 209 
 
 XVI. New York City Police Dept., 1914-1917 . . 217 
 
 XVII. The World's War, 1918-1920 248 
 
 XVIII. Cedarhurst, 1920 263
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 OPPOSITE 
 PAGE 
 
 Gut Hamilton Scull Frontispiece 
 
 Beverly Farms, 1886 6 
 
 Harvard Freshman Year, 1895 16 
 
 Harvard Freshman Crew, 1896 26 
 
 Harvard, 1898 32 
 
 The Rough Riders, 1898 40 
 
 Facsimile Letter (From Theodore Roosevelt) . . 52 
 
 Hunting Trouble in the Balkans 90 
 
 Bulgarian Troops (The Fourth Mountain Battery) 94 
 
 Manchuria, 1904 120 
 
 The Wreck of the Mayflower, 1908 152 
 
 Nairobi, 1910 (Roping a Rhinoceros) 174 
 
 1910 196 
 
 Deputy Police Commissioner, 1917 220 
 
 Northeast Harbor, September, 1917 230 
 
 Police Commissioner Arthur Woods and His Staff . 244 
 
 Washington, 1918 258
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 Thanks and acknowledgments are due to the fol- 
 lowing friends who have written accounts of their per- 
 sonal experiences with Guy Scull, which have been 
 incorporated in the various chapters of the book: 
 
 To Eliot Wadsworth, Charles Jackson and Charles 
 P. Greenough for their contributions to "Boyhood 
 and School Days." 
 
 To Bartlett H. Hayes, Nicholas Biddle, Carl 
 Hovey and Mrs. Owen Wister for their contributions 
 to "Harvard." 
 
 To J. Pennington Gardiner for his contribution to 
 "The Rough Riders." 
 
 To George d'Utassy and James Barnes for their 
 contributions to "Boer War." 
 
 To Lincoln Steffens, Carl Hovey, Abraham Cahan, 
 C. A. Lachaussee and Larkin G. Mead for their 
 contributions to "Newspaper and Magazine Work." 
 
 To George d'Utassy, Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh 
 and James H. Hare for their contributions to 
 "Venezuela— 1901." 
 
 To Larkin G. Mead, Martin Egan and Franklin 
 Clarkin for their contributions to "Manchuria — 1904- 
 1905." 
 
 To Roger A. Derby for his contribution to "The 
 Loss of the Mavflower— 1908."
 
 xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 To Arthur A. Fowler and Captain Sir William 
 Maxwell for their contributions to "Nairobi — 1910." 
 
 To Marshall Eberstein and Robert Welles Ritchie 
 for their contributions to "Mexican Border — 1910." 
 
 To Colonel Arthur Woods, Dr. Jeremiah W. 
 Jenks, Detective-Sergeant George Trojan, Detec- 
 tive-Sergeant James Brennan, Detective- Sergeant 
 James Finn, Inspector John J. Cray, Inspector 
 Thomas J. Tunney and Captain William A. Jones 
 for their contributions to "Ncav York City Police 
 Department— 1908-1909." 
 
 To Major G. Quincy Peters, Captain Buehler 
 Metcalfe and Major Ralph Smith for their contribu- 
 tions to "The World's War." 
 
 To Mrs. Robert M. Derby for her contribution to 
 "Cedarhurst." 
 
 To the following who have been of the greatest help 
 in furnishing additional data and recollections which 
 have been used throughout the book: 
 
 Major General Leonard Wood, David M. Good- 
 rich, Frank A. Lord, Samuel L. Fuller, Granville 
 Fortescue, Humphrey Nichols and Langdon P. 
 Marvin.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Most biographies are written from private papers 
 or correspondence, or from an intimate personal 
 knowledge of the subject's life. Guy Scull never kept 
 a journal or a diary and he did not preserve much 
 in the way of correspondence. Such letters of his as 
 were kept by others are decidedly brief and cast little 
 or no light on either his thoughts or activities. The 
 only person apparently to whom he wrote regularly 
 was his mother and these letters, dated from all quar- 
 ters of the globe, are limited for the most part to 
 deep assurances of his affection, laconic sentences that 
 his 'health was good and commands that she should 
 not worry. There is no one friend left among the 
 many he had that knew all of his wanderings and 
 adventures, where he was or what he was doing, or 
 indeed the many fascinating sides of his unusual char- 
 acter. So what follows is in no way a biography or 
 can it even be called a sketch. It is only a collection 
 of stories, incidents and impressions obtained from 
 associates and comrades of Scull in many of 
 his explorations and adventures. He rarely 
 talked of his adventures. He talked very little 
 at any time. The few exceptions were the 
 golden hours known to a very few when in the 
 comer of the Harvard Club or some cafe tucked away 
 in an obscure corner of the city, his mood right, and
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 someone spinning a yam that touched a hidden chord 
 deep within him, there would come from him tales 
 of adventure, short, powerful paragraphs, crammed 
 with human interest, humor, pathos, tragedy, painted 
 as no one but he could do it. Certainly no one but 
 a man who had played a part in them could have 
 held the attention as he did. Yet no one ever heard 
 him use the first personal pronoun. He did not know 
 it. This modesty and humility from a man who had 
 lived through what he had was one of the things that 
 drew others to him. Wherever he was there was 
 always a group around him. For all his taciturn 
 nature he liked the company of others. Firm even 
 to the point of rudeness, he was a leader. 
 
 "Skipper's" tales were told in the drinking days 
 when it wasn't breaking the laws to put one's legs 
 under the same table that held one's glass. His legs 
 were long and he liked a big table and while there 
 was always a goodly crowd of worshippers sitting 
 around it no one ever thought of using notebook 
 or paper with a view to perpetuating those yarns. 
 Perish the thought! The table held other things 
 equally perishable. Those wonderful tales are gone. 
 Only a memory of a man remains. Only those close 
 friends, men in widely different walks of life, now 
 realize what that loss means to contemporaneous his- 
 tory, romance and adventure. We who today would 
 attempt to set down a story of his life have to rely 
 upon those who played a part with him in this or that 
 adventure. We acknowledge our debt to them for
 
 INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 what they can remember of him and of what was told 
 about him. 
 
 From college days on Scull was beset with strong 
 temptation to drink and with this temptation he had 
 an up and down fight over a long period of years. It 
 was usually during the intervals between work that 
 he gave way to it. When engaged in important work 
 he was often a strict teetotaler. After he was married 
 and towards the end of his life he got this temptation 
 under control, as he always knew he could, and proved 
 it for years at a time. The last years of his life he 
 completely mastered this temptation. 
 
 Many pet phrases are credited to Scull. "It ought 
 to be, but it ain't" is one of them. He never assumed 
 anything to be so. He reasoned from facts and more 
 than one burst of eloquence has been completely 
 s-topped by this dry Down East drawl coming from 
 Scull. He probably often said of hhnself, "It ought 
 to be, but it ain't." 
 
 Office routine bored him; anything regular irri- 
 tated him. He worked day and night at any task 
 which appealed to him. Hours meant nothing. In 
 his official life he rebelled against red tape and fought 
 it consistently. To superiors and subordinates he was 
 honest and scrupulous to a degree and he demanded 
 the same thing from everyone with whom he dealt. 
 He hated a crook and a grafter with a hate that few 
 even of his most intimate friends appreciated. Hon- 
 esty, the truth and integrity were almost a religion 
 to him. He was ever trying to help some under dog,
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 trying to boost an unfortunate, trying to give some- 
 body a lift. Major General Leonard Wood said of 
 hini, that fearless and enterprising as he was and with 
 that wealth of romance in his make-up, he would, had 
 he been born in an earlier age, have found his way 
 into one of the bands of explorers, pioneers or colo- 
 nizers which were opening up a ncAv world. 
 
 He was never happier than when using his wits 
 and his strength in some stiff problem that had defied 
 others. From boyhood he took a savage joy in 
 matching his remarkable constitution against expo- 
 sure to the weather. He deliberately risked his life 
 on several different occasions without a thought of the 
 result and from each of these amazing adventures 
 he would emerge the same silent person, a little more 
 grim and a little more restless, to be off again on some 
 other expedition away from the conventional life and 
 the comfortable existence into which he was bom and 
 bred. 
 
 Only his intimates knew his love for music. He 
 studied it as a boy. His parents were rigid in holding 
 him to his practice hours and his devotion to music 
 held strong through his college days and into later 
 life. He took much pleasure in playing his 'cello 
 or in drumming out chords on the piano to accom- 
 pany ballads which he sung. Several of these ballads 
 he set to music himself and one, "Gentlemen Rank- 
 ers," is sung today to Scull's own music. His love 
 for music was the means of getting him a line in the 
 international news dispatches when Richard Hard-
 
 INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 ing Davis described Scull's appearance as a war cor- 
 respondent at General Buller's headquarters in the 
 opening of the Boer War dressed as a tramp and 
 with his campaign equipment limited to a toothbrush 
 and a banjo improvised from a cigar box. 
 
 This love for music and a desire to write were two 
 things that even his closest friends could not easily 
 associate with the other and more outstanding traits 
 in his nature. Somehow to them they did not mix 
 with the more rugged and adventurous side of his 
 make-up. They had no part in a character that re- 
 velled in the slow, arduous toil of unraveling a mur- 
 der myster}'^ ; which led him five thousand miles to get 
 into a blood-letting war, or an equal distance to match 
 his strength against tropical fever, wild animals, 
 poisonous insects and reptiles. Yet this desire for 
 literary expression was to Scull almost a passion. He 
 always wanted to write, more than he ever wanted to 
 do anything else, and those who were competent to 
 judge predicted great things of him in the future. 
 He could write. As a senior at Harvard his first 
 attempt met with instant approval and acceptance by 
 magazine editors, and while the hack work on the big 
 dailies proved irksome, his work there was marked by 
 many brilliant contributions and his first attempt as 
 a war correspondent in the South African war 
 jumped him into fame as a descriptive writer. One 
 of his letters was used as an example of pure En- 
 glish for classes at Harvard University. But as he 
 was industrious in his work of writing so was he «by
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 with editors and publishers. This reserve grew into 
 sensitiveness and the action of one publishing house 
 in begging off from a contract after his return from 
 South Africa finally so upset him that he stopped 
 writing as a regular occupation for several years and 
 did not take it up again until after his wedding in 
 his fortieth year and during his second term in the 
 New York City Police Department. Two sons were 
 bom to him and from a wanderer and an adventurer 
 he became such a home body that it took an unusual 
 case at Headquarters to break into his domestic regu- 
 larity and drag him away from his home after office 
 hours. He seemed never happier than when with 
 his small family. When one of the children fell ill 
 he was the first to insist that he should stand watch 
 and even after a hard day's work if a child was ailing 
 he would insist upon sitting by the youngster's crib 
 and ministering to it. 
 
 It was in the last year of his life that his wife 
 aroused again his interest in writing and they were 
 laying out this work to do in their home at Cedar- 
 hurst when a small and seemingly harmless affliction 
 came and suddenly without warning struck him down, 
 down. 
 
 What follows is not a story of a successful man in 
 statesmanship, letters or trade. The excuse for the 
 book is the memory of a cultured American, human, 
 uncomplaining, unselfish, whose greatest content- 
 ment lay where the battle was the hardest and the 
 risk all his own. H. J, C.
 
 GUY HAMILTON SCULL
 
 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 ANCESTRY 
 
 On both paternal and maternal sides for several 
 generations the Sculls come of English stock. Ann 
 Seller, Guy's mother, was Swiss and her maternal 
 ancestors German. Nicholas and John Scull came 
 to America in the ship Bristol Merchant, sailing from 
 Bristol, England, on September 10, 1665. John 
 Scull settled with his wife, Mary, at Great Egg Har- 
 bor, Province of New Jersey, between 1665 and 1700, 
 and Guy Avas a direct descendant of this John Scull. 
 They either were of Quaker stock or early joined 
 the Quaker Church for it appears that Gideon Scull, 
 Guy's grandfather, in 1800 was a successful woolen 
 merchant in Philadelphia and a member of the 
 Quaker colony there. It is also recorded that on Sep- 
 tember 26, 1816, he married a Miss Lydia Ann 
 Rowan, who was a member of the English Episco- 
 palian Church, and on account of it was "turned out 
 of meeting." To this pair were born ten children. 
 Gideon, the eighth child and Guy's father, studied 
 law and was admiticd to the Bar but he never prac- 
 ticed on account of having trouble with his eyes. He, 
 
 1
 
 2 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 however, served as Admiralty Clerk Secretary and 
 made two long voyages on U. S. men-of-war. At 
 the outbreak of the Civil War he was commis- 
 sioned a Captain in the Commissary Department and 
 rose to be Chief of the Commissary of Missouri and 
 at the end was retired with the rank of Colonel. He 
 then returned to Philadelphia and entered the insur- 
 ance business, afterwards moving to Boston and con- 
 tinuing it there. 
 
 In 1871 Gideon Scull married Anne Jertha Hed- 
 wig Seiler, whose father was a physician in Switzer- 
 land and her mother a German. The latter's family 
 name was Stromeier and was Hanoverian, the male 
 members of the family going back for several genera- 
 tions to an unbroken line of physicians and scientists, 
 Guy's great-grandfather being a Prof. Stromeier of 
 Gottingen, court physician of the English princes 
 whenever they came to the Continent. Madame 
 Seiler, Guy's maternal grandmother, emigrated to 
 the United States in 1866, with her daughter and 
 son, and settled in Philadelphia. Following the tra- 
 ditions of her family, Madame Seiler continued her 
 studies in this country and in recognition of her con- 
 tributions to music and science she was made a mem- 
 ber of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, orig- 
 inally founded by Benjamin Franklin. She had the 
 distinction at that time of being the third woman who 
 won an election to this body.
 
 Chapter II 
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 Guy Hamilton Scull was born November 2, 
 1876, in Boston, Massachusetts. In unusually com- 
 plete and carefully preserved records kept by his 
 mother, and to which she could readily turn at the 
 age of seventy-eight, we find that the Skipper was an 
 exceptionally fat and homely baby, and to those who 
 knew his tireless, restless spirit and his nocturnal 
 habits in later years, it is of interest to learn that for 
 a while in this early period he slept most of the tune. 
 At the age of four, his mother's record shows that 
 Guy had outlived this habit and was handsome and 
 strong for his age; also about this time that he had 
 a severe attack of scarlet fever and for a while his 
 parents feared that he would not recover. But re- 
 cover he did, and he never had any after effects, grow- 
 ing strong and vigorous. At the age of six he began 
 his riding lessons and soon grew very fond of this 
 exercise, his pony and a Gordon setter and in fact 
 all animals, retaining this early-established affection 
 all through his life. In Summer the Scull family 
 lived at Beverly Farms and there Guy learned to 
 swim, spending a great deal of his leisure time with 
 his boy friends on the beach. His day, even at this 
 
 s
 
 4 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 early age, was laid out in regular periods of work 
 and play. At the age of ten he also began trapping 
 muskrats, and was wont to go out early in the morn- 
 ings to inspect his trap line, much to the disgust of 
 his father who disliked to be disturbed in his morning 
 sleep. It appears that one morning, in his efforts to 
 make a quiet passage from the house, Guy accident- 
 ally dropped his traps and rubber boots just at his 
 father's door, and the racket caused thereby nearly 
 put an end to his sport of trapping. 
 
 At the age of ten young Guy had two hours of 
 reading and writing French with a governess every 
 morning and if the lessons were not well done or he 
 was not promptly on time he was punished by being 
 kept on the place all day. Guy's father and mother 
 were most punctual, and required the same virtue from 
 the whole household. 
 
 During those early boyhood days an incident in 
 the mother's record of the child indicates that for- 
 titude and courage, so conspicuous in his after life, 
 were even then well rooted in him. It seems that Guy, 
 like most other boys, aspired to a coat of tan and 
 to be sure to get a good one he lay on the beach, 
 stripped to his bare pelt. He stuck at it so long that 
 when he came home in the evening his back was a 
 mass of blisters and although extremely painful, the 
 boy said not a word but went stoically to his room 
 where his mother found him later, stripped of even his 
 night clothes and bed sheets, lying flat on his stomach 
 to escape even the touch of linen. It took some days
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 5 
 
 to get over the effect of this bum, but when he finally 
 had he was very proud of liis mahogany-brown skin. 
 
 Fourth of July was a big day in Beverly Farms. 
 The boys made as much noise as any other boys ever 
 did, had crackers and torpedoes, and in addition, 
 regularly rang the church bell at 4 a. m., much to the 
 disgust of their elders in the Summer colony who 
 were trying to get their morning sleep. Guy had 
 a fairly active time that Summer. By actual count, 
 he went through ten pairs of trousers. Guy's mother 
 played a considerable part in the activities of this 
 group of children. One of them, ^vriting of Guy, 
 drops a line about her. He saj^s she was always kind 
 and sympathetic and seemed to understand that they 
 could not play without making a racket. 
 
 That Fall, Guy's father engaged a New England 
 schoolmistress to teach the children of the Scull fam- 
 ily at home. The mornings were kept for work and 
 the afternoons for play. Guy, it appears, was a good 
 pupil and showed early powers of concentration. 
 
 His mother, writing from her family record of the 
 boy and his brother and sisters, says: 
 
 "When Guy was eight years old he wished to have 
 music lessons and chose the violoncello as his instru- 
 ment. Mr. Wolf Fries was engaged to teach him. 
 Mr. Fries, a much-appreciated musician, played the 
 'cello with great virtuosity and real musical feeling 
 and understanding. Guy had a good ear and was by 
 natiu-e nmsical. Mr. Fries understood the child and 
 made the lessons pleasant. A diflicultv arose, how-
 
 6 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ever, in finding time for practicing without interfer- 
 ing with the study and recitation 'hour or the play 
 hours of the afternoon, and Guy and I came to the 
 conclusion that early morning before breakfast 
 would be the best time. Max, Guy's elder brother, 
 learned to play the violin, and as he also had to prac- 
 tice early and as neither of the boys did very good 
 work alone, I was at the piano every morning at seven 
 o'clock and the boys took turns working with me, 
 and without interruption this programme was con- 
 tinued year in and year out until the boys went to 
 college. Marjorie, one of their sisters, had begun to 
 play the piano and one day their father said that if 
 they would play a trio for him, he would give them 
 a pony and cart. That was, of course, worth work- 
 ing for and after some practice the children could 
 really play an easy trio quite nicely, and almost the 
 whole of it by heart. After this we had a children's 
 party and Max and Guy, with my assistance, played 
 dance music for the occasion and it was a great suc- 
 cess. About that time, or a little later, we had at our 
 house a small dancing class of ten or twelve children, 
 Madame Gravier teaching them the old-fashioned 
 way of dancing and deportment. Guy did not care 
 for this part of his education. Girls meant nothing 
 to him then. 
 
 "Riding was the most popular class with Guy, and 
 I think with the rest of the children. Mr. Henry de 
 Bussigny, the riding master, was very fond of Guy 
 and when a colt was born in his stable he allowed him
 
 RFA'KKLV FARMS, 188()
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 7 
 
 the privilege of visiting it often, and afterwards when 
 the colt had grown old enough to train, he encour- 
 aged him to help train it and allowed him to ride the 
 colt exclusively, the boy taking much pride in teach- 
 ing him his paces. Guj'^ seemed to have a gift for 
 handling horses. He had a light hand, never tired 
 them, and was most patient and gentle with them, all 
 of which was most useful to him in after life. 
 
 "During the Summers Guy spent all his free time 
 on the water. He and his brother built a canvas canoe 
 one Summer. I promised them a real boat if thej'^ 
 could jump from a boat fully clothed, swim once 
 around it and climb in again. They accomplished this 
 test and were as a result, soon after, very happy as 
 owners of a real boat. It was then that Guy was first 
 called 'Skipper,' a nickname that clung to him for 
 life." 
 
 One of his friends, writing of those days, says: 
 
 "There was a swimming hole called the Old Mill 
 where, as I remember it, we spent nearly every wak- 
 ing hour for several Summers. 
 
 "The Old Mill was on the ocean side of the railroad 
 bridge near the West Manchester Station, just at 
 the foot of the Higginson home and at the beginning 
 of the Denny Boardman point. The water from the 
 big salt marshes which then stretched back to the main 
 road, came under this bridge in a strong current at 
 ebb tide, and poured inland at an equal pace when 
 the tide was coming in. The current had burrowed 
 out quite a hole in the beach. I think we liked it best
 
 8 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 on the ebb tide because the water had been warmed in 
 the marshes and we could play in it as long as we 
 wanted. We used to walk along the track barefoot, 
 wii^ only shirt and trousers on, often having to dance 
 because the ties and rails were so hot. It was quite 
 a walk, but the distance mattered nothing and the 
 time that it took us to undress when we arrived, al- 
 though only long enough to provide for undoing 
 about four buttons, seemed all too long. We often 
 spent the whole daj'^ without a stitch of clothing on, 
 digging clams, baking them on the fire, and taking 
 an occasional swim when the spirit moved. 
 
 "Guy was always a leader. He and I were about 
 the same size and we contested in every form of sport. 
 Swimming, racing, throwing stones for distance, put- 
 ting the shot with a heavier stone ; jumping and run- 
 ning and wrestling. It was a great crew and we had 
 many experiences which seemed like real adventures, 
 and burned us brown as a nut. 
 
 "On the Fourth of July it was the custom for all 
 of the gang to start making a noise at least at day- 
 light and preferably before, when we decided that 
 spending the night at home cramped our style, and so 
 we undertook to spend it in the woods to be free to 
 make an early start whenever we wanted. The mos- 
 quitoes had not been invited but came to the party, 
 so there was no question about being waked up for 
 the start. We were awake all night, and I imagine 
 the neighbors realized that the Fourth of July had 
 arrived very soon after the midnight hour. Then as
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 9 
 
 always Guy was careless about his personal comfort 
 and reckless of consequences. If he wanted to do 
 anj'thing, he never seemed to count the cost or have 
 the slightest fear. That was always an outstanding 
 characteristic. 
 
 "In Boston we used to meet regularly after school 
 and walk to a big vacant lot on Commonwealth Ave- 
 nue opposite what is now the Hotel Somerset. There 
 we played scrub football, choosing up sides and keep- 
 ing at it until it was too dark to do another thing. 
 Guy and I had enough allowance to enable us to buy 
 one soda a day, if carefully conserved. We ad- 
 journed regularly to Gedding's, on the corner of 
 Dartmouth and Newbury Streets, and wound up the 
 day with a long and deliberate enjoyment of a five- 
 cent soda, made with as little foam and as much 
 liquid as the drug clerk could be persuaded to pro- 
 vide. When there was no football the crowd used 
 to have a game called 'Trees,' a modified Prisoner's 
 Base on the parkway on Commonwealth Avenue. I 
 forget the rules but it involved constant running, tag- 
 ging and tackling and a good deal of wrestling and 
 general activity, which was good for the boy but bad 
 for the clothes Looking back from our present ad- 
 vanced years it is amazing that our mothers did not 
 object. 
 
 "Later we both played on the football team repre- 
 senting a combination of Mr. Hale's and Mr. Noble's 
 schools. Guy played end. He was reckless as usual 
 and was nearly always the one who attained a bloody
 
 10 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 nose or some other damage. When we played at 
 Emery's Field in Longwood, Guy's elbow was dis- 
 located and his forearm twisted round entirely out of 
 place. A young English boy, who was playing with 
 us, knew what to do and by a good deal of pressure 
 snapped the joint back into place. Guy was lying 
 on his back; the boy told him it was going to hurt 
 pretty badly but Guy gi'uffly told him to go ahead; 
 he did not wince or say a word and with a snap the 
 elbow went back into place. We all admired him 
 very much, and it was just one more evidence of the 
 almost Indian stoicism which he always showed. (At 
 home he never told of this incident.) Guy went his 
 own way; was always reckless and careless of his 
 physical comfort and well being." 
 
 Another one of the boys with Scull at Beverly 
 Farms states that Guy was one of the handsomest 
 and most fearless boys that he Imew, and that all 
 through life Scull was one of the men he always 
 looked forward to meeting and swapping tales and 
 opinions on anything — business, politics or adventure. 
 In a letter to Guy's mother he pictures Guy as "a 
 curly-headed boy in a gray flannel shirt dashing across 
 the avenue and under one of the maple trees at our 
 place at Beverly Farms. Another picture I have of 
 him when he was somewhat older is at the wheel of 
 his catboat coming into Rockport Harbor through 
 the rain and fog. We were cruising together, the 
 weather had turned foul and while my boat was be- 
 ing reefed he and Eben Stanwood had gone outside
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 11 
 
 to see how things looked. Eben told us afterwards 
 that when they got out where it was rough and were 
 turning back to report that it was no day for little 
 boats to be at sea, they got in irons so that they lost 
 control of their ship. We were only fourteen or fif- 
 teen years old and Eben confessed that it was very 
 disagreeable and that he was thoroughly scared but 
 he said Guy seemed to rather like it. 
 
 "In our fifteenth year Guy was given a twenty- 
 foot centreboard catboat and I a twenty-one foot jib 
 and mainsail boat. His was the more comfortable 
 and mine the faster and more seaworthy. Neither 
 boat had any inside fittings except transoms with 
 cushions on which two or three boys could sleep. 
 Our cooking utensils were old-fashioned Florence oil 
 stoves, a sauce pan and a frying pan. Our food was 
 Hecker's oatmeal, eggs, potatoes, onions, pilot biscuit, 
 bacon and canned goods. Really, the only decent 
 meals we had were at the houses of friends. Of course 
 we didn't appreciate this, and thought our own half- 
 cooked dishes delightful. The cabins were so small 
 that it wasn't possible to sit up quite straight and 
 of course everything got damp and mouldy and there 
 was a permanent smell of a mixture of mustiness and 
 kerosene. On the other hand, there was the morning 
 plunge as soon as we waked, the complete freedom 
 of the life, and the excitement of relying on our own 
 skill and judgment for the first time. 
 
 "Our first cruise was around Cape Ann to York 
 Harbor and back. The run from York to Cape Ann
 
 12 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 is about 30 miles and across Ipswich Bay the straight 
 course carries you seven miles off shore. On the after- 
 noon of our return trip, While we were still several 
 miles from Cape Ann, we ran into a very black look- 
 ing squall. I remember looking anxiously at Guy's 
 boat, which was nearly a mile to leeward, and wonder- 
 ing whether they would be all right. Fortunately 
 the wind wasn't very great and was quickly followed 
 by a calm and some light airs. By this time it was 
 dark and we hadn't seen Guy since the squall shut 
 down. We anchored in Gloucester about 10 o'clock 
 and when we waked about five the next morning there 
 was Lester Monks, who was Guy's crew, grinning 
 down the hatch at us. It seemed that they had been 
 hit harder than we had and were blown off their course 
 and out to sea while reefing. Then the wind dropped 
 and they had had a long, slow beat all night, not reach- 
 ing Gloucester till daylight, found our moorings and 
 tied on to our stern. Guy told us that while sitting 
 steering in the dark, he kept noticing a red light that 
 seemed a long way off. All of a sudden he was 
 stopped by a coasting schooner looming up out of the 
 darkness and passing very close. The light he had 
 been watching was her port sailing light. This was 
 his first cruise, and he was so green that he did not 
 realize the danger he was in until it was past." 
 
 In 1889 Mrs. Scull took her four children to 
 Europe to visit their German cousins. Guy, aged 
 twelve, was apparently either too young to appre- 
 ciate what he saw or he was not interested. He was
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS 13 
 
 bored completely and quite frank about it. Only one 
 museum, the Historical Museum in Dresden, took 
 his fancy. As for his German cousins, they did not 
 appeal to him at all. They spoke very little or no 
 English and Guy's German was equally poor. The 
 patience, tact and diplomacy of Guy's mother must 
 have been stretched to its limit on this trip. She does 
 not write much about it. 
 
 "When we returned home," she says, "Guy had 
 outgrown our little home school and we sent him to 
 Mr. Hale's school from where he graduated for Har- 
 vard, and while in this school he led the happy, care- 
 free life, full of the activity of a schoolboy of his age. 
 
 "The relations between Guy and his father had 
 always been very happy. Guy's quiet, thoughtful 
 manner appealed to his father, who was a bright, in- 
 telligent man, highly cultivated and informed, and 
 who took a great interest in his son's progress though 
 without taking much active part in his development. 
 Both were great readers and rather introspective, and 
 very fond of each other. This bond grew in intimacy 
 as the years went on, and was a pleasure to them 
 always." 
 
 "He was a handsome, lovable, adventurous and 
 pugnacious schoolboy and he retained these charac- 
 teristics until his death," writes another friend. "He 
 came to my house as a friend of my children, but he 
 soon endeared himself to the rest of the family, and 
 for many years was a frequent and welcome guest. 
 He was treated, and, I think, considered himself as
 
 14 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 one of the family, and after his return from each of 
 his adventures he took his place again as one of the 
 family with no apparent break in his friendly rela- 
 tions. 
 
 "As he afterwards developed he became a man of 
 high character, of unimpeachable honesty, of un- 
 doubted courage and of a strong will. His most 
 striking characteristic was his extraordinary personal 
 magnetism, which was unfailingly felt by all with 
 whom he came in contact."
 
 Chapter III 
 HARVARD— 1894-1898 
 
 Scull's first year at Harvard was very much like 
 that of any other freshman. Unlike many of them 
 he passed his entrance examinations with no condi- 
 tions and even worked off at this time his advanced 
 French and German. Having been born in Boston, 
 and the Back Bay at that, and also prepared there 
 for college, he knew many of the upper classmen and 
 faculty. For two years he roomed in Claverly. He 
 had a certain entree, so to speak, which, whether it 
 meant anything or not, certainly meant nothing to 
 Scull. The Skipper made his own way as he went 
 along and here at Harvard this independence and dis- 
 like of the conventional things first shown in school 
 days took firmer root in his character and made 
 friends for him here as they did in after life with 
 people in every walk of life and in about every race, 
 creed and color. 
 
 A member of Scull's class and one who afterwards 
 became his brother-in-law, met him early in college 
 life and cemented relations underneath a fighting, 
 struggling mob of Freshmen and Sophomores in the 
 annual rush, each believing the other to be an oppo- 
 nent until the pack unwound and in the light of day 
 
 15
 
 16 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 they saw and recognized each other as warriors on 
 the same side. Later they took rooms together in Hol- 
 vvorthy and this was the beginning of a long friend- 
 ship. Both of these men went in for athletics during 
 their Freshman year, his roommate making the Fresh- 
 man nine and Scull the football team and crew. In 
 Sophomore year Guy rowed on the Sophomore crew; 
 the other stuck to baseball and, in 1898, made the 
 Varsity. Scull, with the exception of occasional ten- 
 nis, rowing and sailing, put most of his leisure time 
 in digging up material for writing, in which work he 
 suddenly began to take a deep interest. 
 
 During his four years at Harvard he was active 
 in about every phase of college life. He was presi- 
 dent of the Freshman Glee Club, president of the 
 O K Society, vice-president of the Hasty Pudding 
 Club, secretary of the Harvard Advocate and a mem- 
 ber of the English Club, the Signet, Institute of 1770, 
 O K, D K E, and Alpha Delta Phi. 
 
 Scull's friends were not of any one group or clique 
 and included many men in other classes. 
 
 "I did not see a great deal of Scull in Harvard," 
 writes one of them, "although we had a great many 
 friends in common. He was extremely good looking, 
 decidedly different from the average run of under- 
 graduates — a little more taciturn — and a dreamer. 
 He was familiarly known as Skipper, I suppose 
 through some familiarity with boats — but I always 
 felt that the sobriquet was one of affection as much 
 as anything else. He had rather a delightful voice,
 
 HARVvVHD, KKIvSILMAN YKAU, 1895
 
 HARVARD 17 
 
 or at least we thought so, and used to manufacture 
 his own tunes for some of Kipling's poems; a par- 
 ticular favorite of his in the little group which used 
 to sit around him being 'Gentlemen Rankers.' Most 
 of his songs were decidedly sombre, but so was he. 
 
 "Professor Copeland of Harvard used to read to 
 an English class of his articles which Scull had writ- 
 ten as a war correspondent m South Africa. One in 
 particular made a great impression on the members 
 of the class, — 'The Battle of Colenso,' in which Scull 
 describes the death of a gunner. It was tremen- 
 dously powerful." 
 
 Another man who, like Scull, went in for writing, 
 and their common interest founded here followed side 
 by side for a long term of years in and out of college, 
 through newspaper work, editorials, and into short 
 story Avork, essays and fiction, describes him in this 
 
 wav: 
 
 "It was in the year 1894 that I first saw him in 
 a class room looking, with his uncommonly well-chis- 
 eled features, so much more like a piece of classic 
 sculpture than anyone else in the whole place that you 
 immediately wanted to know who he was. It did not 
 take long to find out or to know him himself, because 
 he immediately responded to any friendly remark and 
 never forgot the speaker afterwards. 
 
 "Because of his family life in Boston, Guy natur- 
 ally belonged to the somewhat carefully picked and 
 pruned college social circle, but with a simplicity pe- 
 culiar to him he knew almost everyone with whom he
 
 18 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 came in contact. He discarded all of the little re- 
 finements, and 'side' which college boys normally 
 adore, dropped from him with something like a curse. 
 
 "He went in for athletics at first. Then he took up 
 writing for the college magazine. Through the Har- 
 vard Advocate I got hold of Scull's work and we 
 wrote a story together which was pretty typical of un- 
 dergraduate mental development. That is to say we 
 pictured a college chap going to a cheap hotel with a 
 girl he had picked up on the street. So far so good, or 
 rather so bad. But at a certain point in the story we 
 caused our hero to make a great renunciation, and he 
 came back to Cambridge with feelings of consideralile 
 virtue and a well-developed sense of protection to- 
 wards the weaker sex. 
 
 "This story, which we signed 'Basil Courtney Un- 
 derwood,' caused a bit of a stir in the college com- 
 munity and was referred to by 'Copey' (Prof. Cope- 
 land) with due seriousness in the ckss room. But 
 this was a comparatively trivial effort for Scull. 
 
 "One afternoon he came into my room and said that 
 he had thought of a great thing he wanted to write but 
 he doubted if he had the power to do it now — would 
 have to wait until he was older. But in a few days 
 he came back with the story all written : It was called 
 'A Man and the Sea.' It was simply the description 
 of a man, alone in an utterly empty ocean, battling 
 for his life. He had escaped from a shipwreck on a 
 crude raft which sank under him, leaving him to fight 
 it out by swimming until he went do^\Ti. It was
 
 HARVARD 19 
 
 printed in the Atlantic IMonthly by Walter Page who 
 was then editor. 
 
 "Once we were riding out to Cambridge on the last 
 car. The last car to Cambridge always carried the 
 dregs of society, both student and otherwise. Scull 
 and I had been dining and talking late, in fact in 
 those days we used to wander aimlessly about the pic- 
 turesque North End of Boston and the docks until all 
 hours of the morning, just for the pleasure of being 
 there. In this last car that night a rather small, thin 
 man got in with a huge bundle of lamidry in a basket. 
 He wanted to sit down with his bundle, which he might 
 just as well as not have done, but the conductor or- 
 dered him on the platform. Scull's face got very dark 
 and tense. He did not say anything, however, but 
 when the conductor came along for his fare he gave 
 him a pretty battered old nickel which he had found 
 somewhere. The conductor said he would not take 
 it, but Scull looked at him as if he intended to kill 
 him. All he said was : 'That's all you'll get,' and after 
 the conductor looked at him he decided to drop the 
 subject. Scull hated that conductor so deeply for 
 not being respectful to the man with the bundle that 
 it took him an hour to forget it. 
 
 "One night we tramped out towards Revere Beach, 
 passing innumerable delightful cemeteries and 
 marshes, and to make everything perfect we were 
 actually arrested as vagrants by a large policeman 
 and taken to police headquarters and held until day- 
 light."
 
 20 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Scull's letters to his mother during his college ca- 
 reer are longer and reflect his thoughts and his work 
 much better than those written in later years. When 
 he began to write, for instance, these letters for Scull 
 at least were almost verbose. 
 
 In one written May 15, 1897, he says: 
 "I take this opportunity of writing you — ^not that 
 I would intimate that I do so because I have nothing 
 better to do, for nothing could be better — but because 
 I think this letter will just catch the steamer for 
 Genoa. You see I have become long-winded, so to 
 speak. I have been reading a great deal lately, a great 
 deal of Eighteenth Century literature and have thus 
 become somewhat lengthy in my talk. * * * My 
 plans for the Summer are not yet settled although 
 I am determined that they shall take some form of 
 literary work. It might please you to hear that I 
 was elected on the first to the Senior society corre- 
 sponding to the Signet and of a similar construction. 
 My eyes are practically all right again. I have just 
 sent in a story to the Youth's Companion from which 
 I hope favorable results. As for work in general it 
 goes rather slow. I am thinking of a story now to 
 use primarily for my O K initiation, connected with 
 the hospital but not concluding, strange as it may 
 seem, with the death of all concerned. In this story 
 I intend to venture on a relation with the 'tender 
 passion,' which must be treated with exceeding care. 
 This, you see, is rather a new departure and I hope 
 thereby in this particular story at least to bring out
 
 HARVARD 21 
 
 the pathos and power of the situation without the aid 
 of things pertaining to the morbid state." 
 
 A week later he writes his mother that he has just 
 had a piece of excellent luck in that the Youth's Com- 
 panion had accepted the story he had sent it: "So 
 you see," he writes, "I am at last to appear in the 
 print of a real magazine. True it is only the Com- 
 panion but a magazine for all that. I say at last as 
 if I had struggled for years without success. Per- 
 haps it is bad for me to attain this little success with- 
 out having gone through a longer trial of failure. It 
 may give me a too good idea of my own power. I 
 do not think, however, that I will become a victim of 
 that disease familiarly known as swelled head. 
 * * * I have an example too striking to permit 
 my following in his footsteps and besides Mr. Cope- 
 land is at my elbow so to speak to see that I am told 
 sufficiently often that my work is not worth anything. 
 
 "In reading a little book to-day where friendship 
 is mentioned I hit, quite by accident, upon the solu- 
 tion of a problem Avhich I have many times before 
 heard discussed. It has been said and is in fact almost 
 a general truth that silence between two friends is 
 the greatest test for friendship; that it denotes the 
 communion of souls. I have also heard it said that 
 silence is the expression of uncongenialit}^ but that 
 when persons care for one another they are interested 
 and will talk. Both these theories are in a measure 
 correct. The first state of affairs is evolved from the 
 similarities of natures; the second results from
 
 22 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 friendship being sprung from dissimilarities of char- 
 acter." 
 
 In a letter written ^lay 30th he tells his mother 
 that Mr. Copeland had opened the way to an intro- 
 duction to Mr. Page, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 
 by showing him several of his (Scull's) articles for 
 the Advocate. Scull adds, in his modest way, that 
 he doesn't think this will develop into anything, but 
 if it does it would be a big thing for him. This intro- 
 duction evidently did result in something for on June 
 2nd Scull received a personal note from Mr. Page 
 accepting for publication one of the sketches sub- 
 mitted called, "Within the Walls." Mr. Page wrote: 
 
 "To publish a sketch like this is a new departure 
 for the Atlantic — a departure that I am not sorry to 
 make. * * * I pray you, however, send me any 
 more that you may write. * * * J have a very 
 hearty appreciation of this little sketch and I hope to 
 see you and to hear from you at your convenience 
 and often." 
 
 This letter greatly encouraged Scull to write more. 
 He immediately made arrangements to spend that 
 summer in Boston working on a newspaper there and 
 to continue writing for the magazine. Great must 
 have been his elation a week later when he received 
 another letter from Mr. Page accepting for the Atlan- 
 tic another sketch called "A Man and the Sea." Scull 
 wrote his mother this news with much apparent joy 
 and enthusiasm and adds: "Tonight (June 21, 1897) 
 is Strawberry Night at the Pudding and I am going
 
 HARVARD 23 
 
 to take the part of 'Professor Bartlett' in a light com- 
 edy." The friends of the Skipper who didn't know 
 him in Harvard can hardly understand, even by the 
 widest stretch of imagination, how he could ever be 
 induced to get on a stage even as scene shifter! 
 
 Late in June he writes his mother that Mr. Green- 
 ough had secured him a place on the staff of the Bos- 
 ton Herald for the coming summer and that he was 
 going to room with Sam Fuller. He strikes a very 
 serious vein in this letter by closing as follows: 
 "Cambridge has been very dull lately, as most of the 
 boys have gone. Do you know I think I have changed 
 a good deal this Winter. That stage of existence which 
 a good many men go through on leaving college; 
 when they first begin to realize that Harvard instead 
 of being the universe is only a pleasure garden, and 
 that the real existence is outside; this stage I think 
 I have passed. I have been, I am afraid, a little 
 morbid in my views of life, but noAv I have somehow 
 grown accustomed to things, and the morbidness is 
 going away. Don't think, mother, that I am at all 
 unhappy, for I enjoy myself very much; this is 
 merely the way I look at things when I am alone." 
 
 Scull's letters to his mother that summer told of 
 his work on the Boston Herald, of his reporter asso- 
 ciates, the various kinds of assignments he received, 
 of the pleasures and drudgerj^ of the work and how 
 "done" he was at the end of the day's work and how 
 difficult it then was to sit down and try and construct 
 a plot or write a story. He evidently did try to
 
 24. GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 write another story but he confesses that it was an- 
 other morbid one and that he got so worked up in the 
 writing of it that he was compelled to go out in the 
 night and walk the street to "keep the balance of my 
 mind." 
 
 The subject of his choosing a permanent occupa- 
 tion was apparently then up for discussion in the fam- 
 ily, for Scull in a later letter says: 
 
 "What Doctor Weir Mitchell told you and Dad 
 about the necessity of some regular means of support 
 for an author, outside of his work, is perfectly true, 
 but I also think, and my work now does much to 
 prove it, that if a man wishes to write, it is best if he 
 has no other demand on his attention. Tell Dad I 
 suppose I will get paid for my stories in the Atlantic 
 but it will not be much. The Youth's Companion 
 sent me a check for $30 for the story I wrote them." 
 
 There is a reference in one of his letters to his 
 mother that summer concerning women. She must 
 have been informed that her son was engaged. 
 
 "There is no cause for you to worry, mother," 
 
 writes Scull, "even if Miss G says I am engaged. 
 
 I have as yet no thoughts of getting married ; rather 
 on the contrary the older I grow the more I see the 
 fallacy of tying yourself down to the prosaic existence 
 of matrimony while still so young. You may think 
 I am talking over my head in thus expressing my 
 views, but when a man is young and healthy why 
 should he blindlv tie both hands and feet and lead the
 
 HARVARD 25 
 
 same life as that of an elderly man before he had seen 
 this world of man." 
 
 In another letter Scull gives an interesting picture 
 of life in the City Room of a daily newspaper when 
 he describes a rush Saturday night as follows: 
 
 "I had been in Charlestown all through the even- 
 ing interviewing ward politicians on the coming State 
 elections in the fall. About half past eleven I got 
 back to the office and began to write out my inter- 
 views. At first I wrote easily, in no great hurry, but 
 suddenly it was called to my attention that the paper 
 went to press earlier that night than usual. It then 
 became a race between the old white-faced clock on 
 the wall and my poor wits. You would have laughed 
 had you read the tremendous and ahnost meaning- 
 less phrases that I put into the mouths of those poli- 
 ticians that night, but the copy had to be in before 
 quarter to one and I had little time for a suitable 
 distinction of words. At last I finished; handed 
 in my work to the old gruff night editor and filling 
 my pipe enjoyed a good smoke while the presses rum- 
 bled beneath me." Scull adds that he has received sev- 
 eral compliments on his sketch in the Atlantic but 
 he realizes that if anyone thought it poor he would 
 not have been told so and was, therefore, not in much 
 danger of getting a swelled head from his first 
 production. 
 
 Late that summer in another letter he admits to 
 his mother that Professor Copeland has pronounced
 
 26 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 as "no good" his last attempt at a story. While this 
 rather discouraged the Skipper he acknowledged that 
 Copeland was an excellent judge and that he was for- 
 tunate in having such a friend. 
 
 "I know that I must expect that some of my stories 
 will turn out failures," writes Scull, "that I cannot 
 always do Atlantic work, but it hit me a little hard 
 at first, that after I had once got my foot in a crevice 
 of the wall to have it partly dislodged by a flat fail- 
 ure, still I will keep pegging away at it but I don't 
 think I will write any more stories until I have had 
 a rest. There must be something strange about my 
 make-up for I can take no delight in what I have done 
 if I am not at the time doing as well or better. For 
 instance, when I received a copy of the Atlantic with 
 'The Man and the Sea' in it, it sort of threw in my 
 face, if you will excuse the phrase, that lately I have 
 been a failure and that at present there seems little 
 chance of my making myself anything else, but as 
 soon as I get to writing on a good theme all this imme- 
 diately goes and I begin to picture a brilliant future 
 for that yarn that is gradually growing in substance 
 as I write." 
 
 In all these letters through that summer there are 
 constant references to the health of his father, who 
 was in Europe with his mother, inquiries as to his 
 health and sincere delight upon receipt of news from 
 his mother that his father was improving. Scull 
 spent the end of the summer before returning to col- 
 lege for Senior Year with Humphrey Nichols at
 
 HAHXAHD FRESIIMAX CUKW, 1895
 
 HARVARD 27 
 
 York Harbor, where they enjoyed themselves im- 
 mensely, sailing and swimming. 
 
 Well into the middle of the fall term he mentions 
 women again as follows: 
 
 "It might be of interest to know that I have fallen 
 in love again. She is a western girl, tall, dignified 
 and possessing a well balanced and charming dis- 
 position. But this morning I have seen her for the 
 last time. It was strange that it should turn out so 
 but as I was doing my best to win her affections it 
 appeared in the conversation that to all intents and 
 purposes she was engaged to a slim, insignificant man 
 who sat in the corner by himself; and it afterward 
 appeared in the conversation that that man was a 
 graduate of Yale. Strange, but a trifle embarrass- 
 ing for me." 
 
 Scull finishes this letter by announcing to his 
 mother that he is at work on a story of which he has 
 great expectations. He says: "It is a wild sort of 
 a yam, full of ships and wrecks and the sea. It begins 
 with a man watching the dawn break over Boston 
 Harbor and after diverse incidents ends with that 
 man's burial at sea. I am sorry to kill another man 
 but this fellow is to have such a wonderful end that 
 for him to miss it would be losing half his life." 
 
 In one of his last college letters Scull refers to his 
 last year at Harvard: 
 
 "Soon my college career will be a thing to look 
 back upon ; something that has gone into the wreck- 
 age of the past; that all tliese men whom I see laugh-
 
 28 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ing and cursing around me, who may be said to make 
 up the circle of my friends, will be scattered to the 
 thirty-two winds of heaven, seldom to be seen again. 
 And, as for going to my Class Day to hover about 
 the muslin dresses and be passed ice cream that is 
 melted, I have determined to inflict no such punish- 
 ment upon myself. This, however, is a long ways 
 ahead and needs no argument at present." 
 
 This last letter was written some time before the 
 approaching June. A number of things happened 
 in the meantime, all of which turned out to be big 
 events in his life: one, that he was chosen Class Poet 
 by a vote of his class, and another, that the war clouds 
 which had begun to assemble over Cuba were bring- 
 ing the United States nearer and nearer the final act 
 of declaring war, and finally with the blowing up of 
 the Maine, the declaration of war against Spain. 
 Scull never wix)te his class poem but did write the 
 "Toast to '98." He went through his last year up to, 
 but not including. Commencement Day. The war 
 spirit had run high in Cambridge; one by one, a 
 number of men had disappeared from college to enlist 
 in the Army and Navy. Scull was growing restless. 
 He offered his services to the State of Massachusetts 
 and received this rather stiff and formal reply from 
 the Governor: 
 
 "I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favor of 
 April 23rd which, with other similar applications, will 
 be referred through the proper channels for proper
 
 HARVARD 29 
 
 consideration. Thanking you for your patriotic offer, 
 ' "Yours very truly, 
 
 "Roger Wolcott." 
 
 Then, one night after the last Hasty Pudding play 
 in which Scull took a part, he and a number of his 
 mates quietly slipped out of Cambridge without even 
 saying good-bye and headed for San Antonio, Texas, 
 to join the Rough Riders. This quiet and unosten- 
 tatious departure of Scull with his mates was charac- 
 teristic of him. There was no cheering and parade, 
 no playing of bands and waving of flags, no send-off. 
 His mother and father might have known of his inten- 
 tions but they were in Europe at the time. 
 
 On this subject Dean Briggs of Harvard College 
 wrote Scull's mother as follows: 
 
 "I am sorry to hear that your son Guy has been 
 called away to military service. I wish he might not 
 have had to go so early but I appreciate the spirit 
 of his going and wish him all success." 
 
 To Scull himself, Dean Briggs wrote this: 
 
 "I heard you had gone and I heard too that you had 
 gone without much formality. I have no doubt you 
 were doing exactly what you thought right and 
 though I believe most men would do better if they 
 waited, I cannot be sorry, after all, that some Har- 
 vard men were ready early and can only wish you 
 all success."
 
 30 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 A friend of the Scull family, who was in Cam- 
 bridge on Class Day, described this impressive cere- 
 mony of the class of 1898 to Scull's mother: 
 
 *'When the moment came for the Class Poet to ap- 
 pear the Marshal came forward and annoimced that 
 there would be no Class Poem as the Class Poet, Guv 
 H. Scull, had joined the Rough Riders and was at 
 the front. The theatre rang and rang again with 
 cheers.'* 
 
 At the class dinner the "Toast to '98" written by 
 Scull was read with appropriate ceremony. It runs: 
 
 Harvard '98 
 
 Four short years at college is all that men will stay. 
 The class will break asunder, in silence drift away ; 
 Some of us may meet again, thirty years from now. 
 Some we'll see most every day, 
 And some we'll never know; 
 And when we're wrinkled, old and worn. 
 With long hair turned to gray; 
 
 And we march in sad procession on our last Com- 
 mencement Day, 
 For one good toast, we'll fill her up 
 Before it grows too late. 
 We'll snap the stems, with bottoms up. 
 To the Class of 'Ninety-Eight.
 
 Chapter IV 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS— 1898 
 
 Scull embarked upon his first great adventure in 
 high spirits. What his departure lacked in the noisy 
 send-off of other volunteers, it certainly did not lose 
 anything in the high lights of romance. There was 
 the enthusiasm of youth, the lift of impetuous class- 
 mates and associates, the inspiration of approaching 
 Commencement, the firing of his imagination by the 
 international events leading up to the opening of the 
 big drama, the sudden decision to enlist, the throwing 
 of discretion to the winds, the abandonment of his de- 
 gree and the nig'ht departure of himself and his mates 
 for the Southern encampment. 
 
 We catch a momentary flash of this spirit in a letter 
 he dropped to his mother while on his way South. 
 It is dated May 4th, from Washington. 
 
 "You will," he writes, "be a little surprised to hear 
 that I am in Washington. I am here to enlist in 
 the cavalry regiment. You see, a good number of the 
 fellows from college are going into this thing and I 
 find I cannot just stay in Cambridge with them going 
 away. Scudder is in it and Guy Murchie, Dave 
 Goodrich, Charlie Bull, Hal Sayre and others, so 
 you see I am in good company. As to the actual 
 
 SI
 
 32 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 chance of getting into any of the fighting I can say 
 nothing. I hope we are sent where there is some kind of 
 a scrap. I cannot help it, Mother, and I do not think 
 you would want your boy to stay at home, being a 
 good citizen, while other friends all went to war. 
 Washington, I think, is beautiful. It is summer here. 
 I have seen a good deal of the place, the monument, 
 a negro driver and a beautiful cheap lunch, also a 
 pretty telegraph girl. I am afraid it will be hard to 
 get my letters off regularly but I will write you when- 
 ever I get the chance. I am thinking of taking a 
 banjo with us to serenade dark-eyed senoritas (the 
 last word may be wrongly spelled). I have finished 
 my work for Mr. Job and sent it to him. I expect 
 to find some fine material for stories in the business 
 if it does not fall through. Good-bye, Mother, I will 
 write soon again." 
 
 The Spanish-American War did not come up to 
 Scull's expectations. Instead of fluttering guidons, 
 flashing sabres and wild charges through Spanish 
 lines, the Skipper experienced nothing but the drudg- 
 ery of camp life, the hard routine of drill, and the 
 misery of being left behind when part of his regiment 
 embarked for Cuba. Then illness and a slow con- 
 valescence ended his Harvard dream of glory. But 
 with all its disappointments, the war brought Scull 
 into contact with as remarkable a body of men from 
 all walks of life, East and West, as was ever brought 
 together in one regiment — The Rough Riders, offi- 
 cially known as The First United States Volunteer
 
 HAHNAKI), IS!»s
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 33 
 
 Cavalry, Colonel Leonard Wood commanding, Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, Lieut. -Colonel. 
 
 The regiment was assembled, in April and May, 
 at San Antonio, Texas, recruited there and organized 
 into troops and squadrons. Military training was 
 also started there, most of the men being horsemen 
 from boyhood and used to arms and the saddle under 
 all conditions. From San Antonio this regiment was 
 taken by train to Tampa, Florida, where it lay for 
 several weeks, when two squadrons of it, dismounted, 
 went across to Cuba with the first expeditionary 
 forces under Shafter, the third squadron, which was 
 Scull's, being left behind with the horses. 
 
 On May 9th, from San Antonio, Scull writes his 
 mother of his arrival, that he is well and must hurry 
 to report to Colonel Wood. 
 
 On May 12th he wrote again that he was in camp 
 with the regiment at the Fair Grounds, was well and 
 happy, and that his mother need not worry about his 
 health for in the life they were leading it would be 
 impossible to be in anything but the best of condition. 
 He adds: 
 
 "Hal Sayre is second lieutenant in my troop. The 
 men of the regiment are mostly ranchmen, so far as I 
 can see, and about as fine a lot of men as I have ever 
 met. Rough they may be, nor do they fall behind the 
 cavalry reputation in the use of cuss words, but I was 
 surprised to find how carefully they speak and what 
 excellent fellows they really are. We are awakened 
 by the trumpet at about dawn, then after roll-call we
 
 34 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 take the horses to water and feed and clean them. 
 The food is not quite as good as I get at home, though 
 it tastes mighty good after working. We drill about 
 three or four times a day, and lights must be out at 
 nine in the evening. The men are full of fun, good 
 natured, and willing to help one like me. When they 
 address me they either call me 'Pardner' or 'Scull' or 
 'Skipper.' I cannot say when I shall get a chance to 
 write again, so if you do not hear from me please do 
 not jump at the conclusion that my fingers are broken 
 and prevent me from writing." 
 
 The next letter four days later describes his first 
 trick at guard duty. He says, "It was strange work 
 for me, this watching a picket line of about seventy 
 horses. Every now and then they Avould become tan- 
 gled up and I would have to straighten them out, 
 speaking to them to keep them quiet in the meantime. 
 These horses have strange notions. Sometimes the 
 men sing to them to prevent a stampede. When I 
 came off duty my mind ran to horses, and in moments 
 when I was not thinking of something particular I 
 was unconsciously seeing horses ; at night I dreamed 
 of them in tangles. I have now been put on kitchen 
 duty and my particular job is to fry steaks." 
 
 There is no letter to his mother between May 16th 
 and June 3rd, at which time he writes from Tampa, 
 Florida, saying the regiment reached there the night 
 before after a five days journey by train. He says : 
 
 "There is a great swarm of soldiers here, and bustle 
 and confusion exist everywhere. The life of a private
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 35 
 
 is not altogether a pleasant one, yet, you know mother 
 that doing just such a thing as this is when I am most 
 contented. I do not want you to worry about my 
 going to Cuba. The fever is by no means so terrible 
 as it is made out to be, and I am only in a volunteer 
 regiment, after all. I dare say I have told you this 
 before but I am so afraid you will worry where there 
 is no cause. There are many things about this regi- 
 ment I should like to tell you, though now to speak 
 of such things would be disobeying the Articles of 
 
 War." 
 
 The next letter dated June 12th states the news 
 
 of his great disappointment. 
 
 ''Two-thirds of the regiment," he writes, "are now 
 aboard the transport waiting to sail for Cuba as in- 
 fantry. INIost of the men are all broken up over this 
 turn of affairs. 
 
 "I have traveled some during the past month, com- 
 ing East from Texas. Part of the time I was a guard 
 standing on a platform car with a rifle and a .45 on 
 my hip, a train of armed men rumbling along through 
 a country, through green fields and woods where the 
 grey moss hung in masses. Sometunes I would be 
 there at dawn, sometimes when the sun was setting. 
 The train stopped regularly for watering of the 
 horses. This job took about five hours; the train 
 also had to stop when a horse fell do^^m in the box 
 cars. It was a memorable trip. 
 
 "We had five days of this, and now we are left be- 
 hind, but the regiment is a cavalry regiment and as
 
 36 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 soon as our troops have gained a foothold in Cuba 
 the rest of us will go over with the horses. The only 
 thing I am afraid of is that the war will be over before 
 I get there. Our Colonel is a fine man. He gave 
 me the job of keeping a record of the Harvard men 
 in the regiment, which relieves me from kitchen duty. 
 'Bart' Hayes (his Harvard roommate) writes that 
 'Copey' (Copeland, Harvard professor) has told him 
 that my criticism has been accepted by the Atlantic. 
 The banjo is a great success, and the song these men 
 like the best is 'The Prodigal Son.' 
 
 " *Gosh,' one fellow exclaimed, 'that young feller 
 meant harm sure.' While still in San Antonio one of 
 the men fell asleep on guard. I was on guard that 
 night and we had a hard time of it because they put 
 on extra posts without increasing the number of men. 
 As we were not in hostile country the man only got 
 six months in prison. If we had been in Cuba he 
 probably would have been shot." 
 
 The days drifted on through June. Things were 
 doing in Cuba but only rumors and camp routine 
 came to those left behind at Tampa and the other 
 army bases along the U. S. coastline. Tampa be- 
 came a hotbed of fever and discontent. In Scull's 
 particular group of cronies, Dave Goodrich became 
 Second Lieutenant of D Troop, Bill Scudder ob- 
 tained a transfer to the dynamite gun detachment 
 destined for service in Cuba, and Hal Sayre became 
 post adjutant. Referring to him. Scull says in a 
 letter to his mother, "the poor boy's heart is broken,"
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 37 
 
 and adds for himself that she can have no idea of the 
 miserable feeling that grips him because of being left 
 behind. He keeps assuring her that he is well and in 
 one of his letters gives in detail the number of doctors 
 who may be relied upon in case of fever attack or any 
 other illness. 
 
 On June 24th he wrote his mother recalling that 
 the day before was Class Day at Harvard and adds: 
 "As for the Class Day Poem there will be none. I 
 was riding out to camp about sunset when this oc- 
 curred to me, and down here it seems strange to think 
 of the spreads, the muslin dresses, and the Japanese 
 lanterns !" 
 
 July came and still no movement of the waiting 
 troops southward. Writing on July 10th Scull com- 
 forts his mother with the thought that the heat in 
 Tampa is no worse than in Massachusetts, which was 
 apparently having a hot spell that Summer, but he 
 adds that the monotony was getting on his nerves 
 although he and his pals were hoping with the com- 
 ing of each new day to hear of orders to embark, if 
 not for Cuba at least for Porto Rico. 
 
 "I don't think," he writes, "I have ever told you 
 how we live. Each troop has its own street, the tents 
 on one side and the picket line on the other, so that 
 all through the camp first comes a row of tents, then 
 a line of horses. My saddle and bridle are at the door 
 of the tent, my rifle and revolver just inside, and my 
 horse is tied to the picket line in front of me. And 
 at night, with my head outside, I can look up at the
 
 38 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 stars and hear the crunch, crunch of the feeding 
 horses." 
 
 There was another letter to his mother about this 
 time telling her that he was well and again assuring 
 her that there was no danger of disease and then 
 came a long lapse. Scull had gone down with fever 
 and dysentery. No letter went forward to his mother 
 until August 2nd and this bore the date of Tallulah, 
 in the mountains of Georgia, where Scull had been 
 sent for treatment. His condition was worse than 
 his family knew. If he realized it himself he did not 
 indicate it in his letters to his mother. This is the 
 way he breaks the news to her: 
 
 "I am afraid this letter is a little overdue, but you 
 see I have been traveling. I got a little run down in 
 health while I was in Tampa and as there was no 
 chance of our going even to Porto Rico, the Adju- 
 tant sent me up here to get fat. 
 
 "It seems that the war was about over and I have 
 learned how to groom a horse very nicely! I never 
 before ran up against so much hard luck. This place 
 here is interesting. Everybody is queer. I am liv- 
 ing in a small house away from the bustle of the 
 street, so to speak, with a great many vines to keep 
 the sun off the piazza. It reminds me sometimes of 
 the old house at Beverly Farms. A doctor o^vns the 
 house. He is a thorough gentleman and has been a 
 surgeon in the English Navy for a number of years. 
 Then there is the old Major who is very fond of 
 books and he and I every night discuss religion.
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 39 
 
 People come to visit him. There are three contempt- 
 ible cads speaking with him now. They have come up 
 from the Cliff House, the swell hotel. One looks like 
 a barber, another like a groom and the other is a fool 
 jackass of a boy who tries to be funny making puns. 
 I wanted to shoot the whole crowd so I had to come 
 away. This is a curious town. It begins at the top 
 of a short hill and ends at the bottom. There are 
 only twenty voters. The other night somebody tried 
 to arrest somebody else, and in consequence the jail 
 became full of prisoners and my friend the doctor was 
 kept busy sewing up cuts. The Major just passed 
 by where I am writing and said in his poor old voice, 
 'I think this is the coolest spot in the city!* I was 
 wrong perhaps when I called it a town." 
 
 In a couple of weeks Scull had recovered suffi- 
 ciently to leave this town and start north via Wash- 
 ington, D. C, where he was picked up by the 
 squadron of Rough Riders from Tampa coming 
 north on the way to its new camp at Montauk Point, 
 Long Island, where it was to join the rest of the 
 regiment, on its way by transport up from Santiago. 
 On September 15th he wrote his mother that he had 
 been mustered out, and that he was again a free 
 American citizen. He mentioned the sadness in part- 
 ing from his bunkies and added: 
 
 "There was a man in our troop who came from 
 Bohn, Switzerland, and this I never knew until the 
 day before we left when I sat eating dinner beside 
 him in the kitchen. Such is the way we have lived
 
 40 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 together for four long months, each one knowing the 
 next man well and what he stood for, asking no ques- 
 tions as to former times and telling nothing, a life 
 in which the present was the sole thought of all, and 
 each happening affecting each man. You can see 
 how closely we lived in that little company. I intend 
 to go to Boston tonight and in that vicinity I will 
 wait for your coming home." 
 
 For a picture of Scull as others saw and knew him 
 with the Rough Riders, we have the letter of a fellow 
 trooper, who was in school with Scull and an intimate 
 of his after leaving college in later life. Gardiner had 
 not seen much of the Skipper, however, between his 
 school days and the morning Gardiner walked into 
 the Rough Riders' camp at San Antonio, Texas, 
 early in May, 1898. 
 
 "The Skipper," he writes, "was somewhat changed 
 in appearance as he had grown a beard. I asked him 
 what would be a good Troop in which to enlist, and 
 he promptly replied 'C Troop.' This troop was raised 
 in Arizona and was made up mostly of cowboys, 
 miners, railroad men and a general sprinkling of the 
 type of man one would expect to find in small coun- 
 try towns such as Yuma, Tombstone and Phoenix. 
 Scull pronounced them all splendid fellows and con- 
 sequently I went in with them, although I would 
 have joined in any event, simply to be in the same 
 troop with Scull. He stood out as the most marked 
 man in the whole Troop of sixty-nine men, only four 
 of whom were from East of the Mississippi.
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS, 1898
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 41 
 
 "During that whole Summer, which developed 
 many trying times owing to the amount of sickness, 
 the heat, the flies and the discomforts of camp life, 
 Scull was never known to utter a complaint. He was 
 a host in himself and was looked on as by far — in a 
 way — the most popular man in the troop. Men from 
 the plains who had no knowledge of an Eastern col- 
 lege man, fairly worshipped him. Typical of their 
 feeling was the remark made once by a man named 
 
 (who at that time was perhaps forty-five 
 
 or forty-eight years of age, who had been a cow- 
 puncher all his life and who — as far as we could judge 
 — was about the 'hardest' specimen in the troop) 
 when he remarked 'If Ah were a-goin' through a 
 blazer and it looked as though the chances was slim, 
 an' Ah wanted some backing. Ah would be a-pickin' 
 Scull to see me through.' By a 'blazer' he meant a 
 shooting scrape. When put his seal of ap- 
 proval on a man there was no question but what he 
 was a man. 
 
 "During the Summer Scull was taken ill with a 
 bad case of dysentery and was so weak as a result 
 that he was hardly able to crawl around the camp. 
 I well remember one day when he mounted a horse 
 which was supposed to be reasonably amenable, but 
 who proved far from such, and on observing the horse 
 start out on a bucking matcli, trying to dislodge 
 Scull, several men rushed up and seized the horse 
 by the bridle to take Scull off, knowing as they did 
 how weak he was; but such a procedure was not to
 
 42 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 his liking and he yelled at everybody to get out of 
 the road and leave him alone. The horse finally 
 threw him and had be gone a foot farther he unques- 
 tionably would have been killed. (He landed along- 
 side of the stump of a tree.) He was picked up, all 
 out of breath, boiling mad and with his whole mind 
 bent on mounting again, which he finally did, in spite 
 of all protests, and he rode the pitching animal to a 
 standstill. 
 
 "Scull, as I said before, was unique. When travel- 
 ing in the train or on horseback his impedimenta con- 
 sisted first and foremost of a tooth-brush stuck in his 
 hat, and a banjo done up in cloth, from which he 
 was rarely separated. Many an evening he would sit 
 on a bale of hay with the best part of the troop sit- 
 ting 'round about him on the ground, and would sing 
 songs that never failed to please his audiences. 
 
 "He finally became so weak that he was sent into 
 town by Lieutenant Sayre, and there lived for a 
 couple of weeks. I shortly afterwards joined him. 
 He did not seem to pick up at all, and I recollect one 
 day when we were about expecting orders to join the 
 rest of the Regiment in Cuba, that Sayre came to our 
 boarding-house and knowing what condition Scull 
 was in ordered him to the mountains of Georgia. 
 Scull remonstrated and with due formality toward his 
 former college mate, begged that he be not sent away, 
 for fear we should receive orders to move to Cuba 
 and he not be on hand to go. Sayre told him that he 
 was not in condition to go to Cuba even if he received
 
 THE ROUGH RIDERS 43 
 
 orders, which so irritated Scull that for a minute he 
 forgot his position and with tears in his eyes — which 
 came largely from the force which he put into his 
 remarks — he fairly yelled at Sayre, 'My God, Lieu- 
 tenant, there aren't men enough in this whole damn 
 regiment to keep me from going to Cuba !' 
 
 "Sayre calmed him do^^m as best he could and he 
 was finally persuaded that he simply had to go away. 
 After this interview, to which I was a witness. Scull 
 said to me as we walked back to the cottage : 
 
 " 'By gad, Penn, wouldn't it make you mad to have 
 a fellow that you could lick only a few months back 
 now come and order you to do this, and do that, and 
 he had got my hands tied !' 
 
 "Scull went away and when he rejoined us again 
 he was a different man, having picked up wonder- 
 fully; but our squadron of the regiment never got 
 orders to join the other two in Cuba. I do not think 
 I have ever known a man who was so universally liked 
 by those who met him. The indefinable attraction 
 which he seemed to exercise over those who 
 laiew him, even slightly, drew to him many friends. 
 At times he was moody and would talk very little, 
 but when the spirit moved he was most communica- 
 tive, but at all times he liked to be in the company 
 of his fellow men." 
 
 After being mustered out of the army Scull fin- 
 ished recuperating with the Greenoughs at West 
 Chop near Boston that Autumn, waiting for his 
 mother's return from Switzerland, and while loafing
 
 U GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 here on the shore took up his writing again working 
 on the story: "Left Behind." From West Chop he 
 went back to Cambridge and put in some time studying 
 surgery, trying to learn how to tie up a cut, and ban- 
 dage a broken bone. He writes of attending opera- 
 tions in the Boston City Hospital and his interest in 
 watching the surgeons work. He saw Walter Page 
 of the Atlantic, who asked him to do some more short 
 stories. He also wrote editorials for the Harvard 
 Crimson. About this time he began to notice girls. 
 In one of his letters to his mother he wrote: 
 
 "I have fallen in love again. This time it is a girl 
 I saw on the car, very beautiful with jet black eyes. 
 I only saw her once and do not know who she is or 
 where she comes from? It is strange that just in 
 passing we remember someone and think of that 
 someone more than of a person we have known for 
 years." 
 
 That Winter Scull worked at his writing.
 
 Chapter V 
 
 BOER WAR— 1900 
 
 Steffens, City Editor of the New York Globe 
 and Commercial Advertiser, encouraged Scull in his 
 desire to go to South Africa at the outbreak of the 
 Boer War. The difficulty was to finance his passage 
 there. Newspapers as a rule are close figurers on 
 expense accounts and the Globe did not see its way 
 clear to gamble on the chance of the row in South 
 Africa lasting long enough to pay to send Scull all 
 that distance. Scull, securing the promise of the 
 paper to print what stories he sent them, got his 
 mother to finance the trip, and lost no time in out- 
 fitting. He bought his ticket, went to his rooms, 
 packed up his belongings and sailed the next day on 
 the S.S. "New York" for Southampton, with only 
 a few necessities packed in a suitcase. His obtaining 
 of his mother's assistance and his determination to 
 go must have taken very little time. He wrote his 
 mother only a few days before he sailed, and in the 
 letter he makes no mention of South Africa or the war, 
 but tells her of going up on the Ramapo Mountains 
 to find a wild community that lived like primitive and 
 barbaric mountaineers, and of his disgust at finding 
 them peacefully gathered in a church and at service. 
 
 45
 
 46 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 The man with whom Scull was livmg at that time 
 said he came back to his rooms after dinner one eve- 
 ning and found the Skipper very busy packing a 
 trunk. He asked casually if he was going away, and 
 the Skipper grunted an affirmative and continued 
 with his v/ork. He turned in and awakened about 
 three o'clock in the morning to find the lights in the 
 room still burning. He jumped up to turn them 
 out and found Scull still at his work and the room 
 turned topsy-turvy. 
 
 "Looks as though you were going to move," he said. 
 
 "Yep," answered Scull. 
 
 "Where to?" 
 
 "South Africa," grunted the Skipper. 
 
 He sailed early that morning. His roommate 
 didn't return to bed but stayed up and helped him 
 to get the rest of his stuff packed and ready 
 to send home to Boston. They bolted a scanty break- 
 fast and Scull just had time to catch the ship before 
 she sailed. The only letter of introduction, except 
 his newspaper credentials, that Scull carried was one 
 from Governor Theodore Roosevelt, which is repro- 
 duced on page 52. This Scull never used to help 
 him through the British War Office. 
 
 A Boston publication, The City and State, of June 
 14, 1900, in referring to Scull's efforts in getting to 
 the scene of this war, said : 
 
 "This young man started for the Transvaal with 
 no natural advantages except a Harvard education, 
 some money and credentials as correspondent of the
 
 BOER WAR 47 
 
 New York Commercial and Advertiser. In London 
 he applied in vain for a correspondent's pass ; delay 
 after delay occurred; meanwhile Buller had left the 
 coast. 'Give it up/ advised the newspaper men of 
 London, 'your pass will come too late.' 
 
 " 'I'll go without a pass,' said Mr. Scull. 
 
 " 'Preposterous,' said the law-respecting Britons. 
 
 "Mr. Scull sailed for Capetown, was detained 
 there, slipped into a rifle brigade, and made his way 
 to the front — without a pass. Another correspon- 
 dent fell ill and was recalled. Mr. Scull took that cor- 
 respondent's place. 
 
 "He started from America on an errand appar- 
 ently hopeless, and, as Richard Harding Davis wrote 
 in a letter to a friend, when Buller's forces entered 
 Ladysmith, Scull was the first man within the town." 
 
 Scull's adventures in this war, where he went and 
 how he worked, must remain a blank unless we can 
 locate some of the English or American correspon- 
 dents with whom he messed, or were attached to the 
 same army. Scull did not stay long with any de- 
 tachment. He soon discovered that if he was going to 
 get anywhere and see anything he must cut loose 
 by himself. This he did. He has told several of us 
 the way he went about it, how in order to do this he 
 had to forage for himself and his horse; to practically 
 live on the country; and a country at that almost 
 stripped by the raids of the contending forces. So 
 while these stories remain in memory, in a general 
 way, the detail which is so important is lost. In
 
 48 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Scull's writings from the field were some of the best 
 things he ever did. We know he was the first man 
 from the relief columns into beleagured Lady- 
 smith. Richard Harding Davis himself generously 
 gave Scull credit for that. 
 
 The Chicago Record, one of the newspapers for 
 which Scull was writing, in reporting this event states 
 that its own correspondent (Scull) was so modest 
 that he failed to report his most notable achievement, 
 and continuing, states that the news came in a private 
 letter from Richard Harding Davis, who wrote from 
 Ladysmith under the date of March 1st as follows: 
 
 "I rode twelve miles at a gallop to be the first man 
 in Ladysmith, but was beaten by Scull, Harvard '98, 
 the correspondent of the Chicago Record. He was 
 the first to enter the city." 
 
 Some two months later Rennet Rurleigh, a noted 
 English war correspondent, wiring from Johannes- 
 burgh, states that he and an American named Guy 
 Scull entered Johannesburgh the night before Gen- 
 eral Roberts occupied that city, made a tour of it 
 unmolested by the armed burghers, and returned in 
 safety to the Rritish camp. 
 
 A dispatch from Albany, N. Y., on the same day 
 states that Governor Theodore Roosevelt proudly 
 called the legislative corespondents' attention to the 
 fact that one of the first two men to enter Johannes- 
 burgh ahead of the Rritish army was an American, 
 a graduate of Harvard, and an ex-corporal of the 
 Rough Riders.
 
 BOER WAR 49 
 
 "I remember well," writes one of his fellow war cor- 
 respondents, "the first time I saw Guy Scull in Africa. 
 It was after the British occupation of Bloomfontein 
 in the Orange Free State. We were on the march 
 towards Brandtford, where the Boers had held the 
 last meeting of their Government south of the Trans- 
 vaal. It was a scorching hot day. I was riding 
 slowly along with an Afrikander scout, named Bley- 
 lock; suddenly he pointed out a strange-looking 
 figure, astride a nondescript horse, with two worn old 
 saddle-bags and a blanket roll dangling at his flanks ; 
 balanced across the top, tied with a bit of old rope, 
 was a leather banjo case, almost as dilapidated as the 
 saddle-bags. 
 
 " 'There's a countryman of yours, and a good war 
 correspondent, I should say,' remarked Bleylock. 
 *Ever met him? Remarkable sort of chap! Has a 
 marvelous way of getting into scrapes and getting 
 out again.' 
 
 "The figure on horseback turned in the saddle. I 
 got a glimpse of a clear-cut profile with high cheek- 
 bones, a Grecian nose and deep-set gray eyes. Where 
 had I seen that face before? Suddenly it came back 
 
 to me ! Guy Scull of Harvard! I remembered 
 
 having met him on a visit to Cambridge, and having 
 passed an evening at one of the clubs where 'The 
 Skipper' had done his share of the entertaining. No 
 one who ever saw or met Guy Scull would ever forget 
 him. He had a remarkable face that lingered in one's 
 memory. It suggested, in a measure, the strange, il-
 
 50 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 lusive quality of the man himself. It was a mixture of 
 the spiritual and the dare-devil ; the face of the poet, 
 the artist, the observer and the born adventurer and 
 man of action. 
 
 "Guy Scull took a lot of knowing. No doubt there 
 lived hardly a man who would have attracted such 
 quick attention, and yet who might have been so eas- 
 ily misjudged. Shy, and yet forceful, retiring and 
 reticent, yet fearless, and gifted with great powers of 
 expression, he was more or less of a paradox. Surely 
 to many he was a puzzle through those long months 
 following the British Army on its dusty marches 
 across the South African Veldt. 
 
 "But to get back to the story: As soon as I had 
 recognized him, I trotted up and recalled myself. At 
 first I thought he had forgotten who I was, but as I 
 spoke of the meeting at Cambridge his face lightened 
 up, and with that funny little twisted smile of his, he 
 said: 
 
 " 'That was a great night we had, wasn't it?' 
 
 "I pointed to the banjo behind him. *I see you 
 brought her with you,' I remarked. 
 
 " 'Yes,' said Scull; 'Some people think it's the only 
 baggage I've got.' Surely for a few weeks, I myself 
 thought that the old instrument and the meagre sad- 
 dle-bags were all his impedimenta, for to all appear- 
 ances, he and the old horse were going it alone. 
 
 "As we rode on together, I could not help but take 
 in carefully 'The Skipper's' make-up. It was cus- 
 tomary for the war correspondents to wear a uniform
 
 BOER WAR 51 
 
 that was really semi-official. But with a careless dis- 
 regard for convention, which was one of his charac- 
 teristics, this particular correspondent disdained, for 
 the most part, all military trappings. He was dressed 
 in an old pair of corduroy breeches shoved down into 
 most disreputable boots, and wore an old short over- 
 coat that was sun-burned and washed out by the rain 
 into a light, indescribable pea-green and blue, and 
 moreover, it was principally attached to his person 
 by another rope in lieu of a belt. 
 
 " 'Had a funny adventure just now,' observed 'The 
 Skipper,' after we had chatted a little about the war 
 and the weather. 'Was arrested for being a Boer 
 spy and taken up to headquarters for identification. 
 Gee! I thought I was going to be shot at first! 
 But I got a good story out of it.' 
 
 "'A^Tiat mess and what unit are you attached to?' 
 I asked. 
 
 " 'Oh, nowhere in particular — I just float around,' 
 he replied. 'Good fellows, these Britishers. They 
 treat me fine.' 
 
 "We dined together that night in the open air. 
 He tethered his old horse close to mine, and as the 
 evening fell, he took the patched-up banjo out of its 
 case and sang 'My Name, It Is Jack Hall,' picking 
 and plucking at the old instrument, in an easy, slur- 
 ring fashion that seemed to go with his style of 
 singing. 
 
 "That was one of many evenings we spent together. 
 It was a delight to have hhn sitting there and to hear
 
 52 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 him talk and reminisce. When once he got started 
 his shyness seemed to leave him. 
 
 "The British officers did like him and he was wel- 
 come at any mess. It doesn't take an Englishman 
 long to recognize 'class,' no matter how it is dressed, 
 and they never made a mistake in sizing up 'The 
 Skipper.' I remember one night — it was the evening 
 of Guy Fawkes day, the fifth of November. He 
 strolled up to a group just after they had finished 
 evening mess. He wore the same old overcoat, and, 
 I think, the same old piece of rope, and very lately it 
 was evident that for his resting-place he had sought 
 a straw stack or a hay mow. 
 
 "A shout of welcome rose. 
 
 " 'Gentlemen,' observed the Major, bringing him 
 up to the fireside, 'Here he is!' and observing the 
 straw and general make-up, he continued, 'Let's burn 
 him tonight, in honor of the day we celebrate.' 
 
 "No one seemed to enjoy the joke better than 'The 
 Skipper' himself, and yet he could be touchy, too, at 
 times, and especially if anyone ever offered him as- 
 sistance. One of the correspondents, out of the good- 
 ness of his heart, proposed in rather an embarrassed 
 way, to let him have a khaki coat and another pair 
 of riding breeches to replace his much-worn habili- 
 ments. 
 
 " 'I've plenty of good clothes,' replied Scull, 'but 
 somehow I don't seem to connect up with them. 
 They're back with the baggage somewhere on the 
 march.'
 
 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB 
 NEW YORK 
 
 OcA- 
 
 ^^'^^y 
 
 
 <^ ^C^ 
 
 ^^^
 
 BOER WAR 53 
 
 "And thus the story came out. 
 
 "He had a half share in a wagon and four mules 
 with another correspondent, an Englishman, whose 
 forte seemed to be reporting all the doings at Rail 
 Head, for he seldom seemed to get up into the first 
 line and though his name was celebrated as a recorder 
 of historical events, never but once or twice had he 
 been known to be nearer than within distant sound of 
 a battery in action. 
 
 " 'The Skipper' had quarreled with him and had 
 parted company, regardless of the fact that one-half 
 of the always belated outfit was his to claim if he 
 had wished. 
 
 "I well remember the day at Pretoria, that his 
 wagon caught up with him, and 'The Skipper' blos- 
 somed forth in a bran new khaki suit and a wide and 
 most becoming 'smasher' hat. He was a picture to 
 behold. But nothing would induce him to have his 
 photograph taken. I firmly believe he was more 
 afraid of a camera than he would be of a cocked and 
 loaded revolver. 
 
 "I have a photograph of myself, struggling des- 
 perately with him, while one of the other correspon- 
 dents tried to make a record of 'The Skipper's' phiz 
 and costume. 
 
 "There is neither time nor space to relate his ad- 
 ventures or to tell many of the stories that were woven 
 about him. But one thing can be recorded: there 
 was no keener observer than he, and no surer pen than 
 his recorded the many sides and actions of that little
 
 54 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 war, costly as it was at the time — the little war that 
 proved to be the training ground and school for that 
 army that, fourteen years later, outnumbered eight 
 to one, held back the German right wing, and 
 stopped the all but victorious onsweep toward Calais 
 and the coast. 'The Skipper's articles were always 
 worth reading and though he said little of himself, 
 his individuality seemed to permeate them. No one 
 else could have seen the things the way 'The Skip- 
 per' saw them, or recorded them the way he did." 
 
 Scull's letters to his mother cover the whole period 
 he was in South Africa, but like his other letters, they 
 are for the most part very brief and confined to state- 
 ments as to his health and the wonderful recupera- 
 tive powers of the country and climate through which 
 the army was passing. They date from his sailing 
 from New York in October of 1899, and appar- 
 ently the longer he stayed away from his mother the 
 longer and more interesting they became. 
 
 Extracts from some of these letters follow in the 
 order in which they were written; 
 
 Frere Station, 
 Jan. 1, 1900. 
 
 Happy New Year to you all. Here we are sent 
 back to Frere Station to await further developments 
 in this dragged out affair of a war. In my last letter I 
 spoke of three artists with whom I am living. One 
 of them is a man by the name of Booth. When we 
 go visiting I put on a handkerchief to conceal my 
 lack of a necktie and Booth puts in his false front
 
 BOER WAR 55 
 
 teeth. Between the tvro of us we make a very pre- 
 sentable appearance. Booth and I have found some 
 shade near the river where we do our work. It is a 
 quiet summer afternoon here. Herds of cattle are 
 grazing on the hillside. Now and then comes the cry 
 of a bird or the curious speech of a Kaffir. Beyond 
 the swish of the river there is nothing else to be heard. 
 
 Jan. 23, 1900. 
 
 To begin with, I am well and then I want to tell 
 5''ou that I cannot write much this week because the 
 battle has kept me busy. Good luck to you and much 
 love. 
 
 Alandale Hill, 
 Jan. 31, 1900 
 
 The last two weeks have been rather of a rough 
 time with us. I seem to stand any amount of riding 
 and work. For five long days a battle has been 
 fought here and as you know the British were driven 
 back from the hills and now we are wondering whether 
 Ladysmith can hold out until this column can bring 
 about relief. 
 
 Ladysmith, 
 March 8, 1900. 
 Here we are in liadysmith and after all it seems 
 no way out of the general run of things that we should 
 be here. (Not a line about his leaving the column 
 and going ahead alone into the besieged city even 
 before the Boers had retired.) We have had a bit 
 of a rest and feel much finer in health. The last two 
 weeks have been rather of a pull. Of the two stamps 
 I enclose, one was given me by a man named Squire
 
 56 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 who was once an actor and is now a war correspon- 
 dent—a man who when riding with you along the 
 road sings songs or recites parts of plays he was once 
 in. The blue stamp I found in a Boer trench. I 
 have received word from Mr. Stefit'ens that my work 
 is going well but I am afraid that from the great 
 press of work I have lately not been able to keep 
 up to the mark. I hope you are taking the Chicago 
 Record and clipping my articles. Don't mind about 
 clipping the telegrams. I find that my work here 
 has done me a lot of good. I find that I can write 
 much faster than before, but I wish that I had time 
 to put more thought in my work. 
 
 Bloomfontein, 
 March 24<, 1900 
 
 I am afraid I have been missing some mails latelj^ 
 because I have been traveling for the past two weeks 
 from Natal to this place to go with General Roberts' 
 force. On our journey from Kimberly to Bloom- 
 fontein we were compelled to go by road. Night be- 
 fore last we left Boshoff at six o'clock in the evening. 
 Maxwell (London Daily Mail) and I rode and our 
 luggage followed in cart. In this way we traveled 
 through the night till three o'clock in the morning 
 when we had crossed the ford over the Modder River. 
 At five o'clock, when the dawn came, we started on 
 again and traveled through most of the day. Mean- 
 while it rained and one of the cart horses proved 
 balky. Ahead of us on either side and behind us 
 there was only a hopeless waste of land and the hori- 
 zon. So, you see, to ride 24 hours at a stretch, with 
 only four hours sleep, and this after two weeks of 
 no exertion, proved in what good condition I am.
 
 BOER WAR 57 
 
 I am afraid I swore at that horse who balked m 
 crossing the Modder. The river was washing the 
 body of the cart and the stones were in the bottom of 
 the stream. What possessed that horse to stop in the 
 middle is more than I can see. But, assuredly, he will 
 never go to Heaven. The driver had to yank at the 
 horse's head while I rode alongside with the water 
 high up over the saddle, and lashed the horse with a 
 whip. It took us over half an hour to cross. We 
 expected some difficulty the first thirty miles out from 
 Boshoff as there were two commandoes of Boers in 
 the district through which we had to pass and when 
 a dog barked or a strange horse neighed we came to 
 a dead stop and listened and talked and whispered 
 as though we were actors in a dime novel scene. But, 
 all through the night there was not the sign of a Boer. 
 Before starting out we had procured Boer passes as 
 far as Bloomfontein, so if we had actually been held 
 up on patrol it would not have mattered; still, we 
 had quite a time pretending there was much cause 
 for excitement. 
 
 Bloomfontein 
 March 30th 
 
 All this evening I have tried to write my newspaper 
 stuff but either I am tired or something. The words 
 won't come. The mail closes at six tomorrow evening. 
 I had better get some sleep and start the job early 
 in the moniing. There was a small l)attle yesterday 
 and we had a long ride back at night. I was some- 
 thing like fourteen hours in the saddle with only an 
 hour and a half rest for lunch. So it goes and I 
 rather wish it would stop and let me sit in a steamer 
 chair, and let me watch the ocean slide back, going 
 home.
 
 58 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 April 14th 
 The army under Roberts is still waiting. There are 
 rumors of the right and left columns of the advance 
 moving up on either side to surround the Boers. The 
 whole business is very slow. There are a large num- 
 ber of correspondents here. A man named Pearse 
 of the London Daily News and I have become good 
 friends. He is a very tall man and a gentleman 
 who can talk well on almost any subject. Then there 
 is Maxwell. If you look in the Illustrated London 
 News you will see some drawing of the war by F. A. 
 Stewart. During the time I was with Buller I lived 
 with Stewart and while I was writing stories he was 
 doing these same drawings — three of us working by 
 the light of one candle. I intend coming home di- 
 rectly this show is over. 
 
 Bloomfontein, 
 April 29th 
 
 Special Extra: — I have not been offered a com- 
 mission on General Buller's staff nor enlisted in the 
 Highlanders. I am still a correspondent, and in all 
 human probability will continue so. 
 
 Kroonstad, 
 May 14th 
 
 General Hamilton is moving on beyond Pretoria 
 and I am compelled to go with him with the army 
 on the march. It is impossible to do much writing. 
 
 Johannesburg, 
 
 June 2nd 
 
 We expect now that the war will be finished in a 
 short time, probably by the time this reaches you I 
 will be on my way home.
 
 BOER WAR 59 
 
 Pretoria, 
 June 7th 
 
 We have got to this place at last. I shall wait 
 here for at least a week to see what is likely to hap- 
 pen, before deciding to return. 
 
 Evidently he did not wait any longer than a week, 
 for on June 20th he cabled his mother at North East 
 Harbor, Maine, U. S. A., that he had arrived at 
 Southampton, England, on the steamship Dunottar- 
 castle. He sailed for New York from Southampton 
 a few days later. 
 
 Shortly after Scull's return from South Africa 
 he was invited by Governor Roosevelt to dine with 
 his family at the Executive Mansion in Albany. He 
 wrote his mother about this, how much he enjoyed 
 the evening, what a delightful family the Roosevelts 
 were, what a charming woman Mrs. Roosevelt was, 
 and concludes, evidently for the relief of his mother's 
 feeling: "Yes, I wore my evening clothes."
 
 Chapter VI 
 
 NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK 
 
 1899-1910 
 
 From about 1895 through and until 1910 Scull 
 wrote fairly continuously at about very nearly every- 
 thin,!":' a man could. He began to write in Harvard, 
 first for the Advocate, then for other college publica- 
 tions and during vacations for such newspapers as 
 he could connect with. From this start he set out 
 to get something accepted by the magazines and when 
 Mr. Page accepted "A Man and the Sea" Scull was 
 so elated that he worked early and late at his writ- 
 ing. There were interruptions like the breaking of 
 the Spanish- American War and later his trips afar, 
 but whether on the go or in Boston or in New York 
 Scull kept up his work. He did reporting, editor- 
 ials, short stories and even attempted a play and 
 started several books. This work covered such a long 
 period and played such an important part in his life 
 that it is thought best to give it a chapter by itself. 
 
 Professor Copeland of Harvard is the man who 
 is credited with awakening the Skipper's interest in 
 literature and he probably knew at that time what 
 was most in Scull's mind as to what he wanted to do. 
 He took a special interest in Scull's work, advised 
 him; corrected and criticised his work and it was 
 
 60
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 61 
 
 probably on account of the encouragement received 
 from him that Scull made the progress he did. 
 
 Walter Page, afterward Ambassador to the Court 
 of St. James, then editor of the Atlantic, had ac- 
 cepted Scull's first manuscript. 
 
 In June, 1899, Scull's father, after a protracted 
 illness, died in Venice, where he was sojourning with 
 Mrs. Scull for an interval of rest during their travels 
 through Europe. Guy immediately went to Europe, 
 returning the end of July. The family home on Com- 
 monwealth Avenue in Boston was closed when he 
 returned and, deciding himself that it was up to him 
 to earn his own living, Guy went to New York to 
 live with a classmate, who had rooms at that time in 
 a fashionable boarding-house in Madison Avenue, 
 and began work on a newspaper in that city. The 
 establishment, where they were, boasted of an En- 
 glish valet and the first night the Skipper was there 
 the valet took the clothes the two men had worn that 
 day for cleaning and pressing. His roommate was 
 fortunate in having two suits and was not incon- 
 venienced in the morning when he dressed to go to 
 his office. Scull as usual was careless and indiffer- 
 ent as to dress and had only one suit. In consequence 
 he had to stay in bed the next day until the valet 
 brought back his clothes and he then and there de- 
 clared that he and a valet couldn't live under the 
 same roof and took himself off to get another lodging 
 house where he declared he could put his own clothes 
 on without asking "some flunkey's permission."
 
 62 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Before leaving Boston he had secured an intro- 
 duction to Lincoln Steffens, then City Editor of the 
 New York Globe and Commercial Advertiser, and 
 upon presenting it was given employment as a re- 
 porter for this afternoon paper. Steffens, following 
 Professor Copeland, became Scull's literary confes- 
 sor, and he soon knew the Skipper's ambitions better 
 than any one else. Scull went to Steffens with his 
 literary tangles, Steffens humored him, eased him 
 over many a hard place, scolded him and bullied him 
 when necessary. Steffens, undoubtedly, developed 
 Scull's writing while he had the Skipper under him. 
 Scull would even take a ragging from him. 
 
 Steffens, at the time this story of Scull's life was 
 compiled, had left newspaper work and was traveling, 
 writing and lecturing. He was on one of his long 
 jaunts in Russia at the time of Scull's death, and 
 came back to the States early in the following year 
 and immediately started for the coast on a lecture 
 tour. From there he went into Mexico to collect data 
 on Mexican history and from there started East to 
 catch a ship sailing for Europe and the Russian peo- 
 ple to whom he is devoting the rest of his life. 
 
 Steffens had with Scull on the Commercial Carl 
 Hovey, now of the Metropolitan Magazine; Abra- 
 ham Cahan, a graduate of a Russian University and a 
 refugee, now the editor of that vastly successful daily 
 paper, "Forward;" Hutchins Hapgood, who was 
 afterwards to be an interpreter of radical move- 
 ments ; Robert Dunn, who was to do much fine writ-
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 63 
 
 ing and to see the War on five fronts and write about 
 it, beside Humphrey Nichols, Larkin Mead and a 
 lot of others, who came and went; and each one of 
 these men was a strange object in a newspaper office 
 where persons and work tend to get reduced to a 
 routine level. Steffens, always an extraordinary 
 man, possesses a romantic belief in the superiority 
 of creative expression to mere business or material 
 effort. So it was an odd and wonderful thing that 
 Scull could come from the academic atmosphere of 
 Harvard to a newspaper job in which many of the 
 esthetic ideas of Cambridge were in the air he 
 breathed. I doubt if he ever again found any atmos- 
 phere more congenial, although he was a many-sided 
 man and found himself at home in many places. 
 
 Steffens wrote this: 
 
 "Somebody at Harvard sent Scull to me: he said 
 they told him I would take a mere writer. And I 
 would. I wanted men who could write, so I passed 
 the word that I would take no reporter on my city 
 staff, no man who wanted to be a newspaper man ; I 
 wanted only fellows who cared to write — plays, 
 poems, essays, tales. And Scull was this sort. 
 
 "He looked this sort; a careless dresser, a loose- 
 moving, absent-minded beggar, his interest was in 
 'mere' writing, 'mere' art. Really he was an artist. 
 He had to be told, when we gave him an assignment, 
 where to go, how to get there, what car to take, 
 where to get off. And, halfway there, he would 
 telephone for a repetition of his instructions. Some-
 
 64 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 times he disappeared, never came back, till the next 
 day. 
 
 "Once when he went to 'cover' the measuring of 
 a yacht for an international yacht race, he was so lost 
 that I had to send out another reporter to get the 
 measurements and then find Scull. When the second 
 reporter came back, he had Scull in tow, and pointmg 
 to our humble sheepish friend, he explained: 
 
 " 'Found him on a wood-pile, back of the dock, 
 writing a poem, swinging his legs over the end of the 
 dock and when I asked him what he was doing he 
 said he was "just thinking a few thoughts." ' 
 
 "No matter, when Scull could happen at a place 
 where there was something to see — with his eyes — he 
 could write it so that the reader could see it. No one 
 ever read Scull's stuff; all he had to do was to look 
 at the page ; and he'd see it, see it as a scene. Scull 
 was great. 
 
 "We had him do scenes, here at first, then finally 
 the Boer War. You know. The English papers 
 stole his stuff till they could buy it. It was right to 
 steal Scull's stuff. Art is for the love of it; and it 
 is no crime to steal a picture or a good paragraph. 
 
 "Scull was a success with me. He served us as 
 we wished to be served. But we served him, too. We 
 made him write. 
 
 " 'Hurry up, Scull,' I'd say, knowing what I was 
 doing. 'Paper's going to press. That's a "must." 
 Force it.'
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 65 
 
 "He would look up at me, in agony, pleading for 
 mercy. 
 
 " 'Jam it,' I'd order, 'Hard.' 
 
 "And he'd do it, and go off, sick. It wasn't right; 
 not finished, not perfected; that news paragraph, 
 and I guess he hated me sometimes. But I did make 
 Scull write. 
 
 "That's what he needed. Poor slave of art that he 
 was, he couldn't do it alone. Scull's tragedy was 
 that, loving English, he knew what it ought to be. 
 Some Devil had told him how to write, how not to 
 write. He was a conscious artist. So he could never 
 let it go at that. He could never leave it. There 
 was always something more to do. How he did try. 
 That man worked. And what 'we' forced out of him 
 shows that, if he had had an editor all his life, an 
 editor that understood and cruelly treated him with 
 love — Guy Scull would have done us some perfect 
 English about our beautifully imperfect life. 
 
 "Good-bye. I have told what Scull wouldn't do. 
 You have forced me as I forced him. Take it as I 
 did — for what it's worth. And again, good-bye. 
 You are paying a tribute to a beautiful man." 
 
 Occasionally Scull was allowed to try his hand at 
 theatrical criticism. He wrote his Mother: 
 
 "Tomorrow night I shall probably be sent to see 
 a show. But only probably, as my last critcism was 
 cut down to three lines and even then they were none 
 of mine. Yesterday I bought a violin. Tonight I
 
 66 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 am to call upon the Holts. I can hear Dad saying, 
 'I hope he puts himself in evening clothes.' " 
 
 There were very few of even Scull's most intimate 
 friends who knew of the depth of the Skipper's liter- 
 ary ambitions and the genuine foundation for them. 
 
 "The only ones I know of," writes a fellow worker 
 on the Globe, "are Professor Copeland and Steffens. 
 Scull was very shy about this and as he grew older 
 grew touchy about the subject. All of us come in con- 
 tact with people who think they can write but don't. 
 His case was an entirely different matter, because he 
 had the goods. The fact he could not do the thing 
 in demand at the moment proved nothing. In spite 
 of the fact that he never achieved a real reputation 
 as a writer I was convinced in college and am equally 
 sure now that he possessed a literary gift as rare as it 
 was troublesome to the owner. He could not write 
 ordinary things. Only the deepest and most elemen- 
 tal passage in life made any appeal to his genius. 
 
 " 'A Man and the Sea' was a cameo — a sketch if 
 you like, of a perfect and deep-toned sort. Yet there 
 was a note of tragedy in the production of a genre 
 so really useless in literature. Scull could have gone 
 on producing such things aii his life, but as the effect 
 he wanted to produce, and did produce, could only 
 appeal to expert judges of literature, and not in any 
 way to the general public, it became a piece of self- 
 expression, a futile kind of work. As a painter Scull 
 could have expressed his feelings of the elemental 
 tragedy of man, or man's loneliness, his friendliness,
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 67 
 
 his generosity towards his fellows, his sentimental 
 kindness to woman, and a lot of other deep-seated 
 and tremendous attributes. He could have done it 
 as a poet. But it could not be done in prose unless 
 you were a novelist or short story writer. He was 
 neither of these. 
 
 "I have dwelt upon this beautiful little sea piece, 
 *A Man and the Sea,' simply because it is so signifi- 
 cant of the whole future of that side of Scull which I 
 knew best. 
 
 "Precisely the same extraordinary qualities were 
 found in the descriptive articles he wrote for the New 
 York Commercial Advertiser about the Boer War. 
 Anyone who read these stories of the fighting in South 
 Africa, pictures of camp fire, battle and march, and 
 do not feel that the writer possessed a genius for the 
 poignant, the sad, the picturesque, just as, say 
 Chopin possessed it, or Whistler possessed it, is sim- 
 ply without imagination in this regard. 
 
 "Appreciation of his work. Scull met with from 
 many persons and on many occasions. Copeland was 
 probably the first to see what was in him in a literary 
 way. Walter Page immediately recognized the ex- 
 traordinary quality of the short things which he saw. 
 Steffens realized that Scull was doing beautiful things 
 for the paper and gave him all the encouragement 
 possible. 
 
 "It was the narrowness of his gift, the fact that it 
 did not regularly fit into any of the ordinary journal- 
 istic or prose forms, which defeated him. Even Avai'
 
 68 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 correspondence has to be at times prosaic, matter- 
 of-fact, and commonplace. Scull could not be com- 
 monplace; he could not be prosaic. Facts bothered 
 him to such an extent that the effect was humorous, 
 and the result was that in the newspaper office his 
 work covered two extremes — at one moment he was 
 the brilliant war correspondent from South Africa, 
 but the next, as soon as the war was over, he was 
 doing the poorest drudgery of the office such as writ- 
 ing the daily weather story. How Steffens used to 
 smile at Scull in his shirt with his sleeves rolled up 
 over his muscular arms attempting to forge, like a 
 blacksmith, a light readable weather story. 
 
 "For besides being a personality Scull was also a 
 figure. To some men he always appeared a wild, 
 somewhat ragged, Don Quixote ready at any time to 
 give you the price of a drink, or start on an expedi- 
 tion to rescue a former Sunday School teacher in 
 Chinatown or shove off for South America for hidden 
 gold. Scull mocked his serious side, he never talked 
 about his writing to anybody, and he liked to feel 
 that he was always ready for a desperate adventure — 
 which he really was. 
 
 "All sorts of foolish things stand out in my recol- 
 lection of him. One afternoon Larkin Mead, a re- 
 porter on the same newspaper with Scull and my- 
 self, and I were waiting in the Criminal Courts 
 Building for something to happen. It was an in- 
 credibly gray and gloomy November day and we 
 were both sick of the over-heated, crowded corri-
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 69 
 
 dors smelling of antiseptic, and the overshadowing 
 Tombs. It occurred to us that it would be very pleas- 
 ant to spend the afternoon in the cafe across the 
 street, drinking, but none of us had any money. We 
 thought of Scull, who had just come back from some- 
 where in the Tropics, and using one of the news- 
 paper messenger boys we sent a note to him at the 
 office to come at once as we were in great need. Then 
 we went over to the cafe, settled down at a table in 
 the balcony, ordered everything we wanted, and 
 waited for him to find us. Of course he came, wear- 
 ing no overcoat and a straw hat which he had pur- 
 chased in Colon, of the brand 'El Popular.' Why 
 should I remember that hat? As soon as he had 
 learned of the great emergency he dug down deep in 
 his trousers pockets and drew out numerous pieces of 
 cnimpled-up green paper, and everything was pleas- 
 ant for hours to come. 
 
 "Guy Scull was a poet and a Don Quixote, and he 
 would have made a great pirate if he had not had 
 a tender heart. 
 
 "My recollections of Scull are an absurd mixture 
 of the sublime and the ridiculous. As he had friends 
 of all sorts and conditions you will undoubtedly re- 
 ceive pictures of him which make him appear at one 
 time like a Richard Harding Davis, at another like 
 an indomitable sleuth or government agent, and at 
 another like one of the conservative pillars of society. 
 I have no doubt that he was all of these things. To 
 me, however, he was a man whose genius never found
 
 70 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 sufficient expression — essentially and really an 
 
 artist." 
 
 "I went to the Slargent exhibition the other day," 
 writes Scull in one of his letters to his Mother, "and 
 was much impressed by the pictures. It is an absolute 
 disgrace that an exhibition of portraits of so famous 
 an artist as Sargent should be used as a place of 
 meeting for ye good people of Boston town to sip 
 their afternoon tea. There is an appreciation of art 
 
 for you." 
 
 The men whom he met in New York and those 
 whom he came in contact with through his work on 
 this newspaper made a great impression on Scull and 
 helped to fix more firmly than ever his desire to write 
 real things. He made a great many friends. It was 
 while he was still in this reporting work, but at the 
 time doing special work for the A P that I met him. 
 Firm and lasting friendships are sometimes founded 
 on little and very unimportant episodes. Such was 
 mine with him. 
 
 It was during one of the series of yacht races for 
 the America's Cup. This one was off Sandy Hook, 
 a long beat to windward down the Jersey Coast and 
 back again. With a number of other reporters for 
 afternoon newspapers I was stationed at the West- 
 ern Union and Postal towers on Navesink Highlands 
 where with powerful glasses the racing yachts were 
 followed over the course and their progress reported 
 by wire direct into the offices of the various City 
 Editors.
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 71 
 
 On this particular day, however, visibility was 
 poor. From the Navesink Highlands the most pow- 
 erful pair of binoculars could not even raise the 
 lightship far inside the starting line. In the emer- 
 gency I conceived the idea of riding a passing train 
 down to Asbury Park, off which the turning mark 
 was anchored, trying for the time there, flashing it 
 back into my office and possibly scoring a beat. I 
 reached my objective early, located the telegraph 
 office and ran a mile down to the beach to pick out 
 an observation post. The only things available in 
 this line were the Summer hotels all closed, the season 
 being over. However, I chose the tallest of these, 
 watched my chance, stole up the back stairs, broke out 
 of a balcony window and laboriously climbed the 
 steep roof to the ridge pole. As I came over the top 
 I saw, much to my dismay, a long-legged man astride 
 the highest peak, with binoculars glued to his eyes 
 and talking to a telegraph operator who had some- 
 how fastened his instrument to the shingles, and 
 while hanging on with one hand, was working his key 
 with the other. Neither man paid the slightest at- 
 tention to me. 
 
 "Hey," I finally shouted. "Got any objection to 
 my being up here?" 
 
 "Help yourself," returned the long-legged one. 
 
 Then issued a conversation something like this. 
 
 "Boats in sight?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "Shamrock leading?"
 
 72 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "Nope." 
 
 "Anywhere near the mark?" 
 "Nope." 
 
 I unslung my glasses and tried to hore through 
 the thickness off shore to pick up the racers. 
 " 'Bout where are they?" 
 "East by Nor'east." 
 "Where's the mark?" 
 "Dead East." 
 "Bad day for it." 
 "Yep." 
 
 "Sending much?" 
 "Yep." 
 
 That ended the attempt at conversation and I 
 confined my efforts to following the boats towards 
 the mark. Finally they reached and turned it. In 
 the meantime the operator had been ticking off the 
 story of the race as it was dictated by the long-legged 
 one with the binoculars. I got the time and was 
 wondering how I could get down without falling off 
 the roof when the long-legged one turned and said: 
 
 "Got a wire?" 
 
 "Yes, a mile away." 
 
 "Ten minutes help you?" 
 
 "You bet." 
 
 "Good. I'll hold my flash ten minutes." 
 
 I slid the roof, ripped the seat of my trousers and 
 broke all records, one hand free, for the mile flat. 
 At that, the long-legged one from the roof beat me
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 73 
 
 into his office with the flash. Reporting yacht races 
 is not regarded as serious work and ten minutes is 
 not much of a start, but it was serious business to us 
 and meant much in those days with an edition wait- 
 ing and all the chances between that ridge pole thirty- 
 odd miles down the Jersey coast and Park Row. 
 
 "I didn't know about that nail in the roof," said 
 the Skipper to me a few days later. "If it hadn't 
 been for that nail I had it figured we'd broke about 
 even." 
 
 Such is a good illustration of Scull's enterprise, 
 his kindly heart and his strong sense of fair-play. 
 
 While quartered at Asbury Park that autumn 
 Scull wrote his Mother that this town was about the 
 dullest place on the face of the globe but that the sea 
 air was good. 
 
 "This is Simday night," he adds, "and the people 
 in the hotel here are singing hynms and may the 
 Lord have mercy on their souls when they die." 
 
 Another newspaper man writes: 
 
 "Guy Scull and the hours we spent together stand 
 out in high relief in my memory. On this newspaper 
 a number of the staff were banded together by a com- 
 munity of interest and we two were among them. 
 
 "I remember him as a man of few words and pas- 
 sionate silences. Literature, poetry, and art in gen- 
 eral, seemed to be his religion. I can just see him 
 pulling away at his pipe, while listening to some de- 
 bate on Turgeniev or Meredith with eyes flashing 
 sparks of his inner fire. From the few words he
 
 74 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 would drop, one could see the full sincerity and depth 
 of his interest in matters of this kind. 
 
 "As for his own work on the paper, outside of rou- 
 tine reportorial matter, his specialty was humor — 
 funny, snappy causeries, staccato sentences, crisp and 
 alive with a sense of the drollness of human existence, 
 which piqued my curiosity and interest inordinately. 
 I remember cracking a cheap joke: 'He is a peculiar 
 Guy, with something back of his Scull.' There he 
 sits at his section of the long, dill table, which was 
 occupied by the reporters, in his shirt sleeves, pipe in 
 mouth, his eyes crinkling up in an intense study of 
 the air before hun. Then, with a sudden swoop, he 
 would fall to writing and smoking with amusing ve- 
 hemence. He made me feel that I had an ardent 
 friend in him, while he inspired me with enthusiasm 
 for himself. The more I knew him, the less I seemed 
 to know him. And yet I felt as though the less I 
 knew him the more I seemed to understand him. 
 
 "I never saw him after he left the paper. His 
 image is one of the striking portraits in the album 
 of my memory." 
 
 And yet another, who was assistant City Editor 
 of this same newspaper when the Skipper was a re- 
 porter, says of him: 
 
 "He was a lovable character, modest, diffident and 
 so very retiring. I write this on copy paper — what 
 better epitaph for the Skipper — however, what I have 
 to say poorly conveys the picture of him as I laiew 
 him!
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 75 
 
 "When Scull made his appearance on the city staff 
 of the 'Commercial Advertiser' we felt sorry for the 
 loose- jointed, uncouth individual who had dared enter 
 a field where mental activity and good leg work were 
 essentials. It was not very long, however, before 
 we all had to change our minds about Scull. We 
 quickly appreciated the fact that behind his mask of 
 modesty there lurked a keen mind, ready wit and 
 literary ability of no mean order. His funereal face 
 would light up frequently in telling a story and it 
 was a delight to listen to him. 
 
 "The Skipper, however, was prone to take things 
 literally and this habit one time led him into a bad 
 fix. A morning paper had an interview with Senator 
 Foraker, of Ohio, on some of the then important busi- 
 ness of the hour. The interview had been obtained in 
 Washington, but that morning in looking over the 
 'Hotel Arrivals' I found that the Senator had come 
 to this city. I called Steifens' attention to the inter- 
 view and suggested that we send some one up to see 
 the Senator and we might get an amplification of the 
 subject. 
 
 " 'All right,' he replied, 'send Scull.' 
 "So I called the Skipper and giving him the news- 
 paper clipping containing the interview I said: 'The 
 boss wants you to go and see Fire- Alarm Foraker 
 and ask him for further facts.' I elaborated some- 
 what on the matter, to all of which Scull listened 
 carefully, but in a somewhat puzzled way. Subse- 
 quent events showed that he had not the faintest idea
 
 «1 
 
 76 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 what I was talking about. However, like a good 
 reporter, he started off. About an hour later he 
 returned. 
 
 "'Well,' I asked, 'did you see the Senator?' 
 
 " 'Yes,' he replied, with that delicious drawl he 
 had, 'but what did you call him?' 
 
 ** 'Foraker.' I answered. 
 'No,' he insisted, 'you used another name.' 
 
 'For a moment I was stumped. Then it dawned 
 upon me. 
 
 " 'I called him Fire- Alarm Foraker. That is a 
 nickname which has been applied to him in Ohio and 
 in Washington.' 
 
 " 'That's it,' cried Scull in a relieved way, 'I called 
 him Mr. Fire- Alarm and they threw me out.' 
 
 "Scull never liked to be tied down to the routine 
 of a newspaper office. He was fortunate in having a 
 man like Steffens as his City Editor. He wrote his 
 copy with stumps of pencils, used any old kind of 
 paper and in fact was the most disorderly member 
 of the staff in that respect. He stood alongside of 
 my desk one morning and after contemplating the 
 several piles of clippings intended for different mem- 
 bers of the staff, the entries in the assignment book 
 which I had to make for Steffens and the pile of 'City 
 Copy' arranged in the order of importance, he sighed 
 and in most lugubrious tones said: 'Gee, you're a 
 wonder.' He never explained the remark. Perhaps 
 it was sarcasm. 
 
 "Wlien the Boer War broke out Scull vanished.
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 77 
 
 The next thing we knew about his whereabouts was 
 the receipt from him of letters from South Africa 
 describing events there. One letter I remember well. 
 Steff ens read it through and then giving it to me said, 
 'Put a good head on this.' The top line I chose was 
 'How they fought at Colenso.' That letter should 
 be looked up in the files of the Commercial Adver- 
 tiser and reprinted. 
 
 "While in a news sense the letters were discounted 
 by the cables, yet they had a wonderful literary merit. 
 There was no attempt at describing military manoeu- 
 vres, but his were stories of men and battles that had 
 attracted world-wide attention, told in a wonderful 
 way. In reading them I forgot I was in a building 
 on Park Row and was transported for the time being 
 to the scene of action. They were wonderful tales 
 of wonderful fights, stirringly told." 
 
 "Skipper Scull was by all odds the most simple, 
 lovable and entertaining man I ever knew," writes 
 another man speaking of this same time. "In be- 
 tween the times he roamed the earth covering the 
 Boer War, the Balkan flare-ups and other trifling 
 assignments in his scheme of things, I shared with 
 him most of the special story assignments on the 
 old 'Commercial Advertiser.' These ranged from 
 trailing Bill Devery about his night post at the 
 'pump,' to French balls, gunmen outings and police 
 raids. If he had to cover the story I usually went 
 with him, and he came along when I had to write it. 
 We started at the Harvard or Yale Club and wound
 
 78 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 up at the Skipper's room, where he invariably 
 stripped to the waist and sawed away on the 'cello 
 for hours. We lost a lot of sleep, but we gained a 
 good deal of experience in the other side of life, that 
 the Skipper never tired of looking over. He loved 
 all sorts of people, as I imagine Dickens must have 
 done, and nothing human in any end of town ever 
 seemed to surprise, ruffle or bore him." 
 
 From the time he began contributing to college 
 publications in Harvard Scull wrote continuously 
 either as a reporter, contributor or war correspon- 
 dent for about ten years. He covered the Boer War 
 in South Africa, the Venezuela complication, the 
 flare-ups in the Balkans, the opening of the Duma 
 in Russia, explorations in Newfoundland, the Russo- 
 Japanese War and the Buffalo Jones expedition to 
 Nairobi, British East Africa. Some of his news- 
 paper correspondence from South Africa during the 
 Boer War is still used today as an example of pure 
 English and strong descriptive writings in the En- 
 glish classes at Harvard University and Radcliff Col- 
 lege. Lack of space prevents using any of his work 
 
 in this book and it has been thought best to print 
 his writings in a separate volume at a later date. 
 
 Scull stopped writing suddenly. As has been said 
 he was shy and sensitive about this great desire of 
 his. He was either way up in the clouds over some 
 success or down deep in the dumps over a failure. 
 What he needed was a literary mentor like Copeland 
 at Harvard or Steffens in New York, but Scull was
 
 MAGAZINE WORK 79 
 
 too restless and too much on the move to pin himself 
 to any one person. There were only a few he would 
 even talk to about his work and criticism by others he 
 would not accept. Eventually it was the action of 
 one publisher in canceling a contract that prompted 
 him to cut loose so abruptly from the writing game. 
 This contract was made by Steffens, his friend, while 
 Scull was out of the country and when informed of 
 the news upon his return after a long absence he was 
 so elated and so sure that his future was made that 
 when the publishers asked him to let them out of the 
 contract on pure monetary reasons Scull was so dis- 
 gusted that he would not even hold them to their 
 agreement. To his way of thinking these men de- 
 liberately broke their word and he contemptuously 
 declined to talk with them. He went into a sulk and 
 none of his friends, even those closest to him, could 
 budge him in his determination to abandon forever 
 this field of work where a pledge and a contract meant 
 so little. 
 
 There was, however, in the last year of his life a 
 renewed interest in writing. His wife had succeeded 
 where others had failed in arousing it. They even 
 planned how they would resume the work together 
 and if death had not come so suddenly when it did 
 there is every reason to believe the Skipper would 
 have in another year been writing again and from 
 his great field of adventure and travel would have 
 produced some remarkable work.
 
 Chapter Yll 
 
 ^t:xezuela— 1901 
 
 Whex troubles between the o\\Tiers of asphalt con- 
 cessions in Venezuela made it look like interference 
 by foreign powers or actual intervention by the 
 U. S. A. Caprino Castro, dictator and self-made 
 President of Venezuela, held the headlines of every 
 American daily of any size for a good part of a year. 
 Collier's Weekly had Richard Harding Davis, the 
 war correspondent, engaged to cover the story, and 
 James H. Hare, the photographer, to accompany 
 him. But at the last minute something happened 
 to keep Davis at home and Collier's signed up Scull. 
 One of the editors of Collier's, who was rooming with 
 Scull then as he had been some years before, says: 
 
 "This was where I got even with 'Skip.' The night 
 before he left for South Africa I had casually asked 
 him where he was going and he said 'South Africa' 
 as nonchalantly as though he were headed for 
 'Jack's.' This night when he came home about 1 
 A. M. as usual and got out the old 'cello to play him- 
 self to sleep, I asked him where he was going in the 
 momino' and he va^^Tied: 'Oh, I don't know.' and 
 I replied 'I do,' and he a.sked 'Where?' and I said 
 'Venezuela.' That was the only time I ever had the 
 Skipper guessing." 
 
 80
 
 VENEZUELA 81 
 
 So to Venezuela went Scull on less than twelve 
 hours' notice. Hare, who was his companion on tliis 
 trip, tells the story of their voyage and arrival. 
 
 "We were the only two passengers in the first cabin 
 of the Red D. Line Steamer," he writes, "and I re- 
 member the Port Captain bidding us good-bye and 
 saying 'You two fellows have a private yacht to 
 yourselves.' We boarded it in a blinding snow storm 
 and on the way to the dock cashed our draft for ex- 
 penses at the bank, deciding to take the money in gold 
 in five, ten and twenty dollar pieces. 
 
 "I will admit I was a little disappointed at Davis 
 not going, he was such a delightful companion and 
 of course was a most experienced newsgatherer, to 
 say nothing of his usually inmiaculate appearance, 
 while Scull was practically a novice and in those days 
 somewhat slouchy in appearance — but you had only 
 to be in his company a short time to find out that 
 appearances comited for little, and that he was a rat- 
 tling good fellow, though somewhat erratic. 
 
 "This was confirmed when he suggested that we 
 wouldn't need to keep a detailed expense account of 
 how we spent our money, but just take a handful 
 and when that was gone — take more! I always had 
 a feeling that I was negligent in not keeping a strictly 
 itemized account of my expenses, yet, here was a man 
 who had me beaten to a frazzle. I discovered later 
 when I came to know him better, that money meant 
 nothing to him, that it was impossible for him to in- 
 terest himself in it — but, when I picked up a D ^uble
 
 82 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Eaglp on the flc or of his stateroom and discovered 
 that he had at least $300.00 in gold in his trousers' 
 pockets hanging on a hook and the door open to any 
 deck-hand to enter — I put up a protest that it was 
 not fair to his room steward, because if any of it was 
 stolen, the steward would probably be blamed — and 
 then Scull consented to give his money in charge of 
 the Purser. 
 
 "After a few days out of New York we ran into 
 warmer weather and Guy's peculiarities asserted 
 themselves, this time in a new direction. He decided 
 he needed a haircut and asked me to act as the ton- 
 sorial artist, which I promptly refused to do — but 
 that did not 'phaze' him, he said 'Oh well, I'll cut it 
 myself and sure enough borrowed a pair of scissors 
 and hacked away at it himself much to the amusement 
 of the officers and crew of the ship. 
 
 "I felt a little mean that I had not consented to 
 officiate when I saw the results whioh can be readily 
 imagined. But he was unperturbed. He had an old 
 strap around his trousers, which were baggy and 
 needed pressing, but when I would gently remonstrate 
 on the looks of them, he would pull the buckle up an- 
 other notch and say 'there, how's that?' and was 
 happy and apparently oblivious of any shortcoming 
 in his appearance. In fact, dress was about the last 
 thing in the world to trouble him. 
 
 "It was very hot in Caracas and I bought a cheap 
 white duck suit for myself as I noticed all the Amer- 
 icans and Europeans there wore white clothes — but
 
 VENEZUELA 83 
 
 that only afforded him ground for humor, and he 
 lost no time in chaffing me good-naturedly that I 
 was 'a Dude.' I tried very hard to induce him to 
 get into white also — but to no avail, even when Mr. 
 Loomis, the American IMinister, invited us to dine, 
 'twas the same old black suit which needed pressing 
 that he wore with the same old strap around the waist, 
 and he was as perfectty at home with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Loomis as though clad in the latest dinner coat and 
 gold buttons. 
 
 "Dear Old Skipper — he was too big a man to care 
 about clothes in any man — himself included! 
 
 "Dr. Aughinbaugh and wife, Americans, were liv- 
 ing at the Hotel in Caracas where we stopped and 
 we soon got on friendly terms with them. Some few 
 days after we arrived the doctor said : 
 
 " 'There was a pretty good joke on you fellows 
 when you got off the ship. Of course we rubbered 
 and enquired who you were and were told that the 
 big fellow (Guy) was a journalist, but that the little 
 one (Hare) had got slathers of money and had only 
 come down here to make pictures! and I said to my- 
 self, where do these Englishmen get all their money?' 
 
 "Needless to say that was one on me. Here was I, 
 a poor, struggling photographer with a wife and half 
 a dozen kiddies to provide for which kept my nose to 
 the grindstone, and here was the Skipper just out of 
 Harvard, son of wealthy parents, and I recognized as 
 the rich man of the two." 
 
 In Collier's during March and April, 1901, ap-
 
 84 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 peared Scull's articles and Hare's photographs. 
 Scull wrote about the asphalt war, the international 
 question, President Castro and his cabinet, the 
 Venezuelan people at work and play, and in one arti- 
 cle he touched upon the Leper Colony. Scull told 
 me that what he saw he could not write because it 
 was too horrible. Yet he was fascinated by these 
 unfortunates. There is in this article of Scull's a 
 touch of sadness and melancholy which is conspicuous 
 in much of his writings, either because he was such 
 a master of this style or because he so easily dropped 
 into it. In telling the story of one of his visits to 
 the Lepers he writes: 
 
 "The carriage turned around a sharp corner in the 
 road, and before us stood a low, one-story building — • 
 all alone in the country of the forsaken plain — the 
 building which had been reared as an asylum for the 
 lepers of the land. * * * 
 
 "Then as we came to the building others of this 
 colony collected in a wondering group near the cut- 
 ting in the wall — a high-peaked arch — which stood in 
 the place of a doorway. They came forth from the 
 inside of the building, stealthily, silently, gathering 
 from the far ends of the broad brick veranda which 
 fronted the hospital. They came in twos and threes, 
 or singly, but always with scarcely any noise. Here 
 came a man dressed all in white. Here came another 
 from out beneath the archway resting his weight on 
 the shoulder of a young boy, whose face had already 
 become horribly marked with the disease. Here came
 
 VENEZUELA 85 
 
 a man walking close to the balustrade of the veranda 
 who, with an outstretched, fingerless hand, leaned 
 with each step he took on the uppermost stones of the 
 balustrade. Behind him followed two women, each 
 with an arm about the other's waist. The man who 
 leaned on the balustrade stood head and shoulders 
 above the rest. The face of this man was unlovely; 
 and yet, when he laughed at something the interpre- 
 ter said, that laugh was like a human being's. In the 
 background stood two women. One of these was well 
 on in years — the hair had receded far back from the 
 forehead, and there were curls there, like an old maid 
 who is still careful of her appearance. On her hand 
 she wore a ring that she might look the more beauti- 
 ful. But her face was like the face of the man. 
 
 *'Her companion was tall and dark-eyed and fair 
 to see. Her skin was clear and unblemished. Her 
 figure was neatly cut, and she seemed to have taken 
 care with her dress — even the Imot of her black velvet 
 belt was tied to lie flat and even. She carried herself 
 with the proud bearing of an ideal queen. 
 
 "'The disease attacks the extremities first,' ex- 
 plained the doctor as we passed by these two standing 
 in the shade of the veranda. 'She is beautiful now, but 
 later on it will come to her face.' 
 
 "What the doctor knew, the girl also understood — 
 the disease would later come to her face. She stood 
 there holding herself erect, as if proud of what she 
 still possessed, and wondrous fair to see, with her 
 arm laid resting about the waist of the other woman
 
 86 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 —this other woman, who was always present as a liv- 
 ing example of what she herself would soon become." 
 
 The doctor mentioned, following his work in this 
 Leper Colony of Venezuela, went through the Bu- 
 bonic Plague in India and in China. Scull in the 
 Collier's article refers to him as continually smoking 
 cigarettes, dwelling at length upon the dexterity 
 with which the doctor "rolled his own." After Scull 
 returned to New York he sent a copy of Collier's 
 to the doctor. The doctor, it happened, never 
 smoked. He is rather particular about this and he 
 wrote Scull immediately expressing his surprise at 
 any necessity of having to refer to him as a smoker 
 when he, Scull, knew his aversion even to the odor 
 of tobacco. 
 
 *'I will never forget," writes the doctor, "Scull's 
 reply to my criticism. He said that he knew how 
 easy it was for men in public life to get into trouble 
 in Venezuela and on what small x^i'etext they had 
 been arrested and thrown into prison and he had 
 purposely inserted this allusion to my smoking in 
 order that if anything came of the article that I 
 could say in my defense that this man, the writer, 
 never knew me or saw me because everyone in offi- 
 cial life in Venezuela knew my aversion to smoking 
 and that I did not smoke. Such was the farsighted- 
 ness of this man Scull. He was thinking of my 
 defense and my protection all the time he was writing. 
 
 "I can never forget the terrible impression the 
 several hundred patients in that hospital made upon
 
 VENEZUELA 87 
 
 Scull. His sensitive nature revolted at the horrible 
 sights which confronted him and his sympathetic 
 soul was filled with pity for the sufferers within its 
 walls. He told me that he never realized that a dis- 
 ease could be so terrible and wondered how humanity 
 could stand it. 
 
 "I met Scull on many occasions in later years and 
 he never failed to refer to this sad picture which had 
 made such an indelible impression on his mind and 
 which seemed to have seared his soul with horror. 
 I have met many men of all stations in various parts 
 of the world, but I recall but few who had the broad 
 sympathy and the deep regard for his fellow men 
 that possessed Guy Scull, and it is with no small 
 degree of affectionate regard that I write these words 
 concerning him,"
 
 Chapter VIII 
 THE BALKANS— 1903 
 
 Scull missed seeing the Big War the year he 
 went into the Balkans. He was just eleven years 
 too soon. There was a mobilization, innumerable 
 skirmishes between irregular mountain forces and the 
 Turks, with the belligerent Bulgarians strutting back 
 and forth on their side of the line, and the Serbs, Rou- 
 manians and Macedonians kicking up a dust and 
 threatening to start something along their line, but — 
 no war. Still, as the Skipper said, "j^ou never can 
 tell, it might happen and agin it mightn't." So he 
 quietly disappeared one day and took passage east- 
 ward. Those who knew "Skip," remember that he 
 prophesied when war came it would start in the 
 Balkans, and he was right. He was on the scene 
 looking for it in 1903. He tramped up and down 
 the war belt, or front line, or whatever such zones 
 were called in those days. He talked with the mem- 
 bers of war councils, mixed with the soldiers, precipi- 
 tated many and varied clashes between the authorities 
 over permission to get into what squabbles there 
 were, but he couldn't find the war. 
 
 Altogether he must have had a most exciting time 
 but if it had not been for his "bunkie" that year, we 
 
 8i?
 
 THE BALKANS 89 
 
 would not have a line to tell us of Scull's adventures. 
 This bunkie was John L. C. Booth, an artist on the 
 staff of the London Graphic and a war correspon- 
 dent whom Scull got to know in South Africa durmg 
 the Boer War. Booth wrote a book on the adven- 
 tures of himself and the Skipper and illustrated it. 
 
 "Trouble in the Balkans," is the title of this book, 
 and it is dedicated to Scull. Skip's copy had on the 
 flyleaf hi Booth's handwrituig: 
 
 "To Bear Old Scully in memory of many Good 
 Days. John L. C. Booth." 
 
 "Trouble in the Balkans" starts right off, first line, 
 first chapter, to tell about Scull. It reads: 
 
 '"Putties, shooting-boots, spurs (h'm— one strap 
 broken), pistol, ammunition, sketch books, and so 
 forth, down a pencilled 'list of kit,' as the objects 
 mentioned (barring the broken strap) were fitted 
 scientifically into a sturdy brown kit-bag— a dear old 
 travelled thing, with a patch at one corner put on at 
 Ladysmith. The studio was thick with tobacco 
 smoke, and the autumn sun, filtering through the top- 
 light, lit and glinted on small piles of the indispens- 
 ables of a man preparing for rough times in the open. 
 Out of the comer by the fire a newspaper rustled 
 jerkily, and 'Skip's' voice observed: 'Say, there's hell 
 to pay in Raslog. Here's a Renter wire says insur- 
 gents attacked Turks near the village of How-d'ye- 
 call-it, and Turks afterwards entered village an' 
 massacred all hands. People burnt at the stake an' 
 a real hot time all round. An' here's Laffin-an'-
 
 90 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Jokin' says negotiations broken off an' war consid- 
 ered inevitable. Whoopee! boy, if we can't get our 
 throats cut this time you can call us slow!' 
 
 "All summer the Sultan's troops had been amus- 
 ing themselves on the above lines, and now it seemed 
 that Bulgaria was going to strike a blow for her fel- 
 low Christians over the border. This cheery prophet 
 in the corner — yachting ten days before at North- 
 East Harbour, U. S. A. — had fired himself across 
 the Atlantic, spurred by some such news as this and 
 'coming up with a song from the sea' found me in 
 the final stages of 'go-fever,' the only cure for which 
 is — to go. So together Skip and I rushed to news- 
 paper offices, whose comfortable inhabitants predicted 
 a lingering and untidy death and rashly entrusted us 
 with the supply of a little news from the Balkans — 
 the good old Balkans, where there's always something 
 doing. So the kit was packed, the old studio locked 
 up, and we rolled away under the Victoria signals, 
 'pulling out on the trail again.' And now, suddenly, 
 the enclosing walls of the London life fell away from 
 us, and dwindled, with all that was written on them, 
 to littleness and unimportance. One's mind looked 
 from a balloon and saw shops, 'buses, Tuppenny 
 Tube, offices and editors as tiny things in an ant city. 
 Nothing behind mattered. Everything important lay 
 in that vague country ahead, pictured already in im- 
 agination. Two hours later, great-coated and hands 
 in pockets, we were on the wet deck of the Flushing 
 steamer, leaning against a solid wind that blew one's
 
 
 
 Hixrixc THoiiii.i': i.\ iiii-: hai.kans 
 
 From a diairini/ hii ./. /,. r. Itnulli in liis hnnl,-. ■■'! rmililr in llii Unllidiif
 
 THE BALKANS 91 
 
 moustache into all sorts of shapes, and smelling the 
 good North Sea outside Queensborough harbour." 
 
 They spent a night in Holland, pushed on again 
 across Germany and stopped off a couple of nights 
 in Vienna, the Skipper running the customs "with 
 everything on him including a big Colt at his hip," 
 and nothing in his trunks. Booth describes one night 
 spent in a Vienna cafe amid much music and gaiety 
 and tells how the Skip picked up a strange instru- 
 ment which he called a "double-shafted" guitar and 
 made real music on it much to the delight of the 
 Viennese. 
 
 From Vienna they crossed into Serbia and from 
 thence went into Bulgaria, encountering many ad- 
 ventures of a peaceful nature. At Sofia they found 
 the air full of war talk. Troops were on the frontier, 
 resources, stores and supplies dumped at the rail- 
 roads. The two strangers had a wonderful time 
 fraternizing with the soldiers and the politicians. 
 They marched with the troops and they marched by 
 themselves. Becoming bored with the guides they 
 gave these same guides the slip and tried short cuts to 
 the nearest trouble zone, were caught and examined 
 by sundry authorities, the Skipper in each case as- 
 suming command of the situation and in his American 
 fashion bluffing it through. Then they would prom- 
 ise to be good and go back to the regular lines of 
 travel. For weeks they slept in the open or on some 
 bench in a mountain cabin. Booth describes one 
 evening adventure as follows:
 
 92 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "An outside staircase from the yard led to the bed- 
 room, and its window looked out on to a wooden 
 balcony occupied by a flock of geese which flapped 
 and cackled to the banishment of all sleep. In due 
 time from Skip's bed came a muffled voice — 'Say, 
 you fellas, why don't you chase those dam ducks 
 out o' that?' 
 
 " 'Your job,' yawned the Oof -bird;* 'you two both 
 nearer the window than I am.' 
 
 " 'If I move,' said I, 'this rickety bed of mine'll 
 fall to pieces. Go on, one of you.' Here ensued a 
 mighty tramping on the staircase as half a dozen 
 men advanced and drove the geese shrieking into the 
 yard. But the cure was worse than the disease, for 
 the new flock brought chairs, sat down on the bal- 
 cony, and held a heated revolutionary meeting. 
 
 "We woke to find Dubnitza in the throes of mar- 
 ket-day, and after the solemn rite of Slivovitz had 
 been celebrated, bored our way out of the town 
 through a close-packed mob of ponies, oxen, wagons, 
 sheep, fruit-stalls and some hundreds of queer-look- 
 ing beings. Not least of these was our new driver, 
 a person of most villainous countenance and a wall- 
 eye. He was swathed from armpits to thigh in 
 enough red cloth to carpet the aisle of The Abbey, 
 in the folds of which was concealed everything he 
 owned. 
 
 "Past the barracks and cavalry lines, where rows 
 of smart little horses were being vigorously groomed, 
 
 * Courier.
 
 THE BALKANS 
 
 93 
 
 and out over a stout bridge. About a mile doAvn the 
 road the trouble began. The mummies were not 'for 
 it,' a shambling run of ten yards or so being as much 
 as they could manage at a time. 'Skip,' mounting 
 the box, seized the whip and whaled them with all- 
 embracing sweeps. Twice in twenty yards the 
 
 ON THE WAY TO SAMAKOV 
 
 driver's fur cap spun from his head into the dust, and 
 the long lash accurately picked out the faces of the 
 unhappy inside passengers. However, the beasts 
 woke up a little, and under continued treatment main- 
 tained a steady average of three miles an hour as far 
 as a little roadside inn. Here 'Skip' with streaming 
 face threw the broken whip in the road and rested 
 from his labours."
 
 94 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Finally tired out with their barterings and bicker- 
 ings for guidance to the front Booth and Scull de- 
 cided to give both soldiers and politicians the slip and 
 attempt to reach a band of irregular forces who were 
 constantly at war with the Turks in the mountains. 
 So they hid away in the hills and finally located a 
 revolutionary leader who arranged for a conference 
 with his chiefs. The conference came off with all the 
 stage settings of a regular Bowery melodrama. 
 
 "A tearing wind blew out of the darkness down the 
 ill-lit main street," writes Booth. "The cafe lights 
 at the comer and the chinks of the shuttered street- 
 windows glimmered through a whirl of dust, leaves, 
 scraps of paper and powdered rubbish which the gale 
 whisked up and carried with it. 
 
 "In the gloom of a wall, sneezing in the thick 
 smother, we waited and watched the street corner. 
 Across the road a dark form stood in a doorway and 
 watched the watchers. Now and then a man passed, 
 hunched against the wind and holding his hat on. 
 Suddenly round the corner came a short figure hurry- 
 ing past us with a wave of the hand. At ten yards' 
 distance we followed, stumbling over the rough road- 
 way with the grit filling eyes and nostrils, till our 
 guide slowed down at a deserted corner and let us 
 come up with him. 
 
 " 'It's all right,' he said in a hoarse whisper; 'he 
 will be there. Come quickly and make no noise.' 
 
 "On again down an utterly dark alley, falling over 
 great stones and splashing through an invisible stream
 
 THE BALKANS 95 
 
 which ran do^vn the middle. At the end was a high 
 wall over which sounded a threshing of branches. 
 The short man rat-tatted a private signal on a high 
 double-door. As we stood silent a gust carried a rush 
 of dry leaves round the wall, and a roaring of wind 
 and trees came out of the darkness behind it. A girl 
 opened the door, barred it after us, and led through 
 dark tree-masses up invisible steps and down a nar- 
 row passage to where a little oil lamp burned weakly 
 in a low room. * * * 
 
 "A sallow-faced man, with a short, black beard and 
 moustache, came in with a handful of papers, glanc- 
 ing suspiciously at us ; but the sight of our reverend 
 friend reassured him, and sitting down the two talked 
 in Bulgarian. The insurgent wore an ordinary black 
 coat and soft black hat tilted back. Behind him had 
 come his despatch-bearer, a young peasant, who sat 
 on the divan in the dim background. Whilst the 
 wind howled in the window-chinks the missionary 
 unfolded our proposal to join one of the chetas, or 
 bands, on the frontier. 
 
 " *Ah! can they walk?' asked the leader. *It is 
 hard work, mind you; they may have to climb all 
 day.' 
 
 "We thought we were equal to it. 
 
 " 'And it will mean carrying a rifle and ammuni- 
 tion — probably fighting.' 
 
 "We would do what we could in that direction, 
 too. And now, for our part, what about getting our 
 news and sketches sent back?
 
 96 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "They would undertake to send a special messen- 
 ger whenever practicable to bring them down to the 
 nearest post-office. 
 
 "Question and answer ran on in the same guarded 
 undertone. As we sat, all four heads together, it 
 reminded me of nothing so much as a game of 
 'clumps,' in a drawing-room at home, only that our 
 faces could not approach in expression the tense 
 seriousness which goes to the unravelling of that 
 knotty problem, 'animal, vegetable, or mineral?' 
 The oily flame of the little lamp was right behind the 
 insurgent's head, and his face — all in shadow — melted 
 into the black of his beard and humped shoulders. 
 The yellow light touched the gray locks of the old 
 missionary and emphasized the wrinkles which al- 
 ways gave the suggestion of a smile to his face. Old 
 Skip's fine profile was sharply outlined against the 
 glare, as he tapped thoughtfully on the crown of his 
 battered straw. 
 
 "It was arranged in the end that the young warrior 
 sitting there in the corner should carry to the leader 
 of a band in the mountains the offer of the two volun- 
 teers, and with all speed return with the answer. In 
 two or at most three days we should know what were 
 the prospects of seeing life with the avenging hillmen. 
 "Meanwhile we must possess our souls in as much 
 patience as might be, and work up the leg-muscles. 
 Finally, we were sworn to profound secrecy as to our 
 visit and all things connected with it." 
 
 The two correspondents waited patiently for the
 
 THE BALKANS 97 
 
 word to start, writing each day letters to their re- 
 spective publications. 
 
 "Keeping up the Natal tradition," writes Booth, 
 "we never shaved on mail day till the work was off. 
 The two little bedroom tables were pulled out, gar- 
 nished with paper and great store of tobacco, and 
 there followed many hours of solemn silence with an 
 occasional voice demanding the name of a bridge, 
 or the number of troops at Nastikoff. The flies 
 buzzed in and out of the open windows, the shabby 
 draggle-tailed geese took dust-baths in the baking 
 street, and 'Skip's' indelible pencil straggled on and 
 on. Whenever he was at a loss for a word it was his 
 habit to scratch his head with the point of this pencil 
 to stimulate his brain; indeed, it wandered indiffer- 
 ently up and down his person, till by the end of the 
 day he was all over purple blotches. Then he would 
 charge the post-office with his fat envelopes, full of 
 fierce determination not to miss the mail, and the peo- 
 ple would fade away from before him at the sight of 
 that tattooed face as they would before an armed 
 
 cannibal. 
 
 "With the work safely off, soap and Avater flew 
 through the air, razors flashed and hair-brushes 
 waved. Each man put on his other shirt, tied his tie 
 or folded his stock with fearful precision, and sallied 
 out to dine with the Mountain Gunners. 
 
 "There were about a dozen of them there, of all 
 sorts and sizes, in the dark-blue day-jackets of their 
 battery— Prince Boris's Own— with trim beards or
 
 98 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 shaven chins, and sturdy, useful-looking men all. 
 Very simple and undecorated their mess-room, with 
 its bare floor and white walls. 
 
 "'Here, do you see?' — the Major led us by the arms 
 to a portrait of the boy prince, Bulgaria's heir-appar- 
 ent — 'here is our Colonel. We are his regiment — 
 proud!' He pointed to his little Colonel's silver in- 
 itial on his epaulette. 'Now we will dine.' 
 
 "And dine we did! First liqueur — two or three 
 glasses were de rigeur. Then we entered into a 
 labyrinth of strange meats, soups, and wondrous 
 foods which all happened where they were least ex- 
 pected and followed each other with breathless speed. 
 In the merry-go-round I recognized split sausages, 
 and distinctly remember some fat unknown vegetable 
 which we took with our fingers from a dish in the 
 middle of the table. I never met it before or since. 
 The shower of dishes covered a determined attack 
 on our sobriety by all troops present, and the men 
 on each side, armed with flagons of vino and raki, 
 poured in a steady stream of fire-water. 
 
 "Out of the stacks of crockery stood up some silver 
 models of different sized shells, their own little seven- 
 pounder among them. This was the only specimen 
 of mess-plate, and it was easy to see that in ordinary 
 times the whole tone of the mess was simplicity and a 
 complete absence of luxury of any kind. They live 
 as soldiers of a past age, and easy chairs and lounges 
 are no part of their life. 
 
 "As the last of the panorama of plates disappeared
 
 THE BALKANS 99 
 
 and tobacco smoke mingled over the table, the Major 
 sent for his mandoline and charmed us with the music 
 of his country. He laid his hand on it so that it 
 talked and told us through those plaintive airs all that 
 the men of old time had suffered under the Turkish 
 yoke — the yearnings and cryings of a people in bond- 
 age. Slowly it told of the labour and the burden too 
 heavy to bear, then in came a sad little song of weari- 
 ness, and on this a growing protest rising to a wild 
 burst of rage against the oppressor, and an outcr}^ for 
 help. Then it died down — impotent, hopeless — to 
 take up the colourless, profitless work in the heat 
 again. Plainer than any words were the little melo- 
 dies, made long ago, not with cunning but out of the 
 sorrow of the soul. 
 
 "The regimental songster now came on, and pro- 
 duced familiar friends from Faust and II Trova- 
 tore from great strength and without accompaniment. 
 Then Skip and I put up 'A Hot Time in the Old 
 Town To-night' — alack ! that our 'war-drum' had had 
 to be left behind in Sofia — and more classic song of 
 the same ilk. A fine warlike ballad in Bulgarian, 
 with a fiery chorus of all the gallant Gunners, cleared 
 th^ way for the big plum of the evening, a fighting- 
 drinking song, the first verse of which might be 
 roughly put down as: 
 
 ** 'After battle fierce and gory, 
 *A11 ablaze with fame and glory, 
 *Give us, while we tell the story, 
 *Vino, vino — 
 'Wine to cheer the heart.'
 
 100 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 or words to that effect. The 'Vino, vino' chorus is 
 easy, and so is the tune, and we all stood up and waved 
 glasses in the vibrating air and roared at the full 
 pitch of our lungs. Oh Lord! the row! Again and 
 again the bellowing rose, with glass clinkings and 
 vows of good fellowship. 
 
 "Whilst they all wrote their unspeakable names in 
 my sketchbook I heard Skip translating 'Down the 
 Road, Away Went Polly' into German — 'das ist ein 
 Pf erd' — for the benefit of a polite but mystified officer 
 whose acquaintance with 'Mr. Gus Elen' (as near as 
 he could get Scull's name) was but then beginning. 
 After we two had delivered 'For He's a Jolly Good 
 Fellow' for the special benefit of the Major, best of 
 hosts, the whole train-band — jolly good fellows all — 
 saw us back to the local Carlton and left us." 
 
 The next day the battery went off hurriedly on 
 a march in the hills and on special invitation the two 
 strangers went along with them. They marched up 
 the mountains and found, according to Booth, much 
 evidence of Turkish raids and barbarity, but no action 
 on the part of the battery. In the valley town they 
 waited a few more days for the word and at last it 
 came. It was "no go." 
 
 This, once and for all, decided them that in ac- 
 cepting government hospitality they were only losing 
 time and being "strung along," as "Skip" said, by the 
 authorities. So they prepared, in "Skip's" slang, to 
 "hop the reservation" and one mornmg they just cas- 
 ually disappeared. Once out of sight of the last
 
 THE BALKANS 101 
 
 village outpost they took to the hills and struck out in 
 the direction where from all they had heard they 
 might expect the first trouble and see the first evi- 
 dence of this barbarous border warfare. In doing all 
 this they deliberately courted trouble. They were 
 chased bj^^ the police. They were chased by the army. 
 They were hidden and fed by the natives with whom 
 Skip made instant conversation and established 
 friendly relations despite the fact he could not speak 
 a word of their language. Thej'^ became lost, suf- 
 fered from hunger and from exposure but kept push- 
 ing on hoping, by some chance, to meet up with or 
 be captured by some "cheta" and either be held for 
 ransom or put behind a rock and made to fight, 
 which, after all, was what they had come for. They 
 met several rebel leaders in disguise and parleyed 
 with them but to all of no use. The last conference 
 ran well into the night with much hope. But, alas 
 Booth describes the end of it as follows: 
 
 "We all talked volubly in the sign-language, and 
 my partner's imitation of shooting Turks was en- 
 tirely convincing. I often think of those conversa- 
 tions and all we told each other, and then remember, 
 marvelling, that not six words could have been 
 spoken. 
 
 "It was plain that they had been trying to get 
 through into Macedonia, but without success. The 
 application of a little vino conjured up brighter 
 hopes for the future, and the possibility of two of the 
 Foreign Legion joining them in another dash for lib-
 
 102 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 erty and what-d'you-call it. We parted firm friends 
 and went to bed. 
 
 "At the horrid hour of midnight a light flashed in 
 my face and dark figures filled the room. Someone 
 apologized in French for the intrusion of the police. 
 Out of a dark corner came 'Skip's' drowsy Boston 
 voice: 'This is where little Willie goes to gaol.' I 
 saw the pair of us transported to Sofia loaded with 
 chains — legs tied tinder the ponies — to be tried for 
 high treason or lese majeste, or some such peccadillo. 
 The imposing parade only wanted to see the pass- 
 ports of their casual visitors, and thumped out again 
 with their lanterns. 
 
 "At breakfast their spokesman, a stout doctor, 
 came to renew his apologies, and was himself decoyed 
 into the conspiracy, so that before the morning was 
 out he was in close confab with the ring-leader in the 
 underground drinking den, egged on by the foreign 
 fellas. But the bandsmen had thought better of it 
 in the night, and little old Bulgaria was good enough 
 for them. 
 
 '"Too late — too late for this year.' Besides, the 
 Turks' peasant-shooting season had closed. 
 
 " 'In the spring — yes, if the Englishmen come back 
 in the spring we will take them with pleasure.' 
 
 "We climbed back into the air again — dead fail- 
 ures. 
 
 " 'Huh! Bet your life! There'll be trouble in the 
 Balkans in the spring.' quoted Skip ironically.
 
 THE BALKANS 103 
 
 'Where's their grit? Don't amount to a hill o' 
 beans.' 
 
 ''The doctor was emphatic on the hopelessness of 
 any further attempt, and there was nothing for it but 
 the home trail. 
 
 "At half-past four the next morning we sat in the 
 dark eating bread and cheese and swallowing tchai 
 (thin tea and sliced lemon in a glass) , waiting for the 
 dawn. Not till six was there light enough to see the 
 trail. The hot streams were steaming in the cold dusk 
 as we cantered down the valley with a sporting peas- 
 ant on a smart bay pony. Away over the Sunday 
 trail, till up in the hills we halted to watch the sun 
 rise through rolling pink clouds over the mountains 
 of Macedonia. 
 
 "Neither yearned to ascend the toboggan shute — 
 *nema, nema !' Cunningly we chose a way leading by 
 gentle stages round the obstruction, forgetting the 
 base treachery of mountain trails. The pestilent path 
 tacked uphill and lured us further from our point at 
 each leg of it. Then, having landed its victims in the 
 thick of a young pine forest and four inches of snow, 
 it vanished without a word. Towing the ponies, we 
 made a bee-line through those crowded Christmas- 
 trees to the crest. The bushes grew close together 
 like turnips and shot avalanches of snow down the 
 necks of our open shirts. Under the wet snow on the 
 ground were invisible logs, and every ten yards one 
 of us was flat on his face with a grunting pony on 
 top of him.
 
 104 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 " *By — the ten — colours,' growled Skip between 
 his clenched teeth, pulling his old hat out of a drift 
 and welting his jibbing animal from behind, 'whoever 
 made you — made a mistake!' 
 
 "Sodden from head to heel and sweating in the 
 sun, we struck the cross-track on the summit and 
 jogged along the top of the divide to pick up our 
 down- trail at the woodcutter's camp. Some eagles 
 circled in the air over the carcase of a sheep, and 
 waiting till one settled on a dead tree I stalked him 
 with the Webley — and missed. 
 
 ***** 
 
 "At half past five in the evening we steamed into 
 Sofia station in the rain. Empty, sloppy streets; 
 empty, smelly hotel. No news, and everything gone 
 flat as a punctured air-balloon. The town was dead 
 and all our 'gang' gone home. 
 
 "We packed our kits and followed them." 
 While Scull was thus posing as a human target 
 between the lives of the Turks and the Bulgarians 
 all this time, the following is a sample of the cheery 
 letters he was writing home to his mother: 
 
 Sofia, Oct. 6, 1903. 
 
 Booth and I arrived here yesterday and are now 
 about to start for Kostendil to have a look at the
 
 THE BALKANS 105 
 
 Bulgarian defenses there. This is a fine climate and 
 I am in splendid shape. Love to all. 
 
 Or this: 
 
 Sofia, Oct. 26, 1903. 
 
 As we have learned now that this is Marjorie's 
 wedding day Booth and I will proceed to drink her 
 health. This affair in Bulgaria is about played out. 
 Concerning money I have plenty and my health is 
 excellent. 
 
 Marjorie was Guy's sister and she was married 
 on this date to Bartlett H. Hayes, Scull's roommate 
 at Harvard.
 
 Chapter IX. 
 MANCHURIA— 1904-1905 
 
 Scull apparently had a keen sense for these In- 
 ternational embroglios. Like the silent men in Fleet 
 Street, Wilhelmstrasse, Pennsylvania Avenue, and 
 other foreign offices he had his ear to the ground con- 
 stantly. The year before when in Europe he then 
 had a hunch that there was going to be something 
 doing in the Far East and instead of taking an At- 
 lantic liner westward bound he caught a ship going 
 east and got as far as Port Said before he learned 
 that the Japs and the Russians had settled their dif- 
 ferences. He then faced about and headed for New 
 York again. It seems, however, that this was the 
 time he guessed wrong! Japan declared war Febru- 
 ary 10, 1904, and it caught the wily Scull flat-footed 
 in New York. 
 
 I remember meeting him about noon one cold Feb- 
 ruary day in front of 120 Broadway. The Skipper 
 had just had one of his skin tight hair cuts which was 
 always a sure sign of trouble somewhere. He was 
 minus an overcoat. His coat collar was turned up 
 around his neck, his derby jammed down to his ears 
 and his hands thrust deep in his trousers' pockets. 
 The Skipper never did like overcoats. 
 
 "Ahoy," greeted Scull. 
 
 IQS
 
 MANCHURIA 107 
 
 "Let's lunch. What d'y' say?" returned I. 
 
 "Can't. Got a hurry." 
 
 "Where you going?" 
 
 "Manchuria, vee-a Grand Sintrall Station," in the 
 Skipper's best nasal drawl and New England dia- 
 lect. 
 
 He turned with a "so long" and lost himself in 
 the crowd pushing up Broadway towards City Hall 
 Station. 
 
 Another fellow Who met him shortly afterwards in 
 the Yale Club uptown, says "Scull's manner was 
 most casual, but his hair was clipped and his coat 
 collar turned up and I naturally was expectant when 
 I asked him where he was bound. 'Manchuria,' said 
 the Skipper as indifferently as a suburbanite might 
 say Yonkers or Tuckahoe. 
 
 "He had a passport, credentials, a ticket and a few 
 little things like that to pick up and he would meet me 
 at the Harvard Club about five that afternoon. He 
 was there when I came around and so were most of 
 his friends. There were a good many stirrup-cups and 
 joshings; but no one seemed to know just when the 
 'Skip' left for the front. He hadn't mentioned this 
 detail to Dave Goodrich or Leo Ware, whom I con- 
 sulted, though they had a hack with his bags outside 
 as an ordinary precaution. We also conferred con- 
 cerning 'our special correspondent's' passport and 
 ticket, which he had casually stuffed in his vest pocket 
 and which had already been picked up from the floor 
 or under chairs and tables a dozen times. The ticket
 
 108 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 was originally wound up into a cylinder about the 
 size of an alarm-clock, and, when not bouncing about 
 the carpet, had a disquieting habit of flowing out of 
 the Skipper's bosom and festooning its coils about 
 his arms and legs. Sometimes it played with the 
 passport and sometimes it parted with it for another 
 corner of the room. This ticket called for transporta- 
 tion from New York to Yokohama, and it looked 
 as if it might itself reach a good part of the way. 
 Each time it was returned its owner always received 
 it back with a composure that no one else could feel. 
 
 "A little after half -past-six, I broke into the Skip- 
 per's calm enjoyment of his friends and asked when 
 his train left. 'Five minutes to seven tonight — 
 Why,' he responded. I explained why after our 
 hack got into a blockade, with five blocks to go and 
 seven minutes to do it in and make the train. The 
 Skipper leaned out and exhorted the hackman to 
 make a sporting proposition of it. Most of the ticket 
 went out of the window, too ; but I managed to reel 
 it in again as the driver took to the sidewalk, neatly 
 grazing a hj^drant hazard. 
 
 "The Montreal Express left that night pursued 
 by a porter who had some difficulty in throwing two 
 huge bags aboard the rear platform of the last car. 
 The Skipper clung carelessly to the tail railing and 
 waved me good-bye with the finished ease of a brake- 
 man. As he waved, the tail lights showed that he 
 was playing Laocoon to most of the ticket and before 
 I turned away — and the last glimpse I had of him —
 
 MANCHURIA 109 
 
 the Skipper was gravely engaged in earnest consul- 
 tation with the brakeman, who had picked up the 
 passport from the platform." 
 
 Such was the Skipper's departure for the Japa- 
 nese-Russian War. In a package of letters kept by 
 his mother the first received was written on a Cana- 
 dian Pacific train bound westward, dated February 
 11, 1904, announcing that he would sail from Van- 
 couver on the Empress of China for Japan, that he 
 was well and had commissions to write for the Globe 
 and Advertiser, Boston Transcript and for Harpers. 
 These letters cover a period of a little over a year 
 and are written at regular intervals of a week or ten 
 days. In them there is little save messages of love and 
 affection, a word as to his health and another as to 
 the uncertainty of his movements in the future as he 
 was dependent upon the pleasure of the Japanese 
 Government which was not announcing its plans to 
 the correspondents assembled. These letters are writ- 
 ten upon all sorts of queer looking stationery, covered 
 with Japanese stamps and hieroglyphics, some of 
 them from Tokio, some from headquarters of the 
 Second Army in the field, many mutilated by the 
 censor and all of them travel-stained from the passage 
 across two continents as they were addressed to his 
 Mother either in Boston or Andover, Mass., or to 
 different ports in Europe or m the Mediterranean 
 where she was then traveling. One dated March 8th, 
 announces that his ship will probably land in a Jap- 
 anese port on the morrow.
 
 110 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Scull reached Tokio in early March and was quar- 
 tered at the Imperial Hotel with a group of other 
 correspondents including the best known writers in 
 Europe and the United States at that time. These 
 men hung around this hotel from then until July 
 18th waiting for permission and their passports to 
 join the army at the front. None of them were in 
 any better luck than Scull. 
 
 Most of them waited. A few "jumped the reser- 
 vation" so to speak, and tried for Port Arthur on 
 their own account. Scull did not file thousands of 
 words to his editors about this tedious wait. He did 
 not fuss and complain or attempt to rag the Im- 
 perial Japanese authorities. Scull had been up 
 against Government restrictions before. He and a 
 few close companions had a good time seeing Japan 
 and when the Army was ready to let the correspon- 
 dents go forward Scull trailed with the rest. 
 
 How these correspondents spent their time during 
 this tedious wait is best told by some of themselves in 
 the pages that follow. The Skipper writes that on 
 July 18th they were off at last on the S.S. Empress 
 of China, the same one that brought him across from 
 Vancouver, and that they were going to Nagasaki, 
 leave the ship there and proceed by train to Mogi 
 and so on by horseback with the replacement troops 
 and transports to the front up north somewhere. 
 
 The list of the correspondents gathered there at 
 the Imperial Hotel included: W. H. Brill of Scripps 
 McCrea, John F. Bass and Richard Little of Chi-
 
 MANCHURIA HI 
 
 cago, Franklin Clarkin of the New York Evening 
 Post, Richard Harding Davis, Richard Barry, Rob- 
 ert Collins of the Associated Press, London; Robert 
 Dunn of New York and Boston; George Kennan, 
 the Russian traveler; Richmond Smith and Percival 
 Smith; Lionel James of the London Times; Sam- 
 uel B. Trisell; O. K. Davis of the New York Sun; 
 George Lynch of London; John Fox Jr., Grant 
 Wallis; Martin Egan then of the Associated Press, 
 and others. 
 
 One of them gives a touch of the life at Tokio. 
 
 "I met Scull on the dock at Tokio," he says, "and 
 I hadn't seen him before since we met down the Bay 
 in New York harbor, several years before, meeting 
 the U. S. Minister to Venezuela where there was at 
 that time some little eruption. Scull was in Tokio 
 waiting like the rest of us. He eventually did go 
 with Oku's Army while I was fated to be stationed 
 permanently at Tokio until after the signing of peace 
 nearly two years later. I had to cover the Anny 
 and Navy Departments and the Foreign Office and 
 the Legations and really had little time to foregather 
 with anybody. But Guy, the late Richard Harding 
 Davis, the late John Fox, Jr., Franklin Clarkin, 
 George Lynch of London, Lionel James of the Lon- 
 don Times, Bill Brill and one or two others used to 
 get together for meals whenever we could. There 
 were a great many amusing and amazing stories that 
 developed, but I don't recall any of them in which 
 Guy figures particularly.
 
 112 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "One of the funniest of these stories has never been 
 reported, and, of course, it could not be tied to Guy 
 Scull because I am pretty sure he was not present. 
 It was the custom of a large number of correspon- 
 dents to gather at the bar of the Imperial Hotel 
 every evening about five-thirty for a drink and a little 
 talk about the day's developments. On one particu- 
 lar day there arrived an East Indian who had with 
 him a large pet snake. He was a drinking man and 
 he and the snake entrenched themselves early in the 
 afternoon at a table very close to the counter. I 
 arrived about five, before any of the crowd had come 
 and at that time the snake had wrapped himself 
 around the man's arm a couple of times, with part of 
 its body resting on his lap and with its long out- 
 stretched head investigating the drinks on the table. 
 Realizing the possibilities of the setting, I got me 
 one of those high billiard table chairs that you will 
 recall, and for about half an hour watched the effect 
 of the Indian and snake on the arriving correspon- 
 dents. Pretty soon the Indian went to sleep and the 
 snake, uncoiling himself, went wandering around the 
 bar. The bar did no business for the rest of the 
 evening." 
 
 A correspondent who was Scull's bunkie for a good 
 part of the time that Winter in Manchuria found the 
 diary he kept at that time packed away in his dun- 
 nage in a storage warehouse and from this he was 
 able to write an intimate account of the Skipper and 
 his adventures in that campaign. Scull caught up
 
 MANCHURIA 113 
 
 with him at Vancouver where he was waiting for the 
 Empress of China to take him to Japan. Inciden- 
 tally he was also waiting for Bobby Dmin when the 
 Skipper drifted in. 
 
 "Dmin was to join me at Vancouver if possible," 
 says Clarkin. "He had bade me good-bye at Grand 
 Central Station somewhat gloomily as his editor 
 had yet made no decision regarding sending him to 
 the war in the Far East, then breaking. Before the 
 'Empress' pulled out Dunn arrived — 'Dunn and his 
 dunnage' Scull told me — and then I learned that they 
 had been plaj^mates and college mates. So the pros- 
 pects of the passage looked happy — three of us who 
 had been on venturous commissions previously now 
 starting together elatedly toward the hazards of a 
 distant horizon. 
 
 "Out of six voyages across the Pacific it has in- 
 deed turned out that none has yielded me so many 
 pleasant memories. Ship's company included some 
 British military attaches, an Austrian naval attache, 
 the American Embassy Secretary returning to Tokio, 
 and only one woman — a rather forbidding mission- 
 ary. As the British follow form even more rigor- 
 ously in out of the way places than in London — to 
 protect their morale, they say — the rule was dress for 
 dinner notwithstanding the almost wholly 'stag' pas- 
 senger list. Scull, true to the independence of spirit 
 which I afterward observed more and more and ad- 
 mired in him, declined, with comment, to go through 
 this nightly ceremony. After dinner he would, how-
 
 114 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ever, enter into the other invariable nightly ritual; 
 a benedictine with Ferguson of the Embassy, a cigar, 
 then a game of fan tan by all the smoking room 
 habitues till time to turn in. 
 
 "It was when he won easily at fan-tan that I first 
 heard him chuckle that characteristic phrase: 'Why, 
 this is like picking strawberries with Genevieve.' 
 
 "But I later learned in the hardships of the field 
 that it was not merely when things cheered him that 
 he thus broke into speech — when things looked pretty 
 discomforting and perilous it would brace the rest of 
 us to hear suddenly from the least garrulous — 'Why, 
 fellers, this is like picking strawberries with Gene- 
 vieve!' However strangely morose he had at first 
 appeared, this repeated exclamation somehow flashed 
 to me the fact that the Skipper, as Dunn called him, 
 inwardly was of buoyant spirit. 
 
 "I find in my diary, at a time when we were in camp 
 awaiting the coming of the battle of Shi-li-ho, this 
 entry: 
 
 " 'Oct. 5, '04 — "Skip" spends heavy hours cogitat- 
 ing. This agrees with my temperament — the bores 
 are always over-talkative. We sit on our kangs 
 (Chinese beds) half the day reading and writing, 
 speak only an infrequent word, and yet feel I am in 
 cheerful yet sedative companionship. Although 
 gloomy of manner, his monosyllabic utterances are 
 always given with a pleasant chuckle and shake of 
 the shoulders — as if suppressing inward jollity. 
 Acts like a triturated extract of Gloucester ship-
 
 MANCHURIA 115 
 
 captain, Arizona cowboy and modern incarnation of 
 Dionj^sius, his face ancient Greek from close-cropped 
 hair to straight nose and well-rounded chin. Days 
 when the smi is strong we go out in the compound in 
 a corner sheltered from the wind — in the noon hour — 
 and bathe. When he stands in the sun against the 
 mud wall of the compound pouring a bucket of water 
 held high above his head he might be a fragment 
 from a temple frieze. 
 
 " 'He writes, when he wants to, most delicate 
 prose. He's more fluent with pen than with tongue. 
 JMornings on the Pacific voyage he would read — 
 Lynch's "Door of the Civilizations," Brownell's 
 "Heart of Japan," Capt. ^lahan's "Lessons of the 
 War with Spain" (Scull had enlisted with the Rough 
 Riders at Tampa in that war and I had gone as 
 Evening Post correspondent with the navy to the 
 Battle of Santiago), and Beveridge's "Russian Ad- 
 vance," and an hour before tiffin some of us would 
 play shuffleboard for exercise, which Scull would not 
 join, preferring inactivity. Afternoons he would 
 usually bring up his banjo and chant Kipling's 
 
 " 'Gentlemen rankers, out for a spree, 
 
 "Doomed from here to eternity' 
 
 "Or else 
 
 " 'Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket and say a 
 
 poor duffer lies low: 
 "Get six jolly seamen to carry me with steps that 
 
 are mournful and slow
 
 « < 
 
 116 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 *'Then get six breezy foretopmen and let them a 
 
 rollicking go. 
 "Let them drink down a six gallon measure to the 
 health of the Duffer below/ 
 And especially: 
 
 And somehow you're sick of the highway, with 
 its noise and its easy needs, 
 "And you seek the risk of the byway, and you 
 reck not where it leads.' " 
 
 "It led us, on arrival in Japan, to a sort of incar- 
 ceration in the Hotel Imperial at Tokio for six 
 months. For the Japanese were rather distrustful 
 of having men of white race with their armies in the 
 field, and it was not ethical for correspondents to cross 
 from Japanese territory into the territory and army 
 of the Russians. The long wait for passes to the 
 front, and the miasmic airs from the smelly canal 
 which flows by its walls, irritated the nerves of most 
 of us and caused social distempers not wholesome 
 for our opinion of the Japanese; but I do not recall 
 that Scull ever lost patience or gave way to com- 
 plaint. He and Dunn and I took our meals at the 
 same table in a comer of the dining-room, and Scull 
 there as in other places acted as a grateful tran- 
 quilizer to our more ebullient fractiousness at War 
 Office delays in giving us the right to go to where the 
 war was. The only time he protested against the 
 round of Geisha dances, cherry festivals. Emperor's 
 garden parties, etc., with v/hich the War Office sought
 
 MANCHURIA 117 
 
 to soothe the general rancor, was at the China Pony 
 Races at Yokohama. The club grounds were gay 
 with the newest European costumes of the Diplo- 
 matic colony and the 'champagne-openings' by the 
 owner of the winner of each race. Coming away from 
 toastings to the last successful owner, Scull took me 
 broodily by the arm: 
 
 " 'Old man, what are we doing here? We don't 
 belong. Our business is at the Front.' 
 
 "He thought the only way to get there was to sit 
 tight and play the game. Dunn and I sought to 
 'hustle the East' and rushed off impetuously to 
 Korea. At Seoul we met Jack London, who assured 
 us it was impossible to reach the Yalu battle front, as 
 he had just been turned back, after a run-in with 
 Japanese officers for having defended a Russian pris- 
 oner of war from the cruelties of his Japanese guard. 
 London made an impassioned speech about it and 
 other Japanese actions in Korea, and we who were 
 dining with him — Willard Straight, (A.P.), Dunn 
 and myself — having witnessed the upsetting of the 
 native ancient djmasty, applauded the speaker and 
 half-gaily and half-seriously declared we would stand 
 with him in behalf of 'Pyngyang for the Pyngyany- 
 gans.' 
 
 "Presently we were back again with Scull at the 
 same old hotel table — finding him gone a little more 
 bored with the monotony of Tokio. But he bright- 
 ened at our fresh stories of doings in Chinnampo. 
 Seoul and Pyngyang — the comic opera phases of the
 
 118 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 popular and court life, the council's reduction of the 
 harem of the Emperor from 80 to 20 wives, and so 
 on, rising to serious narrative as we came to relate 
 the tragic episodes of the Japanese gradual seizure 
 of the country and of the Imperial family. 
 
 "In the billiard room Scull got us to repeat. Soon 
 the correspondents grew so interested in the light and 
 dark aspects of the Korean case that Davis gave a 
 dinner to the Americans of the group and others 
 visiting Tokio, and as favors bestowed on each a dec- 
 oration. It was in the regulation form of a military 
 decoration, the riband Korean colors, and the medal 
 bearing the Korean symbol on one side and the words 
 'Pjmgyang for the Pyngyanygans' on the other. 
 Thus, Scull and all who were the guests of Davis 
 that night and received his decoration became 
 Pyngyanygans by that token. 
 
 "The time for going to the Front was approaching 
 however, and Scull bought a wild-eyed, volcanic, 
 rangy black Japanese stallion and I the China pony 
 Pit-a-Pat which had won the cup smartly at the races 
 that day. We quartered them in the hotel sta- 
 bles, and after Scull found a Wild West saddle and 
 I an English saddle, we were ready — for we did not 
 accoutre ourselves with so much impedimenta, use- 
 ful or decorative, as the others. By July we were 
 on our way, 
 
 "Dunn, we parted with with immense regret. He 
 had, one day, taken Scull's stallion — named Fuji, 
 after the volcano — out to exercise. Galloping home
 
 MANCHURIA 119 
 
 Fuji slipped on turning in at the hotel gate and Dunn 
 was thereby laid up in the hospital with a broken 
 ankle." 
 
 Another man, describing the accident to Dunn, 
 brings out Scull's presence of mind and masterful 
 way of doing things. He says: 
 
 "Guy was the first to reach Dunn and the strug- 
 gling pony and the first to give aid to the sufferer. 
 It was obvious to all of us the break was such that 
 unless properly handled Dunn's foot would be stiff 
 for life. Dunn refused the aid of the local Japanese 
 doctor. The English surgeon was sent for. This 
 meant a long delay. Guy, who knew something of 
 bone-setting, had pulled Dunn's anlde into articula- 
 tion, and, with the delicate touch of a woman com- 
 bined with the controlled strength of a man, he held 
 the broken bones edge to edge for fully three quar- 
 ters of an hour. 
 
 "When the surgeon arrived he was astonished at 
 what Guy had done and announced that this precau- 
 tion certainly saved Dunn from going through life 
 stiff-footed. More besides, for with such a break 
 complications might readily ensue, making necessary 
 an amputation. Guy's attention probably saved the 
 foot." 
 
 Continuing from his diary the shipmate writes: 
 
 "We would miss this witty, bubbling, good com- 
 rade; but the pity of it was twofold — he might never 
 again be fit for his favorite sport of mountain climb- 
 ing, trudging over limitless Alaskan tundra, nor re-
 
 120 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 peat our ascent of Mont Pele to gaze into that thun- 
 derous crater between eruptions; and now after 
 coming far and waiting long he was incapacitated for 
 'the Front.' 
 
 "Crossing the Yellow Sea by transport we were 
 landed at Dalny, and Skipper and I watched anx- 
 iously the lifting of the horses from below decks. 
 Fuji had less of a glare in his eye and Pit-a-Pat had 
 lost some of his racing pep — ^but the whole cavalcade 
 was soon well started north through Manchuria has- 
 tening to catch up with the Jap Fourth Army. It 
 was some cavalcade: eighteen correspondents from 
 all over the world, each with a horseboy and interpre- 
 ter, an occasional cook and thirty-four animals to 
 carry them and their baggage. 
 
 " 'No wonder,' said Scull grimly, *no wonder the 
 Japanese Army kept us in Tokio six months. This 
 outfit is almost as big as the Jap commissariat.' 
 
 "But on the first day we passed Nantai. There 
 was strewn the wreckage of recent fighting. This, 
 along with the feel of a horse under him, and the 
 pulsing of live blood after thirty miles of vigorous 
 riding, stirred hun to further loquacity as we dis- 
 mounted to camp. That is, he ejaculated delightedly, 
 arranging his saddle as a pillow on the kang of a 
 mud hut where he was to sleep: 
 
 "'Say! this here is just like picking strawberries 
 with Genevieve!' 
 
 " 'Maybe,' I admitted, 'but I'm numb — don't make 
 me exert my imagination.'
 
 MAXCHIHIA. I!)()|
 
 MANCHURIA 121 
 
 "Day after day we pursued the armj'^ which was it- 
 self pursuing the retreating Russians. The sun beat 
 upon us from the east, the zenith, and the west, like 
 the flame from a blowpipe. The eyes of the ponies 
 grew inflamed and suppurated from the scorching. 
 Then the rainy season broke, and the mud was half to 
 the ponies' knees, and rivers we had to cross were so 
 swollen that we had to swim them mounted. One 
 such day, when my short-legged Pit-a-Pat could not 
 progress as fast as Scull's long-legged Fuji, I sug- 
 gested that Pit-a-Pat was no mud hen and that he'd 
 better ride with Brill (of the A. P.) who also had 
 'paddyfield wallower.' Arriving watersoaked and 
 famished at ten that night at the temple where we 
 had been billetted. Scull met me with a tincup of 
 Scotch. By the shake of his shoulders, I could tell 
 he was having one of his inward laughs. 
 
 " 'Already; shoot: This is like ' 
 
 " 'No,' said he. 'I was riding with Brill, and he 
 said something you'll enjoy. That London Tele- 
 graph man Lynch, defending English newspapers, 
 had remarked that "London publishes no newspapers 
 on Sunday." Brill asked him: 'Why specify Sun- 
 day?' " 
 
 "At last catching up with the rear of the Fourth 
 Division we were held in camp in a compound at 
 Haicheng to await the development of an attack on 
 the outlying forts of Liaoyang. Evenings, all the 
 correspondents lingered at the mess-table and yarned. 
 Davis (Richard Harding, then writing for Collier's)
 
 122 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 asked: *Guy, why didn't you bring the banjo 
 along?' 'Too many tin cans tied to this bunch as it 
 was,' Scull answered, — for some had brought elab- 
 orate regalia; pistols, silk underwear, kitchen hard- 
 ware, cameras, rubber bathtubs, medals, uniforms, 
 field-glasses, sabretaches, etc. 
 
 "Davis laughed and told Scull this story on himself. 
 
 " *At college I put "Danny Dever" to music and 
 I wanted to hear what your version of it was. That 
 music was published. Later I alleged that Walter 
 Damrosch had lifted it. At the Authors' or Aldine 
 club one night I was asked to prove it by playing 
 my version. Now I don't play the piano. I had 
 picked out and composed a tune for "Danny Dever" 
 on a Steinway, and learned which keys to strike by 
 their position under the lettering. When I sat down 
 to this piano I couldn't even start to prove my case — 
 the piano was a Chickering!' 
 
 "From my diary: 
 
 "'Haicheng, Manchuria, Aug. 20-04. Gen. Oku 
 sent us eight bottles of champagne captured from the 
 Russians. Scull and I were given one bottle as our 
 share. As he was on the waterwagon I had to wait. 
 Prior (London Illustrated News) fell sick, and Scull 
 suggested that Prior could have his share and I could 
 open the bottle — the others had already consumed 
 theirs. Prior was afraid to take champagne that day, 
 so the bottle had lain under my bunk for over a week. 
 "Why don't you open it yourself? It'll be stolen if
 
 MANCHURIA 123 
 
 you don't. I'm going to stick on this watenvagon." 
 "'Fox (Scribner's), Davis, Lynch and Scull 
 played bridge in our quarters last night. When I 
 came in from a visit to the British Scull briefly inti- 
 mated that they had asked him to treat. He refused 
 because "half of it was Clarkin's." They suo^orested 
 that Scull authorize them to take his share. "I told 
 them I had offered it to Prior and to you. Now 
 don't hold it for me any longer." 
 
 " 'When half asleep I heard a step in the room, 
 and turned, to see somebody silently sneaking out. 
 Smothered laughter and whispers greeted whoever it 
 was, in the next room and somebody said: "Get a 
 pail of cold water," and other voices: "Hasn't any- 
 one a corkscrew?" * * * "You don't need a cork- 
 screw you dub — I know how to work it out." But 
 Lynch broke the cork off in his efforts, and the de- 
 cision was to let the bottle stay in the cool water till 
 just before tiffin today. "Skipper," I observed in the 
 morning, "our champagne was looted last night, but 
 I'll recapture it." 
 
 " Capt. James (London Times) scouted for us in 
 the suspected quarters, and reported the location of 
 the loot. Then we filled an empty bottle with pure 
 water, arranged the cork and tinfoil, and the captain 
 slipped this into the pail, and over the backyard wall 
 handed the real champagne to Whiting (London 
 Graphic) and myself. 
 
 " 'At 11 Davis and Fox came down from a hill 
 where they had been writing in the shade, called
 
 124 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Lynch, Brill and Lewis. Scull and the rest went out 
 where they could see the convivial ceremony through 
 the open window. Davis cut the cork out with a laiif e, 
 and filled Fox's camp cup, then his own, waved the 
 cups out the window and shouted — "Scull, here's 
 'how' to you and Clarkin !" 
 
 " *A moment after Davis exclaimed: "Why, it's 
 water!" 
 
 " 'Scull was doubled up with the violence of his 
 internal merriment. James couldn't control himself 
 and called: 'It's a great success.' And, at the signal 
 the rest of us made way with the last actual bottle 
 of champagne this side of the Russian battle line — 
 except Scull, who clung fast to his wagon. 
 
 " 'At tiffin our end of the table was merry and the 
 other glowering. "Let's pretend," said Davis, "that 
 Scull and Clarkin are absent and their places empty." 
 "Empty places at this end," was the retort, "but 
 empty persons at the other!" 
 
 " 'Well,' explained Davis, 'Scull as much as said 
 he didn't care who had his share, and we figured that 
 his share was at the bottom of the bottle, and that to 
 get it we must first drink off Clarkin's share from 
 the top.' " 
 
 "By the middle of September our cavalcade had 
 been permitted to reach a view of the action proceed- 
 ing for the capture of the heights before Liaoyang. 
 It was a distant view, and needed strong glasses. If 
 that was as near as we were to get to the battle line 
 our reports would lack color. All day Scull and I
 
 MANCHURIA 125 
 
 sat on a hill that overlooked the theatre of battle and 
 did the best we could. After a few days twelve of 
 the correspondents, including Davis and Fox, dis- 
 gustedly started for home. 
 
 "Not one hour after they had disappeared do^vn 
 the trail, an officer from headquarters arrived. 'Now 
 that there are not so many of you,' he said, 'Gen. 
 Oku sends me to say that you may go as far into the 
 lines as you wish, anj^vhere you want to, but advises 
 for your o^vn protection that you take a Japanese 
 officer with you in order to explain your presence to 
 the soldiers.' 
 
 "Scull remarked in elation: 'Well, it pays to stick 
 to your course.' From then on there was no limit 
 to our enterprise except the rule that a dead corres- 
 pondent is not so useful to his home office as a live one. 
 
 "Not knowing of the sudden change of policy on 
 the part of headquarters, once the corps of corres- 
 pondents had been reduced to wieldy dimensions, the 
 homegoing twelve spread the report that they were 
 returning because the Japs would not let them get 
 to the Front. Nevertheless those who stayed went 
 under fire in the battles of the Heights of Liaoyang, 
 Shiliho, Sha ho and INIukden, quite as we listed — 
 Scull, Wliiting (London Graphic), Pratt (Sydney 
 Bulletin), Brill (A. P.), Laguerrie (Paris Petit 
 Journal), Barzini (Courrier della Milano), and I 
 (N. Y. Evening Post). 
 
 "Between actions there would be many days of 
 waiting. These were severe for Scull. He moped on
 
 126 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 his cot in a dark blue atmosphere; but I understood 
 by this time that he was grimly enduring a physical 
 depression. He had promised himself and others that 
 he would take no alcohol on duty, but he carried this 
 self-deprivation to such precision that he would not 
 touch it even when wet and exhausted from long ex- 
 posure. His body weakened in resistance, and the 
 unclean water gave him dysentery. But he main- 
 tained his attitude even in his growing sickness, 
 stoically. When call came to mount and go out to 
 the battle-line, he would revive — for the sense of 
 danger lightened his plagued spirits. 
 
 "In his correspondence to the New York Globe 
 Scull kept closely to the military aspects of develop- 
 ments, and repressed the element of personal adven- 
 ture and difficulty. But I have vivid memories of 
 our watching all one night from a shell hole in a millet 
 field the Indian-like creeping of the Japanese up the 
 heights of Liaoyang ; of the storming of the city ; of 
 our joining the charge to the gate and entering the 
 city with the second line of infantry, encountering 
 the slaughter going on in the streets while the advance 
 chased the Russians to Sha ho; visits together to 
 front line covered trenches where the Japs and Rus- 
 sians regularly left off hostilities for tiffin and dinner ; 
 his impatience at the delay of beginning the battle 
 of Mukden, and hiking off with Whiting for a week 
 to see if Kuroki's Third Army across the mountains 
 offered excitement: all those rousing 'risks of the 
 by-way' which he liked being in the midst of. I
 
 MANCHURIA 127 
 
 gather from my diary that he missed the first of the 
 Shi-h-li river battle: 
 
 " 'Shiliha, Oct. 11 — First day we have been in the 
 middle of a battle and seen it as we wished to, going 
 where we would if accompanied by Lt. Okabe. Scull 
 unfortunately sick with dysentery at Liaoyang base 
 hospital ; he tried to come but was so weak the doctor 
 put him back to bed. Better he did not come as the 
 three of us had nothing to stay us all day but a small 
 tin of sardines." 
 
 "In November when I was called home he had an- 
 other attack. On the way to Pentai and Dalny I 
 stopped at hospital for a farewell to him, and to take 
 any mail he had ready. He couldn't rise, and was 
 rather wistful, but determined to wait for the taking 
 of Mukden, the climax of the campaign. Pratt and 
 Brill and Whiting were still left to keep a care over 
 him — and Pratt and Okabe went along with me to the 
 station. There I made believe repack some luggage 
 till the train came, so they would not see how moved 
 I felt at pulling out." 
 
 Nothing in Scull's letters approaches this descrip- 
 tion of his adventures or his activities during this cam- 
 paign. It tells how ill he was and how determined he 
 was in his refusal to take liquor while on his swear- 
 off. The Skipper, in his letters home, makes only a 
 passing allusion to his serious illness. He tells in 
 a line that he has a comfortable warm house for the 
 winter camp and that he has plenty of furs and warm 
 clothing.
 
 128 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 One of the things Scull carefully preserved in his 
 papers is a translation in his own hand of the writing 
 of some ancient Chinese philosopher, the same hav- 
 ing been done that winter with the help of J. Okabe, 
 the Japanese interpreter with the Second Army and 
 the man whom Clarkin mentions as their friend. 
 This translation is a melancholy sort of a thing and 
 is interesting because it shows something of the way 
 Scull occupied his time in that dreary camp, and the 
 mood of Scull which at times ran in this vein. 
 
 "Translation of an article written by the Chinese 
 philosopher Lee-ta-pai, who lived during the To 
 dynasty (about 1200 years ago?) when literature and 
 philosophy were most flourishing in China: 
 
 "In the prefecture of Ku-ho (?) of Josh-yu (?) 
 there is a village named Chu-Chin more than a hun- 
 dred li distant from the capital. Green of mulberry 
 and flax all around the viilaoe — and we can hear the 
 far-off noises of shuttles of weavers, cattle and don- 
 keys jumping about joyfull}^ and girls come to the 
 well for water, men go to the mountains to cut wood. 
 There is little official duties because the village is so 
 far from the capital and deep in the mountains. The 
 customs are simple and good. Though there is 
 money, there is no commerce. There are many 
 young men but they do not go to war. Every fam- 
 ily sticks to its own village like a profession, hardly 
 ever going out of the gates though their heads be- 
 come white. Born as a villager of Chu-Chin ; where 
 dead turns to the dust of the village. Old and young
 
 MANCHURIA 129 
 
 meeting together enjoj^' themselves in the fields and 
 
 pass the happy days. 
 
 "In the village there are only two families, Chu 
 
 and Chin. Ages after ages intermarriages take place 
 among them. Relatives near and distant, people 
 young and old have their own groups, and having 
 chickens and home-made wine they meet together 
 once in every week and enjoy themselves. Living 
 not far separated, marriages are always concluded 
 among neighbors. The dead are not buried far away. 
 The churchyard is alwaj'-s near this village. Thus 
 they enjoy life and are not troubled by death. Body 
 and spirit are at rest. The villagers therefore have 
 long lives. It is generally they that have great 
 grandchildren. 
 
 "But alas for me. Born in a town where morality 
 is much talked about, being an orphan and poor, and 
 understanding what is right and what wrong by study 
 have made me a m^an of sorrow. Social etiquette com- 
 pelled me to conform to the teachings of the sages 
 and the standard of a gentleman burdened me with 
 many ceremonies. This made me like a prisoner and 
 I became a greatly mistaken man. At ten years of 
 age I understood to read. At fifteen I wrote well. 
 At twenty I became a shusai; at thirty a kanshin. 
 Thus I must answer to the masters grace above and 
 support my family below. Cares of the family and 
 responsibility for the state rest upon this unworthy 
 man. Ah! when I look back. It is fifteen years since 
 I left my home to travel, during which thrice I went
 
 130 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 to So by lonely boat and four times passed Chin on 
 a tired horse. Traveling by day I suffered from hun- 
 ger, sleeping at night scarcely had I rest. Wander- 
 ing east and west, going and coming like a floating 
 cloud, hardly settled anywhere. By civil war and 
 troubles I have lost my native town. My relatives 
 are mostly scattered. Some went to the south of Ho, 
 whilst others went to the north of Ho. These are 
 separated always, and if some of them are dead the 
 report comes to me after years. Filled with sorrow 
 and troubles from morning until evening, I sit cry- 
 ing until the dawn. Fire of sorrow burns my ears; 
 frost of sadness embaths my hair. Is this life? Yes, 
 it is my life. Oh! I cannot help but envy the vil- 
 lagers of Chu-Chin." 
 
 A shusai means one who has passed a certain offi- 
 cial examination. 
 
 A kanshin is a kind of counselor to the Emperor. 
 
 So and Chin are countries (or districts) of China. 
 
 From Winter quarters Scull came down through 
 the Lioayang Peninsula to Port Arthur and although 
 planning to go on east by way of Manila he changed 
 his mind at the last minute and started back home, 
 writing his Mother about April 13, 1905, that he 
 was coming by way of Yokohama.
 
 Chapter X 
 RUSSIA— 1906 
 
 Little is kno^vn of Scull's personal adventures in 
 Russia. He mixed with all classes, he made friends 
 with all factions. He talked with Revolutionary 
 leaders, eluding the Secret Service to do it, and some 
 of his experiences had enough heart throbs to make 
 the most thrilling of narratives. This we know from 
 yarns he spun when he was in the mood. But he left 
 no account of them or any letters concerning them, 
 perhaps for the very good reason that in Russia, then 
 as now, it was wise to leave no evidence of anything 
 one did except that demanded by the police. 
 
 Manuscripts sent home to his mother and preserved 
 by her, dwell on the religious and political life of 
 the people and from these carefully written sheets 
 we get the serious side of Scull and his intense in- 
 terest in such subjects as they applied to a people 
 already on the verge of that great struggle which, not 
 many years later, was to topple an ancient empire into 
 one of the bloodiest revolutions in history. These let- 
 ters written for publication but never printed, show 
 an entirely different Scull from any we have seen so 
 far. Here he is a scholar setting down, brief as they 
 are valuable, contributions to history. 
 
 iSl
 
 132 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Scull arrived in St. Petersburg on April 15, 1906. 
 It does not appear how he went or why. From his 
 first letter to his mother it is evident that he expected 
 to witness some sort of an outbreak, but in this he 
 was disappointed. Once more he was ahead of the 
 times. So he writes of the people in a letter of 
 April 15th: 
 
 "Their religious belief is something far above these 
 matters of the present day concerning the internal 
 conditions of the country. The election of the peo- 
 ple's representatives, the many victories of the Con- 
 stitutional Democrats, the agrarian question, the 
 foreign loan, the resignation of Count Witte, the ap- 
 proaching Duma and all that is hoped and feared 
 from the commencement of the new era in Russia, 
 these questions of the nation, whatever magnitude 
 they may have previously assumed, have been rele- 
 gated to a position of second place importance dur- 
 ing the religious rites of the past ten days. 
 
 "Holy week in St. Petersburg is rigorously ob- 
 served. None of the theatres are open, music is not 
 allowed in the restaurants, and the general business 
 in the city is carried on as if under a semi-suppres- 
 sion. This state of affairs continues until the Satur- 
 day before Easter, when the flower stores, butcher 
 shops, and the candy and pastry stores commence to 
 do a thriving trade. All throughout that Saturday 
 afternoon you will see various kinds of plants being 
 carried through the streets as presents from one 
 friend to another, and also people carrying trays of
 
 RUSSIA 133 
 
 food to have it blest at the different churches in order 
 that they may be prepared to break their fast when 
 the bells of the cathedrals ring at midnight. * * * 
 
 "But it is the midnight service, the finale of all the 
 ceremonies, which better than anything else gives a 
 true impression of the strength of this religion. * * * 
 
 "At the time when the ceremonies actually began 
 at a little before the midnight hour the interior of the 
 cathedral was crowded with people, literally shoulder 
 to shoulder, so that there was scarcely room enough 
 for them to lift their hands to cross their brows and 
 breasts. And many classes of people were to be 
 found there ; officers of both the army and the navy, 
 with the stars on their shoulder-straps glistening in 
 the flickering light, women of gentle birth in high- 
 necked evening gowns, and generally carrying bou- 
 quets of flowers, peasants with full beards and faces 
 full of wrinkles, children of the lower classes in their 
 Sunday clothes. Some of the women were seated. 
 A number of ladies of eminent rank had been given 
 chairs on one side of the centre aisle, whilst on the other 
 and a little further down the church three old peasant 
 women had found a resting-place on the steps which 
 led up to the pulpit. But the rest of the vast throng 
 were standing — standing and waiting in silence. 
 
 "When finally the procession moved down the 
 church after the opening hj^mns had been sung, there 
 was a movement in the crowd toward the centre aisle 
 and all the eyes followed the procession. In the faces 
 of the people there was written deep sincerity of feel-
 
 134. GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ing, and childlike wonder and interest, and faith with- 
 out doubt or question. The bishops' robes of silver 
 and gold, the insignias carried on high, the incense 
 slowly swinging, all these combined with the faintly 
 lighted church full of varying, shifting shadows, and 
 great columns of stone from which wide arches 
 sprung across above in the gloom, and enormous, 
 beautiful paintings dimly seen — all these by reason of 
 race and creed appealed strongly to the imagination 
 of the throng. And then, too, the mission with which 
 this procession had set forth upon its journey. They 
 were searching for the body of Christ which had dis- 
 appeared. The eyes of all the people continued to 
 follow the procession until it passed from their view 
 through the doors of the church and out into the 
 night beyond, and again on the square was another 
 great crowd of people who could not find entrance 
 within. 
 
 "For a time they remained as they were, always 
 standing, always gazing in the one direction, always 
 waiting for the return of the searchers. Nearly half 
 an hour thus elapsed before there was a sign that the 
 procession was once more approaching. At the fur- 
 ther end of the church there occurred one of those 
 movements in the throng which takes place in any 
 crowd when it is swayed by a common interest of 
 great importance. Then the procession itself was 
 seen approaching. The quest of the bishops had been 
 unsuccessful yet their progress up the aisle was fol- 
 lowed eagerly by the people as before. On reaching
 
 RUSSIA 135 
 
 the place from which it started at the head of the 
 church, the announcement was made that Christ had 
 risen from the dead. It was then that all the lights 
 blazed up on every side dispelling the gloom and the 
 shadows, and everyone lighted wax tapers and held 
 them high in their hands, and the bells of the city be- 
 gan to ring through the still cold air. It is little 
 wonder that the love of the dramatic with which these 
 people are imbued at birth was stirred to the utmost 
 by this scene and presentation. It seemed as if the 
 throng of people believed with the faith of children, 
 which, excepting the faith of the fanatic, is the 
 strongest faith in the world. 
 
 "From striving for an improvement in the condi- 
 tion of national affairs the people turn to the worship 
 of their faith as they have worshipped for untold ages. 
 Yet although this stands apart from the present crisis 
 of the day, the power of this faith is a living factor in 
 the land, and in any estimate formed of the existing 
 state of affairs it should be given its due considera- 
 tion." 
 
 Again Scull writes on May 1st: "The Russians in 
 St. Petersburg are far from being barbarians. They 
 might be described as substantial in body as well as 
 mind. They are fond of gaiety and they are fond of 
 music. The government subsidizes both the ballet 
 and the opera. But at times their gaiety appears 
 to be a trifle forced and in their music will be found 
 a strong tendency toward the sadness of the minor 
 key."
 
 136 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 What Scull refers to as "the remarkable frequency 
 with which custom demands the passing of a coin to 
 the expectant hand," comes in for his comment. "It 
 is decidedly unusual," writes he. "As an example of 
 this, follow the regular method of procedure encum- 
 bent upon the guest at one of the larger restaurants 
 of the city. Having finished his dinner he tips the 
 waiter as a matter of course. There is nothing out of 
 the way in this. But in the antechamber one liveried 
 attendant brings him his overcoat from one peg and 
 another brings him his hat from another peg. Both 
 of these expect a 'little something.' Then at the main 
 entrance stand two or three other attendants in a dif- 
 ferent kind and more gorgeous livery. The chief of 
 these opens the door with one hand and holds out the 
 other without pretense of any sort. His assistant ac- 
 companies the guest across the sidewalk to the carriage 
 with much bowing and lifting of the hat in order to 
 give him a hand in taking his seat, which on account 
 of the low and open build of the vehicle is a feat about 
 as easily accomplished as that of sitting down in a 
 chair. This last one of the faithful retamers likewise 
 receives a coin. And the chances are about even that 
 in addition to these there is a beggar or two laying 
 in wait in the light from the windows (where every- 
 one can plainly see them make their plea) in order 
 that being thus placed in a conspicuous position the 
 guest may be ashamed to refuse. This is by no means 
 an exaggerated example of the prevailing system, nor 
 does the system apply especially to foreigners as at
 
 RUSSIA 137 
 
 first might be readily supposed ; it is merely a recog- 
 nized custom among the people." 
 
 In telling of the men who had been elected to the 
 Duma then about to open, Scull, in a few lines de- 
 voted to each member, gives his history in a manner 
 that makes each man stand out a sharp and distinct 
 separate character. There is not space in this book 
 to print them. Some sixteen years have elapsed 
 since then. Many of these men are now dead, 
 some executed by the government or by the revolu- 
 tionists and some no doubt now in power in the Soviet 
 government. All of them were then in St. Peters- 
 burg, probably many of them guests of the same hotel 
 where Scull lived, waiting for this first constituted 
 representative body of Russians to assemble. 
 
 Following his description of the scholars and scien- 
 tists, Scull portrays the representatives of the peasant 
 classes. He says "Of the five hundred and fifteen 
 members of the Duma about two hundred are peas- 
 ants. It is safe to say that seventy per cent, of these 
 have been educated only at elementary schools which 
 in Russia means that they have learned to read and 
 write imperfectly and nothing more. There are some 
 who cannot read at all. On the other hand, one peas- 
 ant member is said to speak three languages and an- 
 other who received his early training in a foundling 
 hospital has now gained the reputation of being one 
 of the best educated men in the Duma. 
 
 "Very little indeed can be found concerning the 
 history of these peasant members, but the stories of
 
 138 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 two of them, both representatives from Archangel, 
 are unusual. Archangel is the province in the ex- 
 treme northern country where in winter there is no 
 sunshine and in summer there is no night. Like Si- 
 beria, political offenders against the government were 
 exiled to this distant province. One representative, 
 Mr. G'Aletsky, was arrested in 1894 on account of 
 his revolutionary leanings and was banished to Arch- 
 angel where he began to practice as a lawyer and sub- 
 sequently obtained great renown. The other, a 
 peasant named Isuloff was also banished to that place 
 on a political charge. This man had never taken part 
 in politics. He was in no way guilty of the offense of 
 which he was accused. But once in Archangel he 
 made the acquaintance of real revolutionary exiles 
 whose influence turned him into a radical of the most 
 advanced order. And now both of these former ex- 
 iles have been elected by the people of Archangel to 
 represent them in the parliament at St. Petersburg." 
 
 Scull closes this list with the story of Feodor Rodit- 
 cheff, a noble, fifty years of age, now a leader of the 
 masses, who after loyal service to the government, 
 was dismissed from his post and later reprimanded by 
 the Czar for demanding a Russian constitution, the 
 Emperor in his personal reprimand characterizing 
 Roditcheff's demands as "meaningless fantasy." 
 
 "Meaningless fantasy!" concludes Scull, "that hap- 
 pened only a little over six years ago, and next week 
 is the meeting of the Duma." 
 
 Of these men Scull writes:
 
 RUSSIA 139 
 
 "The manj^ instances in the past in which the dif- 
 ferent representatives have suffered punishment at 
 the hands of the government is truly remarkable. 
 Some of them have been sent to prison, others ban- 
 ished into exile, others again have been dismissed 
 from their posts of office, and one or two even have 
 been public^ flogged for creating political disturb- 
 ances. The natural prophecy to be deduced from this 
 fact is obvious, but any prophecy made in regard 
 to the outcome of the Duma is likely to prove false 
 on the very account of the unusual assortment of 
 characters to be found among its different members. 
 
 "It is only within the last two or three daj^s that 
 the elections in all the districts which will be repre- 
 sented at the opening session have been concluded. 
 Consequently, for the first time now it is possible to 
 gain a clear conception of the strangely mixed com- 
 pany which will compose the national parliament of 
 this country. And indeed, it is a heterogeneous col- 
 lection of classes, religions and races. There are 
 princes and peasants, a major-general of the army 
 and a shop-keeper's assistant, doctors, lawyers, fac- 
 tory directors and professors, well knovm authorities 
 on history, political economy and criminal law and 
 laborers who can neither read nor write. 
 
 "In the matter of religion the majority of the 
 members of course belong to the Greek Orthodox 
 Church. But there are representatives of the various 
 dissenting sects of that body such as those who are 
 known as the Old Believers. And also there are
 
 140 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Lutherans, Mohammedans, Roman Catholics and 
 Jews. Among the different races are Russians, 
 Poles, Ukranians, Germans, Hebrews, Lithuanians, 
 Letts, Ests, Tartars and Siberians. But this is not 
 all. In spite of the fact that it will convene as it 
 stands today, the Duma is not entirely complete. 
 Some of the districts of Siberia, Central Asia and the 
 Caucasus will not hold their elections until some as 
 yet undetermined date in the future. When the re- 
 sult from these districts are announced the make-up 
 of the Duma will be varied still further by the repre- 
 sentatives of the countless races of the Caucasus, 
 which are said to speak three hundred different 
 languages, and it is not unlikely that a delegate of the 
 Buddhist persuasion will be found among the other 
 religions." 
 
 Of the ceremony of the formal opening of the 
 Duma on May 10, 1906, Scull writes as follows: 
 
 "On this day, Thursday, the Czar of Russia 
 opened the first session of the Duma. It was the first 
 time that the members of the Duma had met together 
 as a body ; never before a ceremony of this kind had 
 been held in the city of St. Petersburg. It was also 
 the first time that the Czar had appeared in public 
 since the commencement of the recent troubles. In 
 regard to the reception he received it may be said 
 in conventional language that he was welcomed by 
 the loyal inhabitants of the capital. 
 
 "The newspapers and the people here are calling 
 this day the birth of a new era in Russia, but whether
 
 RUSSIA 141 
 
 or not a veritable new era is beginning remains with 
 the future to decide. The revolutionary movement 
 has commenced the work, it is true — a long step for- 
 ward has been taken — yet a vast deal more must still 
 be accomplished before the end for which the people 
 are striving is finally reached. 
 
 "And events of considerable significance have fol- 
 lowed each other in rapid succession within the past 
 ten days. There was the attempted destruction of 
 Dubarsov, the Governor of Moscow, after church last 
 Sunday morning, and the subsequent murder of the 
 Governor of Katrinaslave when six men shot him 
 down with revolvers. There was the publication of 
 the Fundamental Laws over which the Duma has no 
 control and which take away practically all the power 
 which that body had hoped to wield. There was the 
 incident two nights ago at the meeting of the Free 
 Economic Society (the oldest political society in Rus- 
 sia), when the police turned the meeting out of doors 
 on the plea that the license was not in order, and when 
 Roditcheff, the champion of the people and an able 
 man, denounced the action to his audience of Cadets 
 as a sample of the treatment which under the present 
 conditions of affairs the Duma must expect from the 
 government. The summing up of these events and 
 others of the kind would seem to indicate that after 
 all no great change has been effected by the substitu- 
 tion of the new order for the old. A large percentage 
 of the people believe that the Duma will fail to real- 
 ize the ambition of the nation at large. One of the
 
 142 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 radical newspapers this morning described the situa- 
 tion in brief by saying 'that the day is clear and fine 
 and it should be a day of rejoicing, but it is not.' 
 Such as it is, however, the Duma has been established. 
 The first session has been opened with all the pomp 
 and splendor of the Imperial Court. 
 
 "The Emperor arrived in the Imperial yacht this 
 morning from Peterhoff where he had spent the night 
 in the palace at that place. To lessen the chance of 
 accident, one end of the pontoon bridge over the 
 Neva was cast loose and the bridge allowed to swing 
 with the tide lengthwise along the opposite shore as is 
 done when the ice on the river begins to break up in the 
 spring. Over the permanent bridges no one was per- 
 mitted to pass since the dawn. At that hour also all 
 traffic was stopped through the streets in the near 
 vicinity of the Winter Palace and police lines thrown 
 across them. Wh<ri it was still quite early, troops 
 of the Guard regiments could be seen moving in 
 every direction throughout the neighborhood. In the 
 palace square, squadrons of cavalry stood to horse. 
 
 "The ceremony itself was held in the St. George's 
 throne-room of the Winter Palace. This hall is 
 built of white marble and decorated with gold. Twin 
 columns of white marble uphold the gallery which 
 runs around all four walls. Six massive, golden chan- 
 deliers are suspended from the ceiling, which is heav- 
 ily beamed and painted white. The floor is inlaid 
 with intricate, beautiful patterns. The main en- 
 trance is situated at one end of the hall and the
 
 RUSSIA 143 
 
 throne on the raised platform at the other. On 
 either side low tiers had been built and covered with 
 dark red cloth. These were the places for the person- 
 ages to stand who attended the ceremonies. Thus 
 through the center of the hall lay a wide, open way, 
 straight from the entrance to the throne. The walls 
 on two sides were pierced with a series of plain glass 
 windows through which today the morning sunlight 
 entered freely. 
 
 "At half-past twelve o'clock a large company of 
 men dressed in varied and gorgeous uniforms began 
 straggling into the hall, without haste and without 
 order, in such a manner as gave evidence that all 
 this was more or less of a frequent occurrence with 
 them. Several apparently had not seen each other 
 for some time, for now and again two of them would 
 stop to shake hands, or kiss each other on the cheek or 
 stand chatting for a moment or so. Although the 
 uniforms were varied they were very alike in gor- 
 geousness. Gold braid, hugh epaulets and rows of 
 decorations everywhere prevailed. These personages 
 were the members of the Imperial Council, the Cham- 
 berlains, and the other many officials of the court. 
 Their footfalls on the wooden floor sounded loud in 
 the great, empty hall. 
 
 "When this company had finally arranged itself, 
 standing on the low tiers at the west side of the pas- 
 sage, the choir composed of boys' and men's voices, 
 entered, and after them came a company of the court 
 clergy dressed entirely in gold. One of these car-
 
 144 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ried a small Greek cross, another a bowl of the Holy 
 Water. Both the choir and the clergy ranged them- 
 selves likewise on the western side of the hall. 
 
 "Then the members of the Duma arrived. There 
 were a vast number of these. They moved into the hall 
 rapidly, in single file, which suggested at once that 
 before they had reached the door they had been com- 
 pelled to pass one bj^ one in front of officials for the 
 purpose of identification. They took their places on 
 the east side of the hall, standing in rows of three or 
 four deep along the very edge of the lowest tier until 
 they looked for all the world like a crowd of men 
 lining the curbstone of the sidewalk and 'waiting for 
 the parade to pass.' Only here, of course, with the 
 exception of the priests and the Mohammedans, they 
 waited with uncovered heads. A few of them wore 
 the national costume of the peasants. A Roman 
 Catholic Bishop wore a purple robe. There were 
 two or three Orthodox Priests with flowing hair, and 
 several men dressed in evening clothes and others 
 again in some unpretentious uniform denoting that 
 the owners were the holders of minor offices. But 
 the great majority of the throng on the east side 
 were in simple, dark-colored, every-day clothes with 
 the trousers in most cases tucked into top boots 
 which evidently had been freshly greased for the 
 occasion. 
 
 "In one or two cases among the peasants the men 
 betrayed that they were slightly ill at ease to find 
 themselves actually standing there in the magnificent
 
 RUSSIA 145 
 
 throne-room of the palace. Now and again a peas- 
 ant would move to the side of an acquaintance for 
 the apparent reason of gaining the comfort of com- 
 panionship in their strange surroundings. The great 
 mass of them, however, continued to stand immovable 
 in the rows along the edge of the lower tier. Their 
 bearded, dark faces were slightly curious and un- 
 disturbed. Their deep blue eyes looked quietly at 
 the opposite array of gorgeous uniforms, decorations 
 and gold braid. Thus for a long while the repre- 
 sentatives of the people waited face to face with the 
 bureaucracy for the Emperor of them all to pass 
 between them to the throne. 
 
 "At ten minutes of two the sound of a band playing 
 the national anthem somewhere outside of the palace 
 could be faintly heard, and almost immediately after- 
 wards the procession entered the hall. Directly be- 
 hind the Minister of the Imperial Court who walked 
 at the head of the parade, came the different pieces 
 of the Imperial regalia. There was the Seal, the 
 Flag, the Sword, the Globe, the Crown and the Scep- 
 tre. Each one of these was carried by a man of high 
 military or civil rank, and each was guarded by two 
 officers with drawn swords and by two infantry sol- 
 diers in light marching order and fixed bayonets. 
 
 "The Emperor in a simple, regimental uniform 
 walked alone. Behind him came the two Empresses 
 dressed in the national costume of Russia, and be- 
 hind these again came a company of Grand Dukes 
 and their suites.
 
 146 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "The Emperor nodded first to the rows of peasants 
 and representatives of the people who gazed at him 
 without reserve. Then he turned to the other side 
 and nodded to the bureaucracy who returned his 
 greeting with low obeisance. 
 
 "The first part of the procession passed on to the 
 appointed places near the throne. The Emperor 
 stopped where the court clergy were standing. He 
 stooped and kissed the Cross and received the sprink- 
 ling of Holy Water on his forehead. The two Em- 
 presses did the same and then took their stations on 
 either side of the Emperor. 
 
 "There followed a long, religious ceremony. With 
 the attempted destruction of Dubarsov and the mur- 
 der of the Governor of Katrinaslave fresh in mind, 
 in the immediate presence of that sombre array of 
 people's representatives many of whom were out- 
 wardly confessed to be in sympathy with the revo- 
 lutionary movement, with the chanting of the service 
 going on and on apparently without an end, the sit- 
 uation for those three must have been a hard one to 
 bear with indifference. The Emperor was not so tall 
 as either of the Empresses. Although he stood erect, 
 his pose was lacking in strength. Under the circmii- 
 stances it was natural, perhaps, that now and again 
 he betrayed slight signs of nervousness. Both the 
 Empresses stood like statues. 
 
 "But when the services ended and the Empresses 
 went forward and the Grand Dukes fell back so that 
 the Emperor walked along and slowly down the cen-
 
 RUSSIA 147 
 
 tre of the hall to the throne, the fine attempt at an 
 assumed impressive bearing and a seemingly outward 
 calm called at once for a certain admiration. 
 
 "On reaching the throne, where the royal robe 
 trimmed with ermine lay across the arm of the chair, 
 the Emperor was handed a paper whereon his speech 
 was written. The speech was brief. It contained 
 no more than what was to be expected of the occa- 
 sion. The Emperor read it with a slow, monotonous, 
 distinct enunciation. He spoke for a little imder 
 three minutes in all. 
 
 "At the closing words, ']\Iay God be a helper to 
 me and to you,' the assemblage burst forth into 
 cheering and a band stationed in the gallery played 
 again the national hymn. But the cheering was not 
 spontaneous. It continued with a dead level intens- 
 ity which suggested immediately that only those who 
 had been previously instructed did the shouting. 
 The procession reformed as before and moved to- 
 ward the main entrance of the hall. The cheering 
 lasted until the Emperor had passed out. Then 
 silence came abruptly."
 
 Chapter XI 
 THE LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER— 1908 
 
 The expedition to the Caribbean in search of 
 sunken Spanish treasure was one of the big adven- 
 tures in Scull's life, and for that matter in the life 
 of every member of the ship's company. It was 
 planned as a summer yachting cruise to the south'ard 
 and ended in the total loss of the ship in a West 
 Indian hurricane, all hands being saved by a passing 
 steamer on a third and last attempt to get a line 
 fast to the derelict. It was an adventure equaling 
 any sea yarn told of the Spanish Main, and no band 
 of swashbucklers in Drake's and Frobisher's days 
 ever faced death with less thought or more courage 
 than this crew of Harvard and Yale men of a peace- 
 ful and prosaic time. 
 
 The Southern Research Company, for such was 
 the expedition's name, was organized in the Summer 
 of 1908, but not until September 18th were the ship 
 and crew completely outfitted and ready to sail. 
 Scull, who had been elected leader, wrote his Mother 
 on August 6th not to worry about his safety. 
 
 "The boat we are sailing in," the letter runs, "is 
 the Mayflower. She is built exceedingly strong and 
 has already made two trips to the West Indies. For 
 
 148
 
 LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER 149 
 
 Captain we have a man who has been a deep sea skip- 
 per for a great many years and knows these waters 
 like a book. We will undoubtedly take a mate as 
 well. In regard to the hurricane season, that season 
 will he nearly over by the time we get there, and an- 
 other thing you must remember the storms you may 
 have up here we will not have in the south. I tell 
 you this so that every time there is a storm up here 
 you will not think of my being out in it. I shall be 
 many hundred miles south of the track of that storm." 
 
 On September 19th he sent a last word ashore by 
 the pilot as the jMayflower was passing out through 
 the Narrows on her way to sea. 
 
 "We hope to catch a favorable wind," wrote Scull, 
 "and sail straight down the coast. If any storm 
 blows up we will not have any difficulty about get- 
 ting into a good harbor. We are all in fine spirits. 
 Will write you as soon as we get into Kingston." 
 
 The INIayflower never reached Kingston. The 
 story of the cruise, the loss of the ship, and a second 
 attempt to raise the treasure is best told by a close 
 personal friend of Scull and a member of the ship's 
 company. He writes as follows: 
 
 "Over my desk hangs a photograph that I shall 
 never part with. The view is from the bow of a dis- 
 masted schooner looking aft. The deck is scattered 
 with the debris of wreckage, a dory is lashed bottom 
 up by the main companionway, the port rail shows 
 to be battered and broken in, a huge sea rises above 
 the starboard quarter, about the wheel stands a small
 
 150 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 group of men in oilskins, but what catches the eye 
 most particularly is a slight, lean figure, with close 
 cropped hair and sunburnt skin, clad in a cotton 
 shirt and long black trousers, clinging to the stump 
 of the broken mainmast, evidently on lookout duty. 
 The wrecked vessel is the IMayflower, and the look- 
 out Guy Scull. 
 
 "I like the picture not only because it recalls vividly 
 to me a few days of stirring adventure that I enjoy 
 in restrospect but because it portrays Guy Scull in 
 a situation that I believe he enjoyed above all others, 
 for he was a man with whom adventure was a real 
 passion and a thing to be pursued as carefully and 
 diligently as any profession or business in life should 
 be pursued. 
 
 "That was thirteen years ago now and we v/ere 
 all young enough then to be moved further from the 
 fireside by a tale and prospect of sunken treasure. 
 Scull and Boyleston were veteran adventurers, the 
 former had been a Rough Rider and war correspon- 
 dent in the Boer and Russo-Japanese wars and the 
 latter had fought in the Boer army, been severely 
 wounded, captured by the British and after so many 
 daring attempts to escape that he was considered by 
 them more than a handful, had been locked up in 
 Napoleon's headquarters at St. Helena. The rest of 
 our crowd behind the mast. Hay den Richardson, Ste- 
 phen Noyes and myself, were gentlemen with less 
 dramatic pasts. 
 
 "Scull was commander of the expedition and a
 
 LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER 151 
 
 very thorough, capable commander he made. The 
 Mayflovrer was officered by an aged captain, now 
 dead, a competent and genial first mate, Perham, for 
 whom life held many vicissitudes many of which were 
 of a distinctly humorous character to me, at any 
 rate, and four or five men before the mast. About 
 three hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, 
 and the same distance north of Watling's Island, 
 early in October on our way to Kingston, Jamaica, 
 we ran into an unusually severe hurricane. For the 
 first twelve hours we were hove to under double reefed 
 foresail and fore staysail and made good weather of 
 it until both sails, one after the other, blew to pieces. 
 "We were then forced to run under bare poles be- 
 fore the storm which had reached its full intensity. 
 As I remember we ran about four hours, from mid- 
 night to daybreak, the schooner rolling down on her 
 beam ends and putting her spreaders in the seas, 
 flying at tremendous rate of speed and being almost 
 impossible to steer. It was about daybreak that the 
 rudder broke and she broached to and put her masts 
 in the water. I suppose the wind was blowing as 
 high as one hundred and twenty-five miles an hour 
 then. 
 
 "She was ballasted with pig-iron and some of this 
 rolled to leeward, making her less stable, and after a 
 couple of severe knockdowns. Scull, who was cling- 
 ing to the weather rail, took command of the ship, 
 the captain being too dazed and beaten by the situa- 
 tion to act, and ordered the masts cut out. It was
 
 152 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 undoubtedly his prompt decision that saved us, for 
 before we got the mainmast clear, she had put both 
 masts in five times, and the last time I recall going 
 comipletely under water myself; I was at the main- 
 mast step helping the mate cut away, and the last 
 thing I saw was the mast head go under and the 
 weather rail apparently tumble over on top of me. 
 
 "When she righted it appeared that Scull and the 
 others had been hanging clear of the rail by their 
 hands with their knees in the water, so it can be seen 
 that her decks had crossed the perpendicular. 
 
 "When the mast finally went it punched a hole 
 through the deck and then blew out like a toothpick 
 to leeward for the spring stay between it and the fore- 
 mast had not been cut. We cut the fore rigging and 
 then in a minute or so the entire rig went to blazes, 
 first the bowsprit, then the mainboom and gaff and 
 mainsail, all furled together, jumped over the broken 
 mainmast stump, crashed down on the lee rail, smash- 
 ing it and a dory to pieces, and finally, after we had 
 cut the watch tackles and main sheet, rolled over- 
 board and blew away over the crest of a mountain- 
 ous sea never to be seen again. 
 
 "We now found ourselves somewhere in the South 
 Atlantic rudderless, mastless and rigless save for the 
 foreboom and about a third of the storm trysail. 
 Everything below decks was in a frightful mess. All 
 the belongings of the men in the starboard bunks 
 of the main cabin had tumbled over into the port 
 bunks when she heeled down and on top of them had
 
 9 
 
 W^ 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE M A^ I- LOW Kli, 1!)08
 
 LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER 153 
 
 rolled several tons of bilge water and pig-iron 
 ballast. General devastation and mess was true from 
 the forecastle to the lazarette aft. I remember that 
 all we had to eat for the next few days was canned 
 eggs, hardtack, soaked hi bilgewater, and sardines. 
 
 "We had three tons of djmamite in the after state- 
 room which caused us much anxiety as the Mayflower 
 had a long, low stern and pounded frightfully in the 
 hea\y seas. Partly because we had feared the dyna- 
 mite might be detonated and in order to relieve the 
 strain on her stem, which was beginning to break up, 
 we started to throw the dynamite overboard. The 
 first box floated under her stern and she came doAvn 
 'whack' on top of it, which gave us a scare, and then 
 we decided to break the boxes open so they would 
 sink quicker. Bojdston took a hammer and cold 
 chisel and went after the job in true boilermaker fash- 
 ion, but Scull thought his technique faulty and took 
 the job himself, prying the boxes open carefully and 
 letting Boylston and the rest heave them overboard. 
 
 "Saturday we sighted a steamer, the Advance of 
 the Panama line, signalled her but as we had lost 
 our code book could not read her signals. We 
 thought she said she would 'stand by.' As it was very 
 rough and blowing a gale and she was having all she 
 could do to weather it herself, we got no assistance 
 from her and after a while lost her from view. That 
 night we burnt Coston lights and sent up rockets, 
 and about midnight picked up the lights of a steamer. 
 She stood by and when dawn came we made her out as
 
 154 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the Ran, a Norwegian tramp, heavily laden and tak- 
 ing on water like a submarine. She tried to lower a 
 boat but smashed it up and then towed a buoyed line 
 about us which Noyes finally got by swimming for it 
 about noon. To this the Ran fastened a heavy haw- 
 ser but, as we were hauling it in, our line caught in 
 her screw and parted. She then gave up trying to 
 get us and stood by. 
 
 "About 3 P. M., Sunday, we sighted a third 
 steamer, the Hippolite Dumois of the United Fruit 
 Company, a small, lightly loaded steamer, that ap- 
 peared to be making good weather of it. Her cap- 
 tain was able to manoeuver her readily and soon had 
 backed her down on us and cast a line over our decks. 
 In no time we had a hawser through the bits and were 
 in tow. Then, by means of a life buoy and a snub 
 line, we were hauled over through the water and up 
 the stern to the steamer's deck, the Mayflower, in 
 a sinking condition, was cut adrift, and we started 
 for Baltimore, minus most of our belongings but rich 
 in adventure. 
 
 "The Hippolite's skipper offered us all clothing, 
 cigars and whiskey. Scull took only the cigars. He 
 was on a swear-off and though he was suffering from 
 fever and was in a weakened condition, refused a 
 drink under circumstances that surely warranted one, 
 and went down to the fireroom in his wet clothes 
 and smoked the Captain's cigars till he dried off. 
 
 "We were landed at Baltimore a few days later 
 and when we returned to New York I went down to
 
 LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER 155 
 
 Kingston, Jamaica, and chartered another schooner, 
 the Seagull, to get out to the wreck we were after. 
 Incidentally I caught fever and my doctor advised 
 my returning to New York, which I did, passing 
 Scull, Boylston and the mate who sailed for King- 
 ston about the same time I sailed for New York. 
 Thej^ took the Seagull out to the reef and after a 
 few days my desire to see the thing through moved me 
 back to Kingston where I got a trader from the Cay- 
 man Islands to take me out to the reef. 
 
 "This was a fortunate move for when we reached 
 Pedro Banks and sighted the Seagull I found that 
 the treasure hunt had not gone as well as anticipated. 
 Scull and Boylston put out to the sloop I was on in 
 a long canoe, burnt as brown as Indians bv the hot 
 Caribbean sun, and clambered aboard. I eagerly 
 took Boj'^iston aside and asked him how much treas- 
 ure they had got. 
 
 " 'Treasure ! hell !' was his reply, 'we haven't even 
 found the jjlace yet.' 
 
 "The pilot, who was one of the chief promoters of 
 the scheme and a gentleman of uncertain methods, 
 was at fault. He was gambling on a very little exact 
 information. However, the cook of my sloop had 
 been with the vessel that first discovered the wreck 
 and had taken out the bulk of the treasure recovered, 
 so after sufficient inducement had been offered, he 
 located the wreck for us and we got to work. 
 
 "It was an impossible place, eighty miles off shore 
 on a shallow reef over which the seas were constantly
 
 156 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 breaking. Our divers were handicapped by a heavy- 
 undertow and were forced to blast at random with 
 little indication of where the wrecked vessel really lay, 
 as centuries of coral growth had almost completely 
 encrusted her. We got a good deal of junk from her 
 that marked her as a pirate ship or galleon, but we 
 never saw a dubloon or a 'piece of eight.' 
 
 "Scull worked faithfully on our little scow, the 
 Dirty Mary, running the sand pump, blastings, ex- 
 amining the bottom, but to no avail. Boylston 
 amused himself by running the seas as they broke over 
 the reef in the canoe with a crew of Indian and negro 
 boys, all yelling like savages and as naked as the day 
 they were born. In the evenings we rolled uncom- 
 fortably in our hammocks on the Seagull and wished 
 we were home. Finally our water and dynamite 
 gave out and a blow came up, so Scull reluctantly 
 gave the order to abandon the scow, up anchor and 
 sail for Kingston. 
 
 "We got on a reef on the way but got off again 
 with little damage to the ship. At Kingston the ex- 
 pedition was terminated and after disposing of our 
 outfit we sailed for home. Scull was the most dis- 
 appointed member of the party, for he hated to fall 
 down on anything he undertook. The rest of us had 
 a good time so we didn't worry. But I believe that 
 Scull would have embarked on the next expedition 
 of a similar nature that was presented to him with 
 equal enthusiasm, for he just naturally loved the 
 game.*'
 
 LOSS OF THE MAYFLOWER 157 
 
 Mrs. Scull received the first news of the loss of the 
 Ma5^flower and the rescue of the crew, includmg her 
 son, by wire from Baltimore into which port the 
 steamship Hippolite Dumois of the United Fruit 
 Line steamed with the survivors. Scull also wrote 
 from New York and she received confirmation of the 
 rescue and more details from another member of the 
 crew, who added this note: 
 
 "We have to be thankful that the crew did not 
 ihare the fate of the unfortunate vessel and we are 
 all satisfied to get back our friends alive and doubly 
 proud of them for their heroism at the time of the 
 wreck. I wish to say that even when expecting death 
 each moment, Guy was regretting the loss of the ship 
 and the failure of the expedition." 
 
 An anti-climax of the cruise and loss of the May- 
 flower is revealed in another letter received by Mrs. 
 Scull shortly after the survivors reached New York, 
 which saj'^s: 
 
 "Guy is laboriously getting ready to go to a dinner 
 party, to the high delight of Roger Derby and all his 
 crowd. It seems that while they were all upon their 
 cruise. South, Roger showed Guy a picture of a girl 
 that Guy admired very much. After a lot of joking 
 Guy promised if Roger would produce the girl he 
 would meet her. He promptly forgot all about it, 
 but Roger did not. He got his sister to give a dinner 
 party, get the girl (she lived out of town) and then 
 put it up to Guy to keep his promise. The Skipper 
 fussed and fumed and squirmed, but finally had to
 
 158 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 accept, to the intense delight of the whole Harvard 
 Club. They were now all busy formally shaking 
 him by the hand and saying good-bye to him." 
 
 But there is no further record that the attempt to 
 interest Scull in dinner parties and pretty girls was 
 a success. It no doubt wasn't, for the Skipper was 
 about as enthusiastic as solid cement when it came 
 to pushing him into this side of life. He was still 
 at this period a victim of the wanderlust and headed 
 straight in the opposite direction.
 
 Chapter XII 
 
 NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT 
 
 1908-1909 
 
 General Theodore A. Bingham, Police Commis- 
 sioner under Mayor McClellan, appointed Scull to 
 the first position he had in the Police Department. 
 That was in December, 1908. 
 
 "He was then a slender, wiry, soft-spoken fellow 
 with strikingly blue eyes," writes General Bingham, 
 "exceptional in his reticence, one might say in his 
 silence, for he spoke so little. He was exceedingly 
 modest and retiring. But underneath all this was a 
 restless, bold, adventurous spirit. He was always 
 looking for experiences of unusual and dramatic 
 kinds — with plenty of excitement and even risk, if 
 possible, to life and limb. When asked about his 
 adventures, he would smile, but say little, except on 
 rare occasions. 
 
 "In Scull's extraordinary quiet, modest way he 
 must have had a great deal of fun. 
 
 "Though one would never have suspected it, just to 
 meet him casually, he was all for action. 
 
 "He was alert and keen in mind, tough in body, 
 of well disciplined temper, full of the real spirit of 
 adventure, bold but not foolhardy, full of nerve and 
 probably the most desirable man I have ever met 
 
 159
 
 160 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 to have beside one in a tight and dangerous scrap. 
 He was courteous, gentle, kindly, universally be- 
 loved — a real man with the bubbling heart of a boy.*' 
 
 Arthur Woods brought Scull to General Bing- 
 ham's attention. Woods had been made Fourth Dep- 
 uty Police Commissioner by General Bingham fol- 
 lowing an investigation into police conditions which 
 Woods had made for a committee of citizens. Both 
 Woods and Scull were strangers at Headquarters. 
 They did not know the newspaper reporters any 
 better than they did the members of the force, or the 
 Commissioner's official family. Woods, barring his 
 short newspaper career, came direct into the study 
 of police conditions here and abroad from a master's 
 position at Groton School. Before that he had spent 
 one year of post-graduate work in a German uni- 
 versity following four 3^ears at Harvard, from which 
 he was graduated in 1892, six years before Scull. He 
 was a high-grade scholar, a keen student of civic 
 affairs, devoted to out-of-doors sports, a good, whole- 
 some type of the present-day educator. 
 
 If Scull did not bring as much book learning to his 
 new job as did Woods, his boss, he balanced his side 
 of the ledger with what he had learned in the rough 
 school of experience in newspaper work, in the army 
 in South Africa, East Africa, IManchuria, Japan and 
 Russia. Together these two men made a strong com- 
 bination. Scull was devoted to his work from the 
 start, staying all hours on the job either at his desk 
 or prowling around town. The force did not take
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 161 
 
 instantly to him. He was loioAvn to the "old-timers" 
 as a "Haa-vared" man with the broad accent on the 
 first sj^llable. But it was not long before the real 
 policemen got his true measure. 
 
 "Boots" Trojan, a detective-sergeant, expressed 
 this as only a New York "cop" can when he declared: 
 
 "I had Scull all wrong from the start. The first 
 time I went in to see him I said to myself, 'My God, 
 he's a portrait.' He looked like one of those swell 
 canvases hanging up there in the Park. But you see 
 the only person I was kidding was myself. I jumped 
 at a guess on that fellow and muffed him, absolutely. 
 
 "I had to wait that day before getting to him and 
 as I studied him in those few minutes I knew my first 
 guess was wrong. 
 
 "Although he looked dressy, he wasn't. Get me? 
 It wasn't his clothes. Anything would look good on 
 that fellow. He didn't say much but he had a drawl 
 like a comedian, and yet you didn't loiow whether he 
 was stringing you or in earnest, and you liked it. Then 
 I took a real tumble to his face. It was a portrait but 
 it was class. It was the face of a leader, something 
 fine and strong and yet sad. He reminded me of 
 those old fellows in the history books we had in school. 
 When he spoke to me he didn't roar and spit. He had 
 a soft, easy, lead-me-to-it voice. That was Scull as 
 I saw him first and afterwards learned to know him, 
 and I don't want to know any better." 
 
 "Boots' " name was George. He was one of the 
 group of reliable policemen with whom Scull first
 
 162 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 came in contact and who took him around town and 
 made him acquainted with police business. It was 
 Trojan who got Scull out one cold winter night soon 
 after he came to Headquarters with a telephone mes- 
 sage that he, Trojan, had "holed up" a gang of river 
 pirates. Did the Commissioner want to come down 
 and get in the raid? It didn't take Scull long to get 
 there, minus an overcoat and gloves and his derby- 
 jammed down over his ears. Those wharf-rats had 
 been terrorizing the barge and canal boatmen along 
 South Street for months, and had left a trail reeking 
 with assaults, robberies and worse among the boatmen 
 and their families. Trojan was ringing up Headquar- 
 ters for a raiding party when Scull arrived. 
 
 "Leave 'em behind," said this Harvard man. "Come 
 on. We haven't got time. Let's jump the gang 
 alone." 
 
 "Sure," said Trojan. 
 
 So alone these two went after a good-sized gang of 
 tough wharf-rats and river pirates. They sneaked 
 down a long wharf, slii^ped into a rowboat, and 
 pushed off in the black night feeling their way around 
 the pier heads, in and out among the boats, under 
 wharves, until finally they came to their quarry's 
 hole. Then thej'^ left their boat and climbed. 
 
 "Scull was right on top of me all the time," said 
 Trojan. "I didn't have to wait for him. Both of 
 us had guns, but I was worried for fear of his get- 
 ting hurt. He ruined his clothes, lost his derby hat, 
 and skinned his hands till thev bled, and then when
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 163 
 
 we finally rushed the place and busted in the door, 
 the dump was empty. It was a shack built of boxes 
 and driftAvood back in under the land end of a pier, 
 
 but a place that couldn't be reached except from the 
 water at high tide. We destroyed it, leaving it in 
 ruins, and carting away a load of junk. As we were 
 climbing back into the boat Scull said he had forgot 
 something and went back, and what do you think he 
 did? He pinned a piece of paper on a post over the 
 ruins with a skull and crossbones on it and under- 
 neath the words in big letters 'BEWARE.' He 
 
 printed the thing himself with his fountain pen and 
 chuckled like a boy as he did it. When he left me 
 in the dawn of that morning he said: 
 
 " 'Trojan, I wouldn't have missed that party for a 
 year's salary.' " 
 
 James Bresnan, another detective-sergeant who 
 came early in contact with Scull, said that usually 
 when they v/ere called to the front office it meant a 
 "bawling out" and when he was first ordered to see 
 Scull he went "meek and humble." 
 
 "I was the most surprised cop in the line-up," said 
 Bresnan. "I didn't get the usual gruff, 'What's the 
 matter with you?' or 'Whoever told you you were a 
 detective?' It was 'How are you coming on with this 
 case. Officer? Is there any assistance you want? Can 
 I personally be of help to you?' And after I had 
 finished with my report and was going out, he asked 
 me to make his office my headquarters and to come
 
 164 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 direct to him any time I wanted to. I went out with 
 the thought that I was somebody, and that I would 
 work my head off for this man who gave me credit 
 for having brains, even if I didn't have smy. Com- 
 missioner Scull not only made good on what he prom- 
 ised, but no matter in how tight a comer I got at 
 times Scull was always behind me backing me up to 
 the limit." 
 
 Such was Scull as the policemen found him and 
 got to know him. As he became acquainted with 
 office routine. Woods began turning over to him 
 cases to handle himself. He had special men as- 
 signed to him as a field force. 
 
 It was about this time that the newspapers began 
 an expose of a loathsome traffic in human beings 
 which had been steadily increasing among immigrant 
 classes during the last ten years. 
 
 Both dealers and their victims of barter were of 
 the lowest order of intelligence; the dealers, brutal 
 and despicable beyond words, and the victims, igno- 
 rant unfortunates recruited from the ranks of outcasts 
 both here and abroad. The name given the unfortu- 
 nate women was "White Slaves" and the wretches, 
 their masters, were laiown as "cadets." In many 
 instances it was charged that the "White Slaves" were 
 actually bought and sold, but the Mann Act (June 
 25, 1910) was not then on the statute books, and it 
 was as difficult to draw a legal complaint on which to 
 obtain a conviction in court as it was to show proof 
 of the traffic. 
 
 The cleaning up of th.s traffic in New York City
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 165 
 
 was one of the first tasks assigned by Deputy Com- 
 missioner Woods to his assistant, Scull, and he 
 lost no time in starting a survey of the town, on 
 which he could make a round-up of these human 
 wolves who infested it. I mention this here because 
 of its importance to the police work of the country, 
 and because of the effect of this investigation and 
 the evidence collected, on Federal legislation that 
 followed. 
 
 Working with Scull on this survey and investiga- 
 tion was Professor Jeremiah W. Jenks, a member of 
 the U. S. Immigration Commission, who was direct- 
 ing the investigation of certain evasions of the Fed- 
 eral law and also of the relations of immigrants to 
 various social problems, especially crime, pauperism, 
 disease, etc. The co-operation of Professor Jenks 
 was obtained by General Bingham through his close 
 relations with the Federal authorities in Washington. 
 
 Professor Jenks writes: 
 
 "The work with the criminal immigrant wns of 
 quite a different type from the White Slave traffic, 
 even more dangerous, if possible, as regards the de- 
 tectives, and on the whole probably more successful, 
 had the Police Department in New York not changed 
 its administration before the work was completed. It 
 was while at work in Italy on work developed along 
 these lines that Petrosino was murdered. 
 
 "The work was very dangerous here because the 
 men in the field were dealing with criminal char- 
 acters, men who were levying blackmail upon their
 
 166 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 own countrymen here and who were committing the 
 other desperate crimes of the Black Hand. In con- 
 sequence, in order to avoid every chance of exposing 
 them, I never saw but twice the Italian who was 
 working for the Commission, and then, under an as- 
 sumed name, I visited a friend of his where he met 
 me in order that I might know the kind of man to 
 whom I was furnishing pay and be able better to 
 judge the trustworthy character of his work. 
 
 "Here again, in this work. Scull's intellectual acu- 
 men was of the greatest assistance and to him should 
 be given in good part the credit for the very success- 
 ful development of the work in the Police Depart- 
 ment. When General Bingham and with him Arthur 
 Woods, Guy Scull and two other deputies resigned, 
 there were in the records of the Police Department 
 more than one hundred certified copies of crim- 
 inal records of Italian criminals in the United States, 
 mostly in New York and vicinity, whose addresses 
 were known and whose deportation was impending. 
 It had been thought best, in order to avoid detection 
 and the consequent scattering and escape of the crim- 
 inals, that arrangements be made with the immigra- 
 tion authorities at Ellis Island only after the evi- 
 dence was completed and the men in large numbers 
 could be rounded up at once and sent off. A deporta- 
 tion at one time of large numbers of criminals of that 
 class would have been the greatest blow to the black- 
 hand work and to the criminal immigrants known in 
 the history of the city.
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 167 
 
 "Knowing the facts in the case, after the retirement 
 of Woods and Scull, I went to the new head of this 
 work in the department and told him I had been cog- 
 nizant of the facts and asked him if I could be of any 
 service in carrying on the work. He told me that he 
 knew the fact that these criminal records were in the 
 files of the department, but that he and the new com- 
 missioner were of the opinion that the police force 
 of New York had enough to do in keeping order in 
 New York City without troubling about the criminal 
 situation in Rome, Naples, and other foreign cities! 
 The Police Department proposed to take no further 
 action in that direction. How many bombs were later 
 thro^vn, well-to-do Italians blackmailed, and murders 
 committed by these criminals that might have been 
 and would have been deported had Woods and Scull 
 remained in their positions it is left for the reader 
 to judge. 
 
 "In these two fields Scull and I were associated for 
 many months. In his very modest, quiet way, never 
 claiming any credit or making himself in the least 
 conspicuous, he furnished continually ideas and plans, 
 and wherever necessary and practicable the co-opera- 
 tion of the Police Department which were of the very 
 greatest assistance to the Immigration Commission in 
 carrying on its work. In addition thereto his work, 
 with the full authority of Colonel Woods and General 
 Bingham back of it, gave to New York within those 
 two years the cleanest conditions as regards vice 
 and crime that it had known for many years before
 
 168 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 or that it has known since, with the possible exception 
 of the later period when Colonel Woods, as Commis- 
 sioner of Police, had the direction of the whole city. 
 It would be difficult to express too high an apprecia- 
 tion of the efficiency and success of Guy Scull's work." 
 
 In one raid of a West 28th Street boarding-house 
 during the "white slave" investigation Scull gathered 
 in a notorious Belgian character who had been living 
 on the earnings of his women and had so far eluded 
 arrest. It was Scull's first really big case and Scull 
 was anxious to make his evidence so complete that the 
 wretch couldn't beat it in court. Scull had a most 
 wholesome respect for the rules of evidence, but he 
 had an equal scorn for several of the judges and law- 
 yers then practising in the criminal courts. He real- 
 ized, however, that he was a novice at the game, and 
 so swallowed his pride, and asked a lawyer friend to 
 sit in and coach him during the examination of the 
 prisoner. Using the police phrase, Headquarters was 
 "wise" to the event, the reporters were "wise," and 
 the case became a topic of interest, with everyone 
 keen to see how Woods' new assistant would handle 
 his first big case. One of the deputies described the 
 scene at the examination. Scull sat at his desk in the 
 role of inquisitor; in front of him, the white, pasty- 
 faced Belgian with a sneer on his face and the manner 
 of a man confident of his safety, and extremely bored. 
 On one side sat the stenographer, and on the other 
 the lawyer friend. 
 
 Scull went laboriously into a long quiz as to the
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 169 
 
 life and record of the prisoner, getting by his o^vn 
 admissions a complete record of his life. It wasn't 
 a pretty story either. Then he suddenly switched 
 to the incident of his arrest. 
 
 Q. Do you work for a living? 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. Had one in the past five years? 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. Got a bank account? 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. Who pays for your clothes? 
 
 A. A friend. 
 
 Q. Who pays for your food? 
 
 A. A friend. 
 
 Q. A lady friend? 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Have you got more than one of these lady 
 friends ? 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. How many? 
 
 A. Maybe five, maybe six ! 
 
 Q. And they all work for you? 
 
 A. They are crazee about me! 
 
 Q. What sort of jobs have they? 
 
 A. That is their business. I nevair ask a lady her 
 business. 
 
 Q. Can you guess? 
 
 A. Maybe yes, maybe no! 
 
 Q. They go out on the street for you, don't they? 
 
 A. Sure they go on the street.
 
 170 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Q. They "hustle" for you, don't they? 
 
 A. That's it. Veery good. "Hustle." Veery, 
 veery good! 
 
 "I don't believe you need go any further," inter- 
 rupted Scull's lawyer friend, breaking into the ex- 
 amination at this point. "I think you have sufficiently 
 proved the social position of this gentleman." 
 
 "Good," said Scull. "That's a relief." 
 
 This case held, and a conviction was secured. 
 
 Scull was crowned with a nom de plume in the 
 early days of his police experience. It was "Mr. 
 Tobin of Cohoes, N. Y.," and it stuck, or rather the 
 story did. "Jimmie" Finn, another detective ser- 
 geant, gave Scull that "moniker." Finn, a slight, 
 thin-faced, sharp-eyed policeman, who looked like a 
 boy then, and hasn't grown much older in looks since, 
 was Wood's authority on gang activities, and after- 
 ward made leader of the Gang Squad, which did 
 much effective work. Finn writes: 
 
 "I was selected to take Mr. Scull out one night, 
 show him the various rendezvous of members of the 
 underworld, and give him a sort of a close-up. I 
 could not very well introduce him to our friends as 
 the secretary of the Fourth Deputy Police Commis- 
 sioner, so I had to look him over carefully, see what 
 name and city I could give to the various joint keep- 
 ers, crooks and hangers-on v/ith whom we came in 
 contact. I told Mr. Scull he was a sight-see-er and 
 would have to stand for what I called him. His tall, 
 outdoor looking appearance at that time, with the
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 171 
 
 slight twang he had, made him look and act like a 
 man from the country. So I named him 'Mr. Tobin 
 from Cohoes.' I don't think the conditions he saw 
 on that night were ever witnessed by him again. We 
 made a night of it, and 'Mr. Tobin' certainly had a 
 good time. He never missed a trick, and played up 
 to the mob I 'buzzed' him to like a bom actor. He 
 spoke very little to any of these birds all during the 
 trip, but he was a good listener, and when he did 
 speak he always said just enough and no more, but 
 his sharp eyes, grim smile and the different slants of 
 his long cigar always had me wise that he was on to 
 everything that was doing. 
 
 "Scull's manner with the detectives and the other 
 members of the force had a great deal to do with get- 
 ting their confidence at the time of Commissioner 
 Woods' reorganization of the Bureau. They had faith 
 in him absolutely, knew he was the right breed, and 
 could trust him with their confidence. That meant 
 more than the public knew in the reorganization that 
 followed. 
 
 "The memory of the late Major Scull is one of 
 the pleasantest things the Detective Bureau has to 
 look back upon. Although he had many trying times 
 and the newspapers often roasted him, he never lost 
 his head, and he never failed to stand up for and back 
 up his subordinates." 
 
 The Bingham administration came to an end rather 
 abruptly and closed for the time being Scull's police 
 activities in New York. The incident had an impor-
 
 172 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 tant effect upon Scull, undoubtedly affecting his sub- 
 sequent career. This sudden termination of a new 
 and altogether fine police administration for a city 
 that had fared so notoriously ill in this line, gave to 
 Scull a first-hand picture of the viselike grip partisan 
 politics had upon the police, and what the members 
 of the force themselves had to contend with. It laid 
 bare with all its sordidness the working of the so- 
 called "political pull" and illustrated in no uncertain 
 way the discouragement and rebuff offered a clean, 
 high-principled head of a department in trying to 
 honestly administer his sworn duty. 
 
 This is not the place to review the removal of Po- 
 lice Commissioner Bingham from office, an incident 
 now forgotten, but which shook the city when it was 
 announced. There have been various reasons given 
 as the cause of this summary action. Stripped of all 
 verbiage, the facts are that a citizen demanded that 
 the Police Commissioner destroy a set of fingerprints 
 in the Bureau of Identification of the Detective Bu- 
 reau at Headquarters. The General prom.ptly re- 
 fused. The Mayor asked the General to resign. This 
 the General also declined to do and the Mayor re- 
 moved him forthwith. The Bingham administration 
 went out of office at midnight on the 29th of June, 
 and the departure of these men, together, from the 
 old Mulberry Street building is said to have been 
 one of the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed at 
 Police Headquarters. 
 
 The one deputy who accepted the Mayor's invita-
 
 ]Sr. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1908-1909 173 
 
 tion to stay, and who declined to go out with his for- 
 mer associates, was given the office vacated by his for- 
 mer chief. 
 
 The fingerprinted subject whose political friends 
 precipitated the controversy was afterwards caught 
 by the police in an even more serious predicament, 
 and the evidence in the case absolutely vindicated 
 General Bingham's position. 
 
 Soon after the dramatic end of the Bingham ad- 
 ministration Scull was in conference with IMorgan 
 Schuster, recently returned from Persia, on the sub- 
 ject of the organization of a uniformed police for the 
 Shah. Scull was modeling it after the Xorthwest 
 Mounted Police of Canada. Edmund Leigh, a police 
 detective, was working with him on it, but the thing 
 dragged into an indefinite correspondence with the 
 East. Buffalo Jones came out of the West with an 
 entirely new proposition and Scull went to British 
 East Africa instead of Persia, all of which is told in 
 the next chapter.
 
 Chapter XIII 
 
 NAIROBI— 1910 
 
 Men of the plains and the mountains had an equal 
 place in the Skipper's affection with the men of the 
 sea. He liked wild horses and he probably liked the 
 men who could tame them. He liked the range life. 
 Scull first came to know these Westerners when in 
 the Rough Riders. Later he lived with cattle men on 
 a ranch in New Mexico. He rode herd and bunked 
 with them. He worked and played with them. He 
 learned to understand them. Probably if Scull had 
 not turned this leaf of life out there on the plains 
 he never would have met up with "Buffalo Jones." 
 He would never have laiown how to handle this ec- 
 centric character and this Nairobi chapter would 
 never have been written. But come together Jones 
 and Scull did, and the place of meeting was not a 
 water hole in the canyon country, but a prosaic law 
 office in Nassau Street, New York City. Here, as 
 strange as it may seem, "Buffalo Jones" and the 
 Skipper, together with several other gentlemen, 
 formed an exploration company to back Scull and 
 "The Colonel," as "Buffalo Jones" was called, in an 
 expedition to British East Africa to lasso lions and 
 rhinoceros and all other big game they could find. 
 
 174
 
 03 
 
 O 
 
 x; 
 
 o
 
 NAIROBI 175 
 
 It all sounds ridiculously out of place. Nassau 
 Street and rhinoceros ! The practice of law and the 
 hunting of big game do not sound quite so strange, 
 nor Wall Street and Bears and Bulls, but somehow 
 "Buffalo Jones" and the Skipper meeting up in 
 Nassau Street to go roping lions, giraffes and such 
 things in East Africa appears to be almost a bur- 
 lesque. And yet that day these men met Charles 
 Sumner Bird of Boston, and Arthur A. Fowler, of 
 New York, in a directors' meeting in the Nassau 
 Street office it was just as serious and grave a busi- 
 ness as was ever attempted in any other directors' 
 meeting, whether banks, railroads or manufactories. 
 It took considerable money to finance a trip of up- 
 wards of one hundred men and animals into the heart 
 of a wild African country on what might seem at 
 first glance a wild adventure. It would have been 
 much easier and safer to raise the same amount for 
 grain or cotton for instance, but these men were not 
 rash or foolish. They were really going to try and 
 find some African big game to bring back to the 
 Western U. S. A. for crossing with buffalo in experi- 
 ments to produce a new hybrid that would provide 
 both hide and meat at low cost for the market. Inci- 
 dentally, Colonel Jones and his cowboys were to try 
 roping the same big game that other American big 
 game hunters (noticeably Roosevelt) had recently 
 succeeded in shooting; and to pay for the trip, the 
 experiments and the sport, the company decided to 
 take moving picture cameras along to get movies of
 
 176 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the cowboys and lions in action which might be sold to 
 English and American houses at a good profit. Such 
 was the conception and the start of what was called 
 the Buffalo Jones Expedition. Scull was made man- 
 ager of the expedition and given command of it at 
 all times except when actually on the hunt in the 
 field; then Colonel Jones was to assume command 
 and take all responsibility. 
 
 Jones was a western plainsman, sixty-five years of 
 age at that time, who had in his career roped and 
 tied, often single-handed, every kind of wild animal 
 of consequence to be found in our western country. 
 He had climbed trees after mountain lions and with 
 a lasso over a branch had hauled grizzlies up into the 
 air by one hind leg. He had alone, made a journey 
 over a country that no white man had over traveled 
 before to reach the land of the musk-ox on the border 
 of the Arctic Circle. He had, moreover, roped musk- 
 oxen and started out with five live calves to reach the 
 settlements after fearful exposure to the weather, 
 only to lose his prizes through the treachery of In- 
 dian guides, who, obeying the laws of their religion, 
 killed the calves rather than have them pass into the 
 hands of the white man. The success Jones had 
 achieved with the mountain lion of the Southwest, the 
 musk-ox of the North and the grizzly bear of the 
 Rockies did not satisfy him. For twenty years it had 
 been his one ambition to take an outfit to British East 
 Africa to try his hand with the big game of that coun- 
 try. It was with such a man, and Mr. Fowler and
 
 NAIROBI 177 
 
 Mr. Sewall, that Scull sailed from New York later 
 in the month for London. 
 
 William Maxwell, an English writer and corre- 
 spondent in the Boer War with Scull, met "Buffalo 
 Jones" and Scull soon after their arrival in London. 
 He describes the meeting in the London Daily JMail 
 of January 28th, as follows: 
 
 "I met Scull by chance in Piccadilly, the collar of 
 his heavy coat was turned up, his hands were deep 
 in his pockets, though raised in New England he feels 
 the cold. 'Where are you off to now?' I asked. 
 
 " 'East Africa.' 
 
 " 'What for?' 
 
 " 'Rope lions.' 
 
 "If any other man had given me that answer I 
 would have looked around for a policeman but it was 
 Scull, my American friend with whom I had had ad- 
 ventures in Asia and Africa — Scull, the cavalry man, 
 the cowboy and the war correspondent. 
 
 "Scull was always laconic and always serious and 
 I always took him seriously. Thus it happened that I 
 found myself in an old-fashioned hotel next day shak- 
 ing hands again with him and 'Buffalo Jones.' I can 
 still feel the grip of that iron hand and am sorry for 
 the lions in East Africa, for 'Buffalo Jones' is ffoincf 
 to show the world that lions may be cauglit by hand 
 instead of being trapped or shot. What will happen 
 after he has lassoed them he does not pretend to say, 
 that is a secret between the lion and Mr. Jones and 
 Scull.
 
 178 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 " *I am not going to submit my proofs to Copen- 
 hagen,' remarked 'Buffalo Jones' with a gay twinkle 
 in his eye. 'Our friend Scull is going to take photo- 
 graphs while I do the roping. No Copehagen for 
 me.' (This was shortly after the incident of Dr. 
 Cook and his famous controversy over the discovery 
 of the North Pole.) 
 
 " 'And how do you expect to get on with the Afri- 
 can lion?' I asked. 
 
 " 'Well, the African lion is a difficult problem, but 
 it's got to be solved. I'll catch him all right, and 
 Scull will take his picture all right. But what will 
 happen after that I don't pretend to know, being a 
 hunter and not a prophet. I am taking my branding 
 irons, and the lions I don't want I'll brand and turn 
 loose again to fight another day. I shall try the 
 rhinoceros, and the buffalo too if I can get him out 
 of the bush. I am taking with me ten of the best 
 American-trained horses and twelve hounds of va- 
 rious breeds, some of which I have bought in this 
 country. My lassoes are of Russian hemp, hard 
 twisted so that they go through the air with the least 
 possible resistance. Though no thicker than a little 
 finger, my lassoe will hold up a weight of two tons. 
 When I have made a capture I tie it up with rope, 
 through which runs steel wire.' " 
 
 The Jones' expedition after completing its outfit- 
 ting in London started south, sailing from Southamp- 
 ton on February 3rd. Mr. Fowler boarded the ship 
 at Marseilles and his brother Arthur, at Aden. The
 
 NAIROBI 179 
 
 party arrived at Nairobi in British East Africa on 
 March 3rd. Jones and Scull had picked up in Lon- 
 don, Cherry Kearton, a naturalist, big game hunter 
 and cinematograph expert; also David Gobbett, his 
 assistant. At Nairobi they were met by Marshall 
 Loveless and Ambro JNIeans, two western cowboys 
 who had shipped from New York direct to Africa 
 with a bunch of western cow-ponies and American 
 dogs, together with a full equipment of saddles, ropes 
 and pack outfit. Ray Ulyate, a white hunter, was 
 engaged at Nairobi, also special porters to carry the 
 moving-picture machine; a company of black men 
 and ox-wagons engaged from the Boma Trading 
 Company to complete the expedition. This safari 
 started out without any delay for the interior of the 
 country and its departure was commented upon in 
 the local papers with much enthusiasm and with some 
 pessimism by the English Colonists who, while wish- 
 ing the Americans all the best luck in the world, 
 wondered how these men, with nothing but ropes and 
 horses, were going to capture the daring lion, rhin- 
 oceros and other wild animals which the great hunters 
 of their own country had trouble in bringing down 
 with high-powered rifles. 
 
 The story of the fortunes of this expedition, the 
 hardships it went through, the success and failures 
 it had, are thrillingly described by Scull in "Lassoing 
 Wild Animals in South Africa," published by F. A. 
 Stokes & Co.; also in a series of articles in Every- 
 body's Magazine, in the September, October and
 
 180 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 November numbers of that same year. In these 
 prints there is no mention of Scull's part, nor is there 
 a line on what he did in this adventure in any of the 
 articles appearing in the newspapers of British East 
 Africa or London, which at that time were full of the 
 activities of these American cowboys. Scull, evi- 
 dently in fulfilment of a promise to his friend, Max- 
 well in London, also wrote two or three articles for 
 the London Daily Mail describing some of the things 
 he had seen on this trip. In introducing these articles 
 Maxwell writes: 
 
 "It is some weeks since my American friend. Scull, 
 told me that he was going to British East Africa to 
 help to 'rope lions.' I believe Scull to be capable of 
 any adventure, for I have known him under many 
 conditions and in many lands. And when I had seen 
 'Buffalo Jones' (concerning whom I wrote in this 
 column in January), and had recovered from his 
 friendly handshake, I believed in the lion-roper with 
 whose marvelous exploits every schoolboy in the 
 United States is familiar. The other day I received a 
 letter from my old comrade. It is written in pencil 
 and dated from Soda Swamp Camp, British East 
 Africa, and informs me that 'Buffalo Jones' and his 
 cowboys have begun with a rhinoceros. Here is the 
 letter: 
 
 " 'Somehow everything seems to happen on mov- 
 ing day with this here outfit,' wrote Scull. 'On this 
 particular moving day we met our first rhinoceros, 
 a big bull, and the Colonel and the cowboys roped
 
 NAIROBI 181 
 
 him and fought him for five hours in the hot sun- 
 light before he was beaten. It was a little, a very- 
 little, like playing a large fish on a light line. In the 
 beginning the rhino dragged the horses all about, 
 even though the horses planted their four feet firmly 
 on the ground, as they are trained to do Avith cattle; 
 but in the end the horses dragged the rhino — dragged 
 him up to a clump of thorn trees, where the cowboys 
 tied him, properly heeled, with all the ropes at hand. 
 * * * In one of his charges the rhino made for 
 Gobbett's camera. The porter went up the tree like 
 a flash, but the tree was so small there was not room 
 for two and Gobbett was compelled to abandon his 
 camera and retreat. With an upward stroke of his 
 horn the rhino sent the apparatus flying. Then 
 Means succeeded in attracting his attention and he 
 charged the horseman instead. Gobbett picked up 
 the debris, found that the tripod-head was split clean 
 in two as with an axe, found the camera itself un- 
 damaged, found there was enough head left to sup- 
 port the camera, quickly mounted his machine again, 
 and was just in time to catch the end of the rhino's 
 chase after Means. From one position to another the 
 fight went on through the long hot afternoon. Ropes 
 were thrown and caught and broken, mended and 
 thrown again. The horses were pulled, all standing, 
 one way and another. Rolls of films were used and 
 replaced by fresh ones. The rhino sulked and 
 stormed and charged in turn. 
 
 *' 'Once the Colonel was nearly caught. There was
 
 182 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 scarcely daylight between his horse's tail and the up- 
 thrust of the rhino's head. Once, with the rope on the 
 rhino's neck, Loveless' saddle turned and he had to 
 jump clear to avoid a fall. As the afternoon wore away 
 little by little the rhino showed signs of weakening. 
 He tottered once and lay down, then got up and 
 charged feebly. The horses moved him, then dragged 
 him inch by inch to a clump of thorns where the cow- 
 boys tied him fast.' " 
 
 A study of the report of the expedition made to the 
 company by its manager gives a very good idea of 
 the proportions of this job which Scull assumed. He 
 had the task of buying the greater part of the equip- 
 ment — foods, medicines, supplies — in London, of get- 
 ting it shipped and seeing that it all reached its des- 
 tination. At Mombasa, British East Africa, he had 
 to engage hunters, porters, teamsters and their ox 
 teams and carts. He had to personally settle the dis- 
 putes and grievances of this varied assortment of 
 men, Americans, Englishmen, Colonists and native 
 blacks, which in itself was a task that required the 
 firmness, patience and force of a general, diplomat 
 and slave driver, combined. 
 
 From dawn until dark, besides doing his part on 
 the hunt, he was busy keeping the safari moving over 
 this rough country, bossing the job when a wagon 
 stuck at a ford or stalled on a stiff grade going over 
 the mountains. At night when others slept, he had 
 to check up on the day's work, make up his accounts,
 
 NAIROBI 183 
 
 write his journal, superintend the work of feeding, 
 doctor sick men and animals and prepare generally 
 for the work of the morrow. 
 
 This was a hard, nerve-racking job. We see it as 
 the sort of thing Scull was always trying to do. He 
 was not interested in ordinary every-day jobs that 
 people do in civilized communities. Scull could have 
 had for the mere asking, an easy berth in a dozen 
 different enterprises, if he had wanted them! But 
 that was not Scull's gait. He liked a breath of civil- 
 ization once in a while. He liked to loaf around clubs 
 for a few weeks as a break in his schedule of things, 
 and for the same reason perhaps, he liked now and 
 then to see a few plays, to hear good music and study 
 up on things worth while that had been done while 
 he had been away. But for a steady diet he much 
 preferred tough jobs in out-of-the-way places. He 
 would much rather, for instance, settle a dispute with 
 a company of rebellious black porters or attempt to 
 tie up a fighting mad rhinoceros with rope and take 
 his picture, than to get all dressed up and go out to 
 dine. 
 
 As brief as they are, but expressed in Scull's clear, 
 precise English, extracts from his daily reports in the 
 company journal give, better than anything else we 
 have, a picture of the day's work of this expedition. 
 The following paragraphs are taken from the yellow 
 pages of an old account book in which minutes of the 
 day's journal appear side by side with entries on pur-
 
 184 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 chase and sales of everything from rope and feed bags 
 to horses and dogs, medicine, moving-picture films, 
 saddles and horseshoes: 
 
 March 28th — Trekked to the Last Water. Sent 
 Means back to Aggats for a dog that refused to fol- 
 low him yesterday. Took Webb's wagon along with 
 us here to help over the bad going. It will go back to- 
 morrow, picking up Fowler's stuff at the Civ river 
 where we met Ulyate's second wagon last night. 
 Gobbett took good picture of wagons crossing the 
 drift here. INIore trouble. Got over it. 
 
 March 31st — Kijabe — No time nor opportunity to 
 write since the 28th on account of trekking continu- 
 ously. Left the Last Water shortly after noon on 
 the 29th. The wagons, Kearton, Gobbett and myself 
 trekked all night. Means with the stray dog caught 
 us up soon after leaving the Last Water, and he, the 
 Colonel and Loveless camped on the road for the 
 night and caught us up after we had outspanned in 
 the Rift Valley (which is part of the Kedong Valley) 
 in the morning on the 30th. On the 30th left the 
 outspanning place shortly after noon and trekked to 
 the Rugged Rocks in the Kedong. Found the valley 
 very dry and scarcely any game. A great change 
 since we were here last. Ulyate hoped to find water 
 in a hole on the mountain side close to the Rugged 
 Rocks. But the water had dried, and after outspan- 
 ning for two hours we went on again. The Colonel, 
 the two boys and Kearton stayed to spend the night. 
 The Colonel wanted to have a look at the country
 
 NAIROBI 185 
 
 around Semals. So we planned that he and one of 
 the boys would ride to Kijabe by Avay of Semals on 
 the east of the wagon road, while the other with Kear- 
 ton followed Ulyate's advice and rode for Kijabe 
 across country on the west of the road. Eventually 
 both boys and Kearton took this route. They found 
 lots of game on the side of a volcanic hill, put up two 
 lions and baved them for a time. There was no 
 chance to do anything else, for there was no water and 
 the rest of the outfit was too far away making for 
 Kijabe as fast as possible to get water for the oxen 
 which had not drunk since leaving the Last Water on 
 the 29th. Also the horses were prettj'^ well done up. 
 The Colonel reported nothing found. The plan now 
 is for most of us to go to Nairobi on tomorrow 
 morning's train, Loveless to see a doctor about his 
 foot, Kearton and Gobbett to develop pictures, some 
 of which are over three weeks undeveloped. Myself 
 to secure additional supplies, etc. The Colonel 
 ought to go in to have his hand looked to, but up to 
 now he refuses. Means' back is hurting him and all 
 the horses and dogs are worn out. We will leave 
 Means here with the horses and dogs, all to rest up. 
 Have kept Ulyate on at 7.50 per day retaining fee. 
 Have not told him about what the boys found to-da}'' 
 to safeguard him against future contingencies. Will 
 take the sick and old porters with us and bring out 
 fresh ones. 
 
 April 1st — Nairobi — Reached here at noon. The 
 horse left in quarantine has been discharged and the
 
 186 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 one with the sore neck is better. Loveless will in- 
 spect them to-morrow. Loveless saw the doctor. His 
 foot is not bad but his hand is. The doctor wants 
 him to stay here till Wednesday, the 6th. Going to 
 try to get him off on Tuesday's train. Ward met us 
 at station. He will send to Kijabe 12 porters on 
 Saturdaj'^, the 2nd; and food for horses and men for 
 10 days on the 4th. Will try to send horses by same 
 train. Both the dogs the Colonel left here have died. 
 Ward is trying to arrange a show for the Duke of 
 Conaught on the 21st. He also wants us to go to 
 Kapiti plains before the rains set in. He thinks we 
 have a fortnight yet to spare. That will just give 
 us time to get well rested, start hunting at Kijabe 
 on the 6th and after a week there, which ought to be 
 sufficient, to go to Kapiti plains before the rains. 
 This provided Loveless can go on the 5th. Ward 
 promises lion on Kapiti plains, but there is horse 
 sickness and ticks there. Kearton's chemicals have 
 not come, must buy some here. Mrs. Kearton wants 
 to go with us. Must try to prevent this without put- 
 ting Kearton's back up. 
 
 April 6th — Black Reef Camp — Trekked out into 
 the Kedong Valley a few miles to a dry camp. Went 
 hunting beyond at the place where the boys and 
 Kearton saw the lions. Loveless nearly got caught 
 by a rhino and had to shoot him. Left him there for 
 bait, also some zebra. Saw some lion tracks. Plan 
 an early start for the morning. 
 
 April 7th — Spent the morning hunting. The only
 
 NAIROBI 187 
 
 incident of the day being when Kearton and Ulyate, 
 stationed high in the rocks of the ridge, saw a lioness 
 on a far rise. Ulyate notified us in the plain and we 
 tried to hold her up, but she got away. The dogs 
 chased a wild cat and caught it. Planned another 
 early start to-morrow. 
 
 April 8th — Started from camp at dawn. Loveless 
 and Means rode away to the south to take up a posi- 
 tion near the lower end of the big donga about four 
 miles away to cut off any lion from that retreat. The 
 Colonel went with the dogs to the dead rhino to pick 
 up any trail there. Kearton, Ulyate and myself 
 were stationed high in the rocks of the lava ridge 
 with a glass. If we found a lion with the glasses we 
 would light a fire in the rocks. We were to keep 
 sight of, if possible, both the Colonel and the boys. It 
 was just getting light enough to see about 5:30, 
 when we made out the Colonel approaching the rhino 
 carcass about II/2 miles away. He dismounted at the 
 carcass, and presently the trail running at right an- 
 gles to our line of vision, the dogs made a wide 
 bend toward us and at the end came right along the 
 base of the cliff. Ulyate joined the Colonel and 
 Kearton and I followed with the camera boys. By 
 the time we rounded the next out jutting spur of the 
 cliff the hunt was out of sight. Ulyate's gun bearer 
 struggling up the hillside where it was less steep 
 gave us the direction. At the top we halted. There 
 was nothing to be seen but the lava blocks and scrub, 
 but we could hear the hounds intermingled with the
 
 188 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 roar of a lion somewhere. By this time Means and 
 Loveless had come up from the donga. We saw 
 Means making for a further jutty and hurried down 
 the hillside to join him. We had heard two shots 
 fired which means 'gather.' Then Loveless called to 
 us from the rocks above and we left our horses and 
 clambered up on top of the ridge to find a lioness 
 bayed by the dogs and the Colonel, Loveless and Ul- 
 yate standing by. Means joined us a minute later. 
 The lava blocks, broken ground, thorn trees and thick 
 scrub made all manoeuvring out of the question. 
 A minute or so later she bolted from that place to a 
 worse place. We worked on her with fire crackers 
 and the dogs and tried to rope her but without suc- 
 cess. After a half an hour of this she bolted again to 
 another crevice on the side of the ridge. Again we 
 went to work with crackers, dogs and rope. This 
 place was the end of the lava rock ridge, and the ridge 
 fell away in a series of crevices and lava blocks al- 
 most perpendicularly to the plain 150 feet below. It 
 was so steep that only here and there could a horse 
 be led up or down. It was here that two or three of 
 the dogs got badly hurt. From this place she shifted 
 to the plain below, making straight for the big donga 
 about a half a mile away. Kearton's and my horse 
 were in the plain. The Colonel and Loveless jumped 
 on them with the dogs ahead at the lioness' heels. 
 She crouched behind a bush and waited, but the dogs 
 drove her on and she stopped again on the very edge 
 of the donga. Here she stopped to fight. There
 
 NAIROBI 189 
 
 was a gully leading down into the donga just here. 
 The cameras went into action across the gully. She 
 charged Means and nearly caught him, and then 
 charged the Colonel and nearly caught him. In both 
 instances the horses after thej'^ got started, ran away 
 from her. This performance concluded, she took 
 refuge behind another bush. Means galloped past 
 and roped her round the neck, but her neck was so 
 short that the rope slipped off her head. Loveless 
 tried with the same result. Then she fled into the 
 bottom of the donga and hid under some thick scrub. 
 They set fire to the scrub, set off crackers and 
 dragged the scrub away from her with a forked stick 
 at the end of a rope. At the end of an hour of this 
 Loveless could throw a rope at her. He did so and 
 she charged him and nearly got him, and then ran 
 off do\vn the donga with the hunt in full cry behind. 
 Again she stopped in some tall grass in the very bot- 
 tom of the lowest ditch. Loveless threw a rope that 
 stuck in the grass over her head and the Colonel rode 
 alongside of the ditch and with a pole shoved the 
 noose down under her chin. She sprang at him, 
 through the noose, and Loveless with the rope over 
 the branch of a tree, hauled taut just in time to catch 
 her by the last hind leg as she went through it. This 
 enabled them to swing her up in the tree, and they 
 tied her and muzzled her and let her rest and brought 
 her into camp on a cradle, first the horses pulling her 
 out of the donga, then the oxen. The dogs were doc- 
 tored, and one with a broken leg was sent down to
 
 190 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Nairobi. The lioness was chained to a tree outside 
 of camp. Loveless hurt his thumb and Means hurt 
 his back again. Kearton took 900 ft., Gobbett, who 
 arrived from Nairobi toward the end 100, and my- 
 self 400. (This lioness was carted to the coast and 
 shipped to New York. It is at this writing still alive 
 and on exhibition in the Bronx Zoological Gardens.) 
 
 April 19th — Roped kongoni.* One kongoni 
 charged Means and got his horse a bad one in the 
 groin. Took him to a vet as soon as possible and 
 had him sewed up. If blood poisoning does not set 
 in he may recover. Fixed up Colonel's passage for 
 25th and sent wire to Bird. De\ eloping progressing 
 favorably. Deposited four boxes of lilm, contents 
 unknown. 
 
 April 20th — Means' horse doing well. Deposited 
 in bank 7 boxes of film. Sent wire to Bird. Wrote 
 letter to Bird concerning passages. 
 
 April 21st — Means' horse taken bad. The chances 
 of his living very small. 
 
 April 22nd — Received and sent cables to Bird con- 
 cerning article. Telegraphed in K's name to Cole 
 concerning horses. Sat up last night with Means' 
 
 horse. 
 
 April 23rd — Busy with general affairs and Means' 
 horse all day. Kearton's horse has got tick fever. 
 Sent vet to attend to him. Received cable from Bird 
 concerning authority. 
 
 April 24th — Saw Colonel off on train for Mom- 
 basa. Means' horse doing well. Kearton's about the 
 
 ■ Kongoni — Swahili name for hartebeest. 
 
 * f ^
 
 NAIROBI 191 
 
 same. "Dollar" reported having tick fever and all 
 right this evening. 
 
 April 25th — Loveless and INIeans left today to catch 
 French steamer at Mombasa Thursday. Sold Means' 
 horse for 25 pounds to Capt. Ward. Finished up the 
 work on the films, took the boxes out of the bank, 
 and repacked the films in my uniform case. There 
 are 42 tins in all, 11 A and 31 B, totalling approxi- 
 mately 9015 feet. Sent wire to Bird on transporta- 
 tion of films and shipping of lioness. Received note 
 from Fowler. Let ]Means have one of the new sad- 
 dles in place of his old one which he strained in the 
 rhino fight. 
 
 April 26th — Deposited in bank 42 tins of films, 31 
 B, 11 A, in my uniform box. Kearton and Gobbett 
 left for their lion spearing. Visited the horses at 
 Elkinton's and K's horse doing nicely and the rest 
 all right. Brought some of the equipment to Nair- 
 obi to-day. 
 
 "None of Skipper Scull's many adventures could 
 have been better designed to bring out his many pe- 
 culiar and admirable characteristics than that with 
 Buffalo Jones," writes one of the promoters of this 
 trip. "I had often heard of Scull but never met him 
 until we planned to go to British East Africa to- 
 gether. It was one day in December, 1909, just after 
 my brother and I had decided to go to Africa on a 
 hunting trip, that Mr. Charles Sumner Bird of Bos- 
 ton walked into my office in New York and began to 
 talk about 'liuffalo Jones' and his ambitions to try
 
 192 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the same methods on big game in Africa that he had 
 used on the western plains and in California. Mr. 
 Bird declared he was prej)ared to finance Colonel 
 Jones if I would take charge of the party. This I 
 declined to do but suggested that I help organize 
 the expedition and get it started for Nairobi and that 
 Mr. Bird have some one else to whom I could there 
 tuiTi over the entire command and then I could devote 
 myself to a trij) already planned with my brother. 
 In a day or two Mr. Bird called again and said that 
 he had seen Guy Scull and that he had consented to 
 go under the conditions. The choice of Scull was 
 most fortunate. In fact the project would have 
 failed entirely but for his patience, courage and ten- 
 acity. I do not know anyone who would have carried 
 it off quite as well as he did. 
 
 "The 'Skipper's' character was well illustrated by 
 the kit with which he started; one small valise for a 
 six months' trip to the Equator was all he needed, 
 for beside the thin grey suit and the overcoat he wore 
 on leaving New York, he took only a pair of old 
 khaki breeches, an army shirt, a heavy pair of shoes, 
 a few collars, a very small supply of linen, a razor 
 and the inevitable tooth brush. I don't remember 
 seeing a hair brush, though I believe he did have a 
 comb somewhere in the kit. Certainly no one ever 
 cultivated more successfully the art of traveling 
 light. 
 
 "Another characteristic became evident at once. 
 He had the journalistic point of view. For years I
 
 NAIROBI 193 
 
 had been reading about xVfrican game and shooting 
 and took with me several books on the subject as well 
 as a Swahili phrase-book and dictionary. The Skip- 
 per scorned all this literature and did not open a book 
 all the way out. His explanation was that he wanted 
 to have an absolutely open mind and to form his own 
 impressions. 
 
 "Early in the trip it became evident that the Skip- 
 per had an inexhaustible capacity for silence and a 
 dry but never failing sense of humour, coupled with 
 a contempt for all conventions and a bulldog deter- 
 mination to carry through anything he started out to 
 do. 
 
 "I used to study his face carefully in those and 
 later hours that we spent together. The tense, almost 
 tortured expression of it interested me tremendously. 
 I had the baffling feeling that I had seen that face 
 somewhere else, but could not tell where. One day 
 it flashed across me that there was an extraordinary 
 likeness to the face of Dante, particularly as we know 
 it in that well-known bronze bust so often repro- 
 duced. I wonder if others of his friends have noticed 
 that likeness or was it just a freak of my fancy and 
 imagination? The shape of the head was much the 
 same, the same forehead, nose and high cheeks. The 
 same arched eyebrows and the same expression of 
 eyes and mouth. They had both been through 'In- 
 ferno' and both showed it. 
 
 "But the Skipper did not always look as solemn 
 as Dante. An expedition so fantastic as ours had
 
 194 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 its many funny moments, most of them utterly lost 
 on the Colonel, but always appreciated to the full by 
 the Skipper. I remember one day in London when 
 we were collecting equipmeni we had taken the Col- 
 onel into an iron mongers to buy some chains, etc. 
 The old man was more than usually erratic that day. 
 Suddenly he flew into a sort of inspired rage and 
 began shouting at the proprietor that he must have 
 an enormous pair of iron tongs made so that their 
 ends would form, when closed, a circular band some 
 six or eight inches in diameter. 
 
 " *What do you want to do with them, Sir?' said 
 the puzzled shopkeeper. 
 
 " 'I want to muzzle lions with them,' said the 
 Colonel. 
 
 "Imagine the picture. I looked over at the Skip- 
 per whose face was a study. He gave the old man 
 one look, drew back his lips on one side and said so 
 plainly without words, 'What the hell is the old guy 
 going to say next!' In fact the Skipper could say 
 more without uttering a word than any man I ever 
 met. 
 
 "The Skipper was exceedingly patient with the 
 Colonel who grew more and more difficult as the ex- 
 pedition progressed. I never saw him lose his tem- 
 per under any provocation. Yet he never failed to 
 give his opinion bluntly and decidedly whenever it 
 was necessary. 
 
 "On the steamer from Marseilles to Mombasa the 
 Skipper and I shared a stateroom. I remember how
 
 NAIROBI 195 
 
 very early every morning I could hear him crawl 
 out of his berth, and then his spare figure would 
 move quietly across the room, and having found a 
 cigarette, he would steal back to bed and to the smoke 
 which he enjoyed most of all the day. 
 
 "He was a delightful traveling companion, silent 
 but sympathetic, undemonstrative but likable in the 
 extreme. In the weeks we spent together we got to 
 know each other well. I formed a great affection for 
 him and did not hesitate to let him know it. He in 
 his way liked me, I think, but it was characteristic 
 of him never to show it by words. 
 
 "At Nairobi many complications arose with dis- 
 couraging treachery on the part of some of our men, 
 and many minor difficulties about the equipment. 
 The Skipper was always on the job, always patient, 
 always resourceful. However, it was when the out- 
 fit got really away into the back country and things 
 began to happen thick and fast; when the Colonel's 
 temper broke down under the tropical conditions and 
 his vagaries grew more and more exasperating, that 
 the Skipper showed to best advantage. 
 
 "Always indifferent to his personal appearance he 
 never showed lack of interest in what was going on 
 and always managed to do or say the right thing in 
 the trying moments. When he left the railway he 
 had adopted a brown topi helmet as headgear. His 
 khaki shirt, army breeches and heavy shoes made up 
 the rest of his kit. He used to wear the helmet at 
 a characteristic angle, and seldom if ever wore any
 
 196 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 leggins. The breeches were usually unbuttoned be- 
 low the knees, and gave him a casual air that helped 
 to make many a difficult situation laughable rather 
 than serious. On the hottest day he looked perfectly 
 cool and in the cool of the early morning camp break- 
 fast, he used to look almost blue. Huddling his shoul- 
 ders he would stamp around the camp beating his 
 arms as though it were a March morning at home. 
 
 "His silence was still his outstanding characteristic 
 of manner, but whenever he spoke he always had 
 something pithy to say. 
 
 "His observations on women were always amusing. 
 Of the average woman he had a rather low opinion. 
 'Women is queer,' was his way of summing it all up. 
 
 "The success of the 'Buffalo Jones' outfit in roping 
 and photographing lion, rhino and other less impor- 
 tant game is well known. In my opinion the Skipper 
 has never been given half enough credit for his share 
 in their success. With anyone else in charge I don't 
 know how the outfit would have stayed together a 
 week. It was characteristic of him to finish the job 
 and then say nothing about it. 
 
 "I am glad of this chance to pay him a tribute of 
 respect and affection. He was very much of a man."
 
 1!)I0
 
 Chapter XIV 
 MEXICAN BORDER— 1910 
 
 There is a world of trouble in a line one thousand 
 miles long, especially when this line is a government 
 border and that border happens to be the Rio Grande. 
 Scull just naturally drifted to this trouble zone. He 
 arrived strangely enough when the Diaz-Madero 
 revolution was smouldering on one side of the line 
 and on the other JNIexican and American gun-run- 
 ners, farmers, cattlemen, settlers, soldiers and con- 
 tractors' agents waiting feverishly for someone to 
 touch a match to the bonfire. How Scull got a com- 
 mission in the Department of Justice and drew this 
 particular assignment none of his friends seem to 
 know. He landed down there, however, early in 
 1910, and worked in his inconspicuous manner up and 
 down the line for upwards of two years. The only 
 reference to any part of this chapter of his life among 
 his papers is a set of correspondence with his supe- 
 riors at Washington protesting with his usual perse- 
 verance against the official red tape that compelled 
 revealing the identity and activities of his men by 
 making them itemize their expense accounts. Copies 
 of his reports, his journal and his note-books he 
 either destroyed or turned in to the Government. 
 When the revolution temporarily subsided, things bc- 
 
 197
 
 198 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 came too quiet for him and he resigned and came 
 North again. 
 
 But it is easy for us to imagine this angular, grim, 
 silent man mixing incognito in the conspiracies 
 hatched in the border towns ; frequenting the resorts 
 of the rough characters who gathered there; making 
 friends with Mexican and American outlaws, riding 
 post in cold rainy nights or baking hot days. This 
 was the big game he liked so well, matching his 
 brains against the sharp wits of the runners of con- 
 traband; bluffing a lone hand against a pack. It is 
 more difficult to imagine the mild-mannered Skipper 
 pulling a gun, but those who have seen Scull togged 
 out in a flannel shirt, khaki trousers, and a slouch 
 hat know how well he could make up and play the 
 part. 
 
 They tell a story on Scull at the Harvard Club 
 that is no doubt true but I cannot vouch for it be- 
 cause no one seems to know its origin, yet it sounds 
 plausible for the very reason that it is a desperate 
 adventure set in comedy, and the Skipper was at his 
 best when drawing a picture of grim humor. 
 
 It seems that when Scull first arrived on the scene 
 he worked alone; for one reason because he pre- 
 ferred to, and for another that it was difficult for a 
 stranger to get any assistants on whom he could ab- 
 solutely depend in a pinch. So when a certain "bad 
 man" from Mexico "sloaped" over the border and 
 secretly began outfitting a pack train for toting arms 
 and ammunition across the Rio Grande, the Skipper
 
 MEXICAN BORDER 199 
 
 had to do his own "tailing," work out his own plans 
 and make his own capture. This "bad man" openly 
 sported a gun with many notches on its handle. He 
 was known as a "killer" and let severely alone. He 
 was, moreover, a fast worker and soon had his expe- 
 dition organized. Scull too late realized that he 
 couldn't stop him single-handed. The assistance he 
 wired for either didn't come or he could not raise a 
 local force quick enough, because one dark night the 
 "bad man" pulled his freight and the Skipper barely 
 had time to press into instant service a couple of local 
 Government men, saddle up, and take it on the jump 
 across country to try and intercept his quarry on the 
 road. He succeeded in getting between the pack 
 train and the river, posted his men on either side of 
 the trail and waited. Soon up came the gun-runners, 
 with the "bad man" riding at the head of the column. 
 Scull pulled his horse across the trail, threw his gun 
 on the Mexican and yelled for him to throw up his 
 hands. 
 
 "I yelled so goshdarncd loud," the Skipper is said 
 to have told the story, "that I must have scared the 
 whole party, for not only his Greaser friends unani- 
 mously turned and beat it back to town, but my two 
 men also, and there we two sat — the 'bad man' with 
 his hands pointing straight up to Heaven; me point- 
 ing the gun and shaking like I had the palsy. But he 
 kept his hands up, all right, and I frisked him for his 
 artillery. Then I told him to take his hands down. 
 Nothing doing.
 
 200 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 " 'Drop' em, Pronto!' I yelled. 
 
 "He only stuck *em up the higher. I shoved my 
 gun in the holster and made signs for him to drop 
 'em, but he only shook his head, and darn me if I 
 didn't have to reach up and pull 'em down. The 'bad 
 man' was shaking worse than I was." 
 
 With the increasing activity up and down the line, 
 Government interest became more and more centered 
 in this section and Scull's independent command, 
 much to his disgust, was taken over by a superior 
 who suddenly turned up one day in the person of 
 Marshall Eberstein, an old Secret Service man and 
 a character. 
 
 This man, now the Chief of Police of Omaha, 
 Nebraska, had worked four years under Chief John 
 E. Wilkie of the Secret Service before being trans- 
 ferred to the new Bureau of Investigation of the 
 Department of Justice, organized by Stanley W. 
 Finch in 1908, and assigned as Chief of the Chicago 
 Division. Eberstein and Scull eventually became 
 warm friends, but according to the former, the Skip- 
 per at first openly resented his assumption of author- 
 ity in what Scull proudly called his own little job. 
 
 Eberstein was in Chicago when he received a wire 
 from Chief Finch at El Paso to report immediately 
 at San Antonio to take charge of the Bureau of 
 Texas. Eberstein duly arrived and wired Finch for 
 further orders. Finch replied that it was necessary 
 to have an experienced man on the job at "San 
 Antone*' where one Guy Hamilton Scull was tem-
 
 MEXICAN BORDER 201 
 
 porarily in charge, and to go there and take over the 
 office. This peremptory order was what offended 
 Scull. Nevertheless Eberstein went straight to the 
 Federal Building in "San Antone" and introduced 
 himself. 
 
 "I recall Scull," he writes, "as a striking looking 
 figTire with light hair, cut pompadour (it probably 
 was one of the Skipper's skin-tight haircuts), light 
 blue eyes, and very much surprised and disappointed 
 to see me. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbow 
 and he was writing notes in a little personal book. 
 He informed me in no uncertain manner that he had 
 come to 'San Antone' with Chief Finch from Wash- 
 ington, D. C, with the understanding that he was to 
 be left in charge of Texas during the Mexican trou- 
 ble. I found Mr. Scull, however, a gentleman, pol- 
 ished and well educated, and after explaining to him, 
 to the best of my ability, why the Government saw 
 fit to make such changes at times, I requested him to 
 stay on the job until the trouble in Mexico was over. 
 
 "He thought the matter over for two or three days 
 — during which time I entertained him on one or 
 two occasions with dinner parties — and made up his 
 mind to remain with me. 
 
 "All this, of course, is just a preliminary, leading 
 up to my acquaintance with Mr. Scull. 
 
 "Mr. Scull was always ready and willing when I 
 gave him an order to go to any part of the country on 
 Government work and do the best he could. In addi- 
 tion to the report he furnished the Department, I
 
 202 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 noticed that he always kept a personal note-book on 
 hand, and as far as I know, no one else ever saw it. 
 If that book could be secured today, I have no doubt 
 but what it would be very valuable to his friends, but 
 of course I do not know where it could be found. 
 (This book, like all other Government or State con- 
 fidential documents, Scull never showed to anyone 
 save his superiors.) 
 
 "On one occasion I detailed Mr. Scull to proceed 
 to some distant part of the border, where it would be 
 necessary for him to remain two or three weeks. On 
 his return he came into my office in San Antonio and 
 told me, in a very modest way, that he had been stop- 
 ping at the St. Anthony Hotel, and that when he had 
 left on his last detail, he had forgotten to check out of 
 the hotel. Now the landlord had held him for the 
 full amount of the bill, something like $3 or $4 a day. 
 I remarked that I thought that kind of a room was 
 most too good a room for a special agent to use (for 
 his salary was, I think, $4 or $5 per day, and sub- 
 sistence, which of course, including meals and room 
 rent, was not supposed to exceed $4 per day). He 
 only ansAvered that he always liked to stay in a good 
 room. I mention this incident, for I want you to see 
 later how it came out. I told Mr. Scull that I, too, 
 was stopping at the St. Anthony and knew Swear- 
 ington, the landlord, and would see what I could do 
 for him. Mr. Swearington kindly consented to split 
 the bill, so Scull only had to pay half price while he 
 was away.
 
 MEXICAN BORDER 203 
 
 *'Some time about March or April, 1911, informa- 
 tion came to me that at Sanderson, Texas, a young 
 army was forming for the purpose of crossing the Rio 
 Grande River into Mexico and fighting the Diaz 
 Government. I immediately wrote the Department 
 at Washington, giving them this information, and as 
 it was my duty to detect and bring to justice vio- 
 lators of the neutrality laws, I directed Mr. Scull 
 and another agent, Clyatt, whose home at that time 
 was Lakeland, Florida, to dress in old clothes and 
 proceed to Sanderson, where they were to join this 
 young army, and keep me advised on what was doing. 
 They did so. and I soon learned the information was 
 correct, and that this army would probably be ready 
 in a few days to invade Mexico. 
 
 "Scull and Clyatt were instructed to write me no 
 letters, but to send everything by wire, using the 
 Department code for that purpose, which they did 
 faithfully and regularly, working their way to dif- 
 ferent stations on the Southern Pacific line in order 
 to do so. These cipher telegrams were absolutely 
 unreadable to anyone not having the code. 
 
 "This attracted the attention of one Robert Dow, 
 who at that time was Collector of Customs at Eaffle 
 Pass, Texas. Previous to our coming, he had been 
 given, more or less, full charge in handling neutrality 
 matters, and the telegrams being sent to me at 'San 
 Antone' aroused his jealousy to such an extent that 
 he wrote me a letter, informing me that he had rea- 
 sons to believe I had two men at Sanderson and other
 
 204 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 points, who were interfering with his business, and 
 that in the future he wanted all my men (including 
 myself) to report to him daily on what I was doing 
 along the border. I paid no attention to this letter 
 except to incorporate it in my daily report to Wash- 
 ington, D. C, for that day. 
 
 "Five or six days later came another letter from 
 him, demanding that myself and my men report im- 
 mediately to him, daily, as to what we were doing. 
 I paid no attention to this second communication ex- 
 cept to do with it as I did with the first, incorporate 
 it, without comment, in my report to Washington for 
 that day. 
 
 "In the meantime, Dow had used every effort to 
 ascertain from Scull and Clyatt what they were do- 
 ing, but of course learned nothing. About two weeks 
 following the receipt of the last letter, Mr. Dow was 
 announced in my outer office. On being admitted, 
 he proceeded to ask my most humble apology, not 
 only mine, but of Mr. Scull and Mr. Clyett for the 
 action he had taken in the matter. I take it he had 
 heard something from Washington. 
 
 "About this time, things began taking definite 
 shape at Sanderson so I went to the General in com- 
 mand of the United States army at Fort Sam Hous- 
 ton and told him what was going on at Sanderson; 
 that I expected any day the expedition to start to 
 Mexico, and asked for soldiers to assist in capturing 
 them when they started toward the Rio Grande 
 River. The General himself was a very pleasant
 
 MEXICAN BORDER 205 
 
 agreeable man, as most of those men are. After giv- 
 ing him the details he immediately called one of his 
 ojfficers at Eagle Pass, and instructed him to arrange 
 with the Southern Pacific R. R. Company to keep an 
 engine steamed up with two or three coaches on the 
 track at Eagle Pass, subject to his (the General's) 
 orders. He told me that when I was ready for action 
 to let him know. 
 
 "The matter ran along for several days after that 
 as no one on the border is ever in a hurry, and I began 
 to get nervous, fearing I had been in too big a hurry 
 in going to the General. However, in about two 
 weeks I received a cipher telegram, one morning; 
 from the boys, saying that the expedition would move 
 that night toward the river. I immediately went to 
 Camp Sam Houston, informed the General, and he 
 directed the officers at Eagle Pass to take forty or 
 fifty men, board the special train, detrain six miles 
 east of Sanderson, detour between there and the river, 
 and capture the expedition. 
 
 "This programme was successfully carried out and 
 at 11 o'clock that night they captured the entire ex- 
 pedition a short distance from the river; something 
 like 150 men, 200 or 300 rifles, 100 side arms, 350,000 
 rounds of ammunition, tents, hospital supplies and 
 the officers. Not a single man escaped. We even 
 captured Scull and Clyatt! 
 
 "The entire expedition was brought in on the spe- 
 cial train, the prisoners being left at Eagle Pass, 
 where they necessarily would have a hearing before
 
 206 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the U. S. Commissioner. A few days later the cap- 
 tured paraphernalia was brought to San Antonio and 
 stored in the Federal Building. I, of course, notified 
 Chief Finch, who in turn notified Attorney General 
 Wickersham, who personally sent us a telegram of 
 congratulation for the splendid work done in this 
 case, and for which all credit was due to Scull and 
 Clyatt, and the splendid co-operation of the United 
 States army. 
 
 "About a week or ten days later, I received a tele- 
 phone call from the landlord of the Menger Hotel, 
 telling me that there was a delegation of gentlemen 
 there who would like to see me at the hotel. A short 
 time later I called at the hotel and was confronted by 
 a coterie of war correspondents, among them Ritchie 
 of the New York Sun, Jimmie Hare of Collier's 
 Weekly, and others whose names I do not recall. Mr. 
 Ritchie acted as spokesman, and began by asking me 
 if Guy Scull worked for me. I replied that he did 
 not. He was working for the U. S. Government un- 
 der my direction. Ritchie then asked me if I knew 
 anything of Scull's past record. I told them I knew 
 nothing whatever of his record before he entered the 
 service of the Government. They inquired his part 
 in the recent job at Sanderson, and I replied that he 
 was the leading spirit. Ritchie then proceeded to tell 
 me a few things about Scull. He certainly did spin a 
 yarn. I remember only part of it, but it left me flab- 
 bergasted. He said Scull had been a war correspon- 
 dent for one of the New York papers, and that he was 
 
 J
 
 MEXICAN BORDER 207 
 
 with him all through the Russian-Japanese War. He 
 and Scull had laid m a trench for twenty-four hours, 
 with both the Russians and Japanese shooting over 
 their heads. He told me that at one time Scull had 
 fitted out some sort of an expedition at New York 
 to go to some remote part of the world hunting bur- 
 ied treasures. Further, that Scull was a millionaire 
 in his own right, and was a member of the Harvard 
 Club in New York! 
 
 "(I remember distinctly this talk, as it cost me 
 something like $5 in drinks at the bar in the Menger 
 Hotel.) 
 
 "A day or two later I called Mr. Scull in my pri- 
 vate office and informed him that the next time he left 
 the St. Anthony without settling his bill, he should 
 call the Harvard Club and have them stand good for 
 it, and not bother me in the future with such minor 
 things as that. His reply was a mighty sheepish 
 grin. 
 
 "He left the service a short time after this incident, 
 and the next time I heard from him he was in New 
 York, doing great work with the Police Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 "During the time we were at San Antonio, and 
 since then, we have been fast friends, and I am sorry, 
 indeed, to learn of his death." 
 
 One of the newspaper correspondents mentioned 
 by Marshall Eberstein writes of a passing incident 
 in the border life of the Skipper. The town was 
 Laredo, Texas. The month was May, Madcro's
 
 208 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 revolution in full bloom across the line in Chihuahua, 
 and Laredo, the center of gun and ammunition 
 traffic from Brownsville west to Eagle Pass. He 
 describes it thus : 
 
 " 'Come in here and get a drink,' Scull invited me 
 one night after we'd palled around together for a 
 week. 'Not that I need the drink very badly, but the 
 head of the gun runners is due to be in town tonight 
 and this is his hangout.' He turned into a very dis- 
 reputable joint wherein a dozen or so Mexicans were 
 seated about tables opposite the bar. We stood alone 
 at the bar over our drinks. 
 
 " 'Look in the mirror,' Scull said in a low voice, 
 nodding slightly at the heavy bar mirror opposite. 
 'My man is the heavy fellow with the walrus mous- 
 tache sitting facing us.' 
 
 "I was just doing so when I caught the flicker of 
 something, heard a crash of glass and felt Scull 
 bound away from me ! A ten-inch dirk was quivering 
 in the wooden backing of the mirror — Guy after- 
 wards said he'd felt the wind of it between our two 
 heads. Almost before I could turn to find Scull, he 
 had the nippers on his man and was taking him out 
 from the bunch of Mexicans, through the streets to 
 the jail. When I saw him later, he said: 
 
 " 'Guess I'll have to begin packing a gun after 
 this. This knife throwing isn't clubby.' "
 
 Chapter XV 
 NICARAGUA— 1912 
 
 The State Department at Washington, D. C, 
 was responsible for Scull going to Nicaragua in 1912. 
 This Latin American Republic must have been either 
 passing through or just emerging from a periodic 
 epidemic of political eruptions because its police effi- 
 ciency was at a very low ebb and it had sent in a 
 hurry call to Washington for advice and assistance. 
 Who Scull's friend was in the State Department that 
 suggested his name does not appear, but he was the 
 man recommended to go down there and straighten 
 things out. The position of Inspector General and 
 Instructor of Police was accordingly formally offered 
 and accepted and Scull departed South all in less 
 time almost than it takes to tell. He left New York 
 on January 25th and on February 3rd wrote from 
 the City of JNIanagua that he had arrived, had two 
 talks with the President, had taken over the job and 
 was established in his office. These facts are stated 
 in so many lines in a letter home, the terse message 
 concluding with the sentence: "The task seems hope- 
 less but interesting." 
 
 Picture Scull in this Latin American capital with 
 
 209
 
 210 GUY HAMILTOlSr SCULL 
 
 not a friend within a thousand miles and surrounded 
 by an entirely new brand of politicians, conspirators, 
 revolutionists, guerillas and what not; with no one 
 with whom to advise, not even a friendly adjutant 
 general or secretary, and with nothing but the verbal 
 word of the republic's Chief Executive that he would 
 be supported in everything he undertook. 
 
 I have never been in Nicaragua but from photo- 
 graphs and descriptions of native types I do not 
 think that they offer very satisfactory material for the 
 making of policemen. Nevertheless it was Scull's 
 job to shake up the existing constabulary, draw up 
 plans for a new organization, establish rules and 
 regulations, uniform and equip the force and then 
 police the country as it should be policed. Few won- 
 der that the Skipper added that last line to his letter: 
 "A hopeless task but interesting." It proved to be 
 all of that. 
 
 Scull lost no time in getting started on his new job. 
 He wrote himself, in long hand, the whole manu- 
 script of the new police book, including specifica- 
 tions for uniform and equipment. This manuscript 
 he for some reason preserved. It is a thick sheaf of 
 closely written papers evidence in itself of long hours 
 of hard labor, thought and study. On March 3rd, 
 about a month after his arrival, he wrote his mother 
 that he had begun to see light ahead and that once 
 he could get his "Three Platoon System" started he 
 would have made real progress. This "Three Pla- 
 toon System" he had modeled after the one in effect
 
 NICARAGUA 211 
 
 in the New York Police Department, borrowing 
 some ideas from it and adding many of his own. He 
 had immense faith in it. He confessed to his mother 
 that while he saw confusion for a while in startmg 
 the plan yet he was convinced that he could pull it 
 through safely even if he had to do it alone. 
 
 At the time of this writing he was taking a detail 
 of his new force do\^Ti to the seaport city of Corinto 
 on March 5th to meet the U. S. Secretary of State, 
 the Hon. Philander C. Knox, and party on its way 
 to pay an official visit to the Nicaraguan capital. 
 Scull writes that he and his policemen were to act as 
 an escort of honor to the Secretary while he traveled 
 and sojourned in that country. Scull later told a 
 friend he had never in his life, either before or after, 
 so much admired anything bearing the brand of the 
 U. S. A., Secretary Knox mcluded, as he did that 
 Marine Guard which came ashore with the Secretary 
 and officially turned him over to the Inspector Gen- 
 eral and his raw Nicaraguan police. Scull said that 
 the superb bearing of these men, their cleanliness, 
 simplicity and smartness, all in such contrast to the 
 force he had mustered, made him feel utterly incom- 
 petent and small. However, he added that he had 
 thanked his Maker for having such a model to hold 
 up to his men and tried to forget his troubles in the 
 effort to make them make the most of their opi^or- 
 tunity. 
 
 The Inspector General and his police detail stuck 
 to the official party day and night while the Amcri-
 
 212 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 cans were in that country. The Latin- American Re- 
 public knew the explosive nature of its citizens and 
 was not taking any chances with their starting any 
 demonstration. It is not difficult to picture the fig- 
 ure of Scull on duty. We see this tall, spare figure 
 in white uniform, sleeves rolled up, wide sombrero, 
 gun on his hip, straddling a cartridge box or ma- 
 chine gun on an armored flat car pushed by a pilot 
 engine ahead of the special train carrying the dis- 
 tinguished visitors across the country, or prowling 
 about at all hours night and day, inspecting his po- 
 licemen posted as sentries, ragging this one for some 
 dereliction of duty, praising that one, giving a word 
 of advice here, of caution there, taking the whole job 
 on his own shoulders and trusting no one. It must 
 have been a great relief to him when, after a round 
 of formal State conferences and receptions, the 
 Americans went aboard their ship and sailed for 
 home. For go they finally did, and left the Skipper 
 alone to wrestle with his own problems. 
 
 By this time his police organization had been com- 
 pleted; the force equipped and at work. And no 
 sooner was it in the field than the Nicaraguans real- 
 ized that someone with authority was enforcing the 
 laws. The representatives of the law ceased to wink 
 at violations. No longer was it possible to "sugar" 
 the local gendarmes. In the words of the local poli- 
 ticians, "ze friendly advance gets ze cold marble 
 heart." These new politicians would not trade. 
 They would not buy or sell nor even compromise.
 
 NICARAGUA 213 
 
 Scull cleaned the capital of rowdies and hangers- 
 on. The district revolutionary chiefs who in our 
 country would occupy the position of ward leader or 
 possibly local alderman, came to the Inspector Gen- 
 eral remonstrating. We can see this dark-skinned 
 excitable little man, rolling forth a flood of Spanish, 
 talking with eyes, shoulders and hands, to a grim fig- 
 ure facing him with folded arms, cold, impassable, 
 silent. 
 
 The new Inspector General chased the confidence 
 men away from the capital. He cleaned up the 
 town of guerillas and petty hold-up men and then 
 went after the gun-runners, smugglers and revolu- 
 tionary agents. He was treading on profitable busi- 
 ness here. Planning revolutions and supplying them 
 with food, ammunition and uniforms had been a re- 
 spectable business in these countries for years, and 
 when policemen went about politely notifying citizens 
 to close up shop in these activities there was conster- 
 nation multiplied by indignation. There were meet- 
 ings on street corners and meetings in secret. Dele- 
 gations of dignified senors visited the office of the 
 Inspector General, protesting in the interests of their 
 constituents. There were more excited conversations 
 in passionate Spanish, with eyebrow and shoulder 
 obligato, more wiggling of arms and fingers, through 
 all of which one can sec the placid Scull and his 
 beautiful mask of a face waiting patiently and then, 
 when they had finished, remarking laconically, 
 "Nothing doing," or, reaching across the desk and
 
 214 GUY HAMILTOlSr SCULL 
 
 showing them a marked paragraph in his new regu- 
 lations, drawl: 
 
 "Take it home and read it to the family," or words 
 to that effect. 
 
 Then the delegations departed, swearing in all 
 sorts of strange Spanish phrases. 
 
 So far the government had backed him up. His 
 officers and men, timid at first and doubting if this 
 tall, silent chief could do everything he was attempt- 
 ing, gradually took courage as Scull progressed. 
 His work began to show results. He had so far re- 
 ceived obedience through stiff discipline but when it 
 became apparent that the local politicians could not 
 touch their chief, his policemen gave him loyal sup- 
 port with everything they had. He was building up 
 a morale and a certain es'prit de corps when he de- 
 cided to go after the gambling houses. 
 
 He "got" most of the little fellows with ease and 
 rapidity although he went after them all, big as well 
 as little, without respect or favor. Then, the story 
 goes, he discovered that what had appeared to be a 
 popular place of amusement and entertainment was 
 in reality a wide-open sporting establishment, oper- 
 ated in open defiance of both the law and himself. 
 Continuing the story, it is related that he first tried 
 persuasion and friendly advice and that he was 
 laughed at for his pains. So he issued a formal order 
 to the proprietor to close up or suffer the conse- 
 quences. No attention was paid to this. Whereupon 
 the soft-voiced Scull paid a visit in person to the
 
 NICARAGUA 215 
 
 establishment and politely informed the Senor in 
 charge that if the place was not shut tight within 
 twenty-four hours he would be obliged to close it for 
 him, adding that he did not wish to be obliged to use 
 force because force usually made a mess of beautiful 
 things. At the end of twenty-four hours the house 
 was going wide open and full blast. 
 
 So without any more "how do you do's," or "by 
 your leave," or "Gratios, Senor's," Scull pulled a po- 
 lice raid. They say it was a regular, old-time, crash- 
 ing, smashing descent and that New York City never 
 witnessed anything more spectacular in the days of 
 Jerome and the palatial Canfield's. The Nicara- 
 guan capital was aghast. A sporting establishment 
 which had flourished through so many different ad- 
 ministrations and had survived so many attempts to 
 shut it up was suddenly and unceremoniously tossed 
 into the middle of the Plaza and its doors locked and 
 sealed! 
 
 The next day Scull was asked to resign. He re- 
 ceived a vote of thanks from the government and 
 many verbal bouquets, and an engrossed letter, but 
 he wasn't wanted in that country. The proprietor 
 of the sporting house was, it seems, "a friend of a 
 friend of a friend" of "the man higher up" which 
 meant in the New York vernacular that "somebody 
 was getting his" and that the Skipper had killed the 
 hen that laid the golden egg. Thus Scull's career as 
 a Central American dictator ended as suddenly as it 
 began, and I think I can easily imagine his thoughts
 
 216 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 as he watched the skyline of Nicaragua drop below 
 the horizon and disappear in the trailing smoke of the 
 northbound steamship carrying him home. Was 
 there so much difference between the Latin Amer- 
 ican and the New Yorker after all?
 
 Chapter XVI 
 
 NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT 
 
 1914-1917 
 
 The man who knew Scull best of all was Arthur 
 Woods, his police chief in the Bingham administra- 
 tion when Woods was a deputy, and again in the Mit- 
 chel administration when Woods was the Police Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 "He's boss," said Scull, on my first day at Head- 
 quarters, pointing through the open door from his 
 desk towards Commissioner Woods' desk, "because 
 he's there!" tapping his forehead with one long finger. 
 "He'll do all the thinking. You do what he says." 
 
 Scull had been promoted from Secretary to Dep- 
 uty Commissioner and I appointed as his successor. 
 The above were his first instructions, and his last 
 were: "What you hear, remember, but don't repeat. 
 From now on you're a dummy." 
 
 Since then I've been with both of them for hours 
 at a time and never heard "Skip" say a word save in 
 answer to a question. The question was usually a 
 hard one and the answer short and full of meat. If 
 Scull had nothing to offer he shook his head and said 
 nothing. He never tried to bluff. He never talked 
 around a subject. He went directly at it. After he 
 
 217
 
 218 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 was made a deputy he opened up more and talked 
 more. Scull had a mind that was clean, clear, in- 
 tensely human and the Boss never failed to make 
 use of it. Distinctly different in manner, tastes, 
 habits and inclinations they were together instantly 
 when a problem arose and their minds usually reached 
 similar conclusions although through entirely dif- 
 ferent channels. 
 
 "Detective work had a fascination for Guy Scull," 
 writes Arthur Woods. "He was interested in most 
 of the many different phases of police work, but 
 nothing absorbed him like trying to pick up the trail 
 in an intricate murder case. He looked the part, too. 
 His clearly chiseled features, 'his tragic face,' as a 
 friend of ours put it, his emphatic silence and reserve, 
 all reminded one of the detective in print. 
 
 "He rather puzzled the old-line New York detec- 
 tives when he came into the Police Department in 
 December, 1908. His title was Secretary to a Deputy 
 Commissioner, but his authority was far greater than 
 this title would indicate, for he was practically in 
 charge of certain parts of the work. He quickly 
 got into personal touch with the men. There was 
 no ceremony about him, no formality, but intense in- 
 terest, rare human understanding, a quiet, unasser- 
 tive dignity, and a very evident reserve of fortitude 
 and capability. This was a somewhat novel kind of 
 boss for the men. They were not unused to the blus- 
 tering boss, they had had experience with smooth 
 talkers, with boasters, with self-seekers, but this quiet
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 219 
 
 man, listening rather than talking, drawing them 
 out rather than admonishing them, asking their sug- 
 gestions, stimulating their ideas, helping them over 
 difficult places, was an unwonted phenomenon in 
 Mulberry Street. Some of the detectives who had 
 been long in the business, and were used to the Tam- 
 manj^ days, probably never did make him out. They 
 scratched their heads in despair, trying to discover 
 "what he was after," for it never occurred to the po- 
 litical policeman that he was after nothing except the 
 chance to do his work well. 
 
 "Jacob Riis used to tell a story about the uneasiness 
 created in Tammany by an honest and able public 
 servant. They couldn't make out what his graft was, 
 and they worried lest he had discovered some source 
 of improper gain as yet unkno\'\Ti to them! 
 
 "All but a few detectives, however, soon grew to 
 know and understand Scull, and their personal loy- 
 alty to him was genuine and strong. He never shirked, 
 either physically or mentally, he was always ready to 
 help, he never evaded responsibility. I don't believe 
 he was ever unfair to a detective, and his power of 
 handling men and spurring them on to their best ef- 
 forts was such that he seldom had to resort to disci- 
 pline. He worked with his men and they worked hard 
 with him, and for him. His best work and the work he 
 enjoyed most was done with small squads, where his 
 personality could be felt and where he could grow to 
 know the men intimately. I think he never enjoyed 
 his later work in charge of the Bureau as much as these
 
 220 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 early days when he was so close to the work and to 
 the men. 
 
 "When he became Deputy Commissioner in charge 
 of the Detective Bureau he had had many months 
 of this invaluable experience. He had learned by 
 personal experience what manner of life a New York 
 detective leads, what risks he runs, what temptations 
 he must meet, what puzzling problems he must solve, 
 often without a moment for deliberation. As a re- 
 sult of this, the question that stayed uppermost in 
 his mind was, how could he best help the men who 
 were doing the work? What could he do, as Head 
 of the Bureau, to improve their skill, to lessen their 
 hardships, to fortify their zeal? 
 
 "Were detectives born or made? He would often 
 discuss this, and came to a characteristically practical 
 working conclusion. Some men were more likely 
 to make good detectives than others; the thing to do 
 in picking men for the Bureau was to take the most 
 promising, and try them out. Results would tell. 
 Some would be better than others, but even those 
 predestined to excel as sleuths could be helped, so 
 why bother as to this 'born or made business' — just 
 take them all as they were and do what you could 
 to improve and support their work. Hunt for native 
 ability, and then help it along. 
 
 "Scull's training school for detectives was about 
 as practical an affair as could be imagined. It grew 
 out of the requirements of the work. It tried to 
 supply what experience had repeatedly shown was
 
 DEl'LTV I'OI.K'I': COMMISSION I:H, 1!)IT
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 221 
 
 needed, and to supply it in such a way that it could 
 be readily grasped by the men. For example, a pre- 
 vailing difficulty in all police and detective work 
 is to get good descriptions of people. The power 
 of observation in most of us doesn't seem to be highly 
 developed, and what there is of it seems to be seldom 
 used. We are not in the habit of close and accurate 
 observation. Wlien it comes to giving a description 
 of a person we find that we have not observed the 
 person closely enough to be able to arrive at a de- 
 scription which will be specific enough to enable some- 
 one else to identifj'^ that person. 
 
 "Scull, in talking to a class in the Detective's 
 School about this, spoke of the difficulty, and went 
 on: 'You will often get such a description as this — 
 "Man, 27 years, 150 pounds, 5 feet 7 inches, dark 
 complexion, wearing blue suit, black derby hat." As 
 you men will readily see, this description will prob- 
 ably fit several thousand men in this city. However, 
 it is the best description that the person giving it can 
 make at the time because he has not trained himself 
 to observe the appearance of people, and is just mak- 
 ing up the description from a hazy impression he 
 received. If you practise making mental notes of 
 the appearance of people in the streets, I think you 
 will very soon find that you will get into the habit of 
 taking in at a glance the essential and distinguishing 
 features of a person's appearance, so that it will be- 
 come perfectly natural for you to be able to give a 
 definite description of a person. You will know, for
 
 222 GUY HAMILTON SCULL' 
 
 instance, the general make-up of his face, what sort of 
 expression he has, is he pale or does he look as though 
 he had been in the open air a lot, is he of the working- 
 man type, the clerk type, professional man type, 
 whether his clothing looks new and prosperous, or 
 shabby, whether he has any scars on his face, any 
 peculiarities about his eyes, or about any other fea- 
 ture, any distinctive way of carrying himself, or mov- 
 ing hands or feet or arms, in short, anything unusual 
 that would tend to distinguish him from other people/ 
 
 "The instruction in this Training School was all 
 of a practical nature, given with the object of filling 
 the needs of the actual men who were at that time 
 engaged in the actual work of detecting crime in 
 New York City. If there was anything that Scull 
 abhorred it was unpractical, theoretical ways of go- 
 ing at things, that did not take into account things 
 as they were. 
 
 "One of the classes of crime to which Scull gave 
 most time and thought was murders. Here, as in his 
 efforts to help men through the Training School, he 
 worked in a practical way. He tried to pick for homi- 
 cide work those detectives who showed the best re- 
 sults at it, and his arrangements were such that a 
 squad of detectives working on murders was relieved 
 from other work, so that they could put their whole 
 thought and time on running down murderers. A 
 great deal depends in such cases as these on what 
 happens in the first half hour after the murder is 
 committed. The trail is then piping hot, and many
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 223 
 
 clues are perceptible which cool off as the minutes 
 wear on. A detective has to work fast and largely 
 by instinct during these first few precious minutes 
 and hours. It was found, however, that sometimes 
 a detective whose instincts and methods were sound 
 and prompt, failed because he did not have imme- 
 diately at hand the proper equipment. To correct 
 this the scheme was worked out of having a murder 
 kit available at all times; it contained the following 
 articles : 
 
 Complete fingerprint outfit 
 
 Searchlight 
 
 Steel tape measure 
 
 Paper 
 
 Envelopes 
 
 Sealing wax 
 
 Twine 
 
 Tags 
 
 Small box of tools 
 
 Soap and towel 
 
 Stenographer's note-book 
 
 Rubber gloves 
 
 Bottle of antiseptic wash 
 
 Saw 
 
 Screwdriver 
 
 File 
 
 Pincers 
 
 Scissors 
 
 Jimmy
 
 224 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 ti 
 
 *As I remember it, the contents of this kit were 
 determined on at conferences in which Scull and 
 Frank Lord, another Deputy Commissioner, were 
 the principal actors. There was no need of discus- 
 sion as to what articles should be put in; detectives 
 told what they had needed in times past and had been 
 unable to get, and these things made up the murder 
 kit. It was also arranged so that at all hours of 
 the day and night a stenographer and a photographer 
 were on hand to go at once with the murder squad, 
 ready to do their part. 
 
 "One day Scull felt, I remember, that he had been 
 prevented from following out a promising lead be- 
 cause of the fact that he didn't have a doctor at hand. 
 From then on he arranged so that one of two doctors, 
 who were keen on the work and very competent, 
 should be available by telephone at any time, and 
 their work after that often showed excellent results. 
 
 "In Scull's notes of talks to detectives, he lays 
 careful and characteristic emphasis upon the work- 
 ing together between the coroner's physician, who 
 of course had the right to examine the body, and the 
 detective. 'The detective should always keep in 
 mind,' he pointed out, 'that the doctor is going to 
 examine the body from the doctor's point of view 
 and not from the detective's point of view. His 
 report will undoubtedly contain some very valuable 
 information concerning the state of the body from 
 a medical point of view, but will leave untold much 
 more valuable information regarding the crime from
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 225 
 
 the detective's point of view. The detective should 
 ask the doctor questions and draw from him the in- 
 formation which is important to him. No doubt the 
 doctor would be perfectly willing to give this informa- 
 tion in the first place ; the trouble is he doesn't know 
 what the detective wants. For instance, the doctor 
 will report that the man was killed by being struck 
 on the head by some blunt instrument, and will then 
 probably reel off a string of long Latin names, tell- 
 ing exactly what the blow did to the victim. Now 
 what the detective wants to know is what kind of 
 blunt instrument it was. Was it made of some hard 
 material, such as steel, or of soft material, such as 
 wood? Was the blow struck by a right-handed or 
 a left-handed person? Was it struck from behind 
 or in front? Was there anything about the wound 
 to indicate that the blow was struck by a weak person, 
 such as a woman, or was unusual force required.' 
 
 "In his work on murders and in trying to help 
 detectives to solve them, the same characteristics 
 showed as were evident in Scull's other work — a rare 
 combination of plain common sense and of expert 
 method, and a happy faculty of being able to apply 
 each in the proper place and at the proper time, and 
 of helping others also to learn how to do this. 
 
 "Probably Scull's greatest work was in connection 
 with the war. The trouble began in Europe in 
 August, 1914. During the early days of the month 
 a squad was instituted under the command of In- 
 spector Thomas J. Tunney, and it was soon put under
 
 226 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Scull. The 
 object of this squad was to do such detective work 
 as might be necessary to maintain the neutrality of 
 the United States. Although city police forces did 
 not usually take it upon themselves to do such dis- 
 tmctively federal work, we felt this was necessary 
 because of the commanding position of New York 
 City as the greatest city and the greatest harbor in 
 the country, containing so many thousands of people 
 of different nationalities, and because the Federal 
 intelligence forces were weak. They had been organ- 
 ized and developed with no thought of such a thing 
 as a world war. It had been only a few years ago 
 that Congress clipped the wings of the Secret Service 
 force of the Treasury Department and confined its 
 activities, if I remember rightly, to counterfeiting, 
 smuggling, and guarding the person of the President. 
 It was reported, doubtless only by irresponsible per- 
 sons, that Congress did this because it had a feeling 
 that the President possibly had used or might be 
 tempted to use members of the Secret Service force 
 to investigate members of Congress ! 
 
 "In an astonishingly short length of time it was 
 found out that the Germans were actively at work 
 trying to prevent the shipment of supplies and 
 munitions from America to the Allies. There were 
 two principal methods, destruction and industrial 
 impotency. 
 
 "Scull's squad found plots to destroy factories, to 
 blow up trains, to sink ships. The stories of some of
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 227 
 
 the spectacular cases that resulted from this work 
 have been told, but they don't begin to show the in- 
 cessant, resourceful, keen-witted attention that was 
 given to this phase of his work by Scull. 
 
 ''It was found also that attempts were being made 
 to paralyze factories where munitions or supplies for 
 foreign governments were being made, by means of 
 strikes or sabotage, and by spreading among the work- 
 ingmen the fear that incendiarism and explosions were 
 imminent at their plants. This sort of thing when 
 discovered by the neutrality squad would be taken up 
 in whatever way seemed likely to bring most success. 
 Scull worked more and more with the rest of the 
 Department, with other Departments, and with the 
 growing intelligence organizations of the National 
 
 government. 
 
 "When America went to war the character of the 
 work of this squad changed into counter-spy work, 
 which was not so different after all, since it was car- 
 ried on by the same organization which had previously 
 been doing the war work in violation of our neutrality. 
 
 "Perhaps the most marked characteristic of Scull's 
 was his straightforwardness. There was never a sus- 
 picion that he was anything but what he seemed, or 
 had any object but what he professed. He was always 
 charitable to faults if he believed that intentions were 
 good. Blundering detective work, if done in earnest, 
 he would always be considerate of, and let the blun- 
 derer down easy. He had an abhorrence of the 'bawl- 
 ing out' methods which were so prevalent in the old
 
 228 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 police days. If a man were honest, tried hard, and 
 had common sense, Scull would work with him and 
 fight for him; he could put up with anything else if 
 a man had these traits. He was so whole-hearted in 
 his o^m work, so earnest, that it was catchmg. He 
 was a case of the deep flowing of still waters. 
 
 "My personal relations with Guy Scull were very 
 close, far closer even than would have been called for 
 by the fact that we worked together so long on such 
 a job. In the days when we were both bachelors, we 
 spent evening after evening together, usually inves- 
 tigating conditions and looking at places which were 
 demanding police attention at the time. Scull was a 
 great companion. He was always interested, and 
 he always had some quiet humorous slant on a 
 situation. 
 
 "I remember one day talking with him about an 
 invitation I had received from Thomas Mott Osborne, 
 Warden of Sing Sing Prison, to go up there and talk 
 to the convicts. It was a rather puzzling situation 
 to face, since I had probably been instrumental in 
 sending a large portion of them there, and I said to 
 Scull I didn't see how I could go since I didn't know 
 what in the world to say to them. 'Huh,' answered 
 Scull, 'that's easy enough; go and tell them you're 
 glad to see them all there.' 
 
 "He was an inflexible person when he had made up 
 his mind about anything, and would take and main- 
 tain the position he believed hi against any opposi- 
 tion. His flow of language, when he got really
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 229 
 
 worked up on one of his favorite subjects, was as 
 great as was his habitual silence. Not infrequently 
 would one wander into the Harvard Club and find 
 Scull the central point of a group of men in lively 
 discussion — the subject usually was political. There 
 was no compromise in his views. One evening he 
 maintained against all comers his contention that 
 death should be the penalty for any one proved guilty 
 of defrauding the city. His idea that public office 
 was a trust went as far as this, and he was relentless 
 in hunting down grafters both while he was in the 
 Police Department and in the splendid work he did 
 later in the Military Intelligence Service. 
 
 "He always saw the funny side of things. One 
 afternoon in the old office in Mulberry Street we re- 
 ceived a call from a well kno^vn underworld character 
 named Kelly, who wanted to start up a saloon in the 
 lower Bowery neighborhood. This neighborhood 
 had, during the memory of the oldest inhabitant, 
 been largely populated by glittering saloons which 
 never had been closed night, day or Sunday, in spite 
 of the law. Some of them boasted that they had lost 
 the key to their front door. They had powerful po- 
 litical protection and it had always worked. Every 
 little while, of course, just to keep up appearances, 
 they were 'raided,' proper notice being given, and 
 were sedately fined in court something like twenty- 
 five dollars. This was part of the business; no one 
 misunderstood it. 
 
 "We worked out a scheme, however, whereby these
 
 230 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 vicious places were actually put out of business, and 
 the scheme was in the flood tide of operation at the 
 time Mr. Kelly visited us. He was a good business 
 man and wanted to know what chance he had of keep- 
 ing out of the net in case he started up what he termed 
 to be 'a high-class, respectable joint.' 
 
 "We heard his whole story and asked him if he in- 
 tended to run his saloon strictly in accordance with 
 law. He said: 'Sure, of course, just the same as every 
 one else does.' We told him we thought he had come 
 to the wrong place — this was Police Headquarters, 
 shouldn't he have gone to the Headquarters of his 
 Tammany district leader? Didn't he believe that his 
 leader could get privileges for him? 
 
 " 'Huh?' he replied, quick as a flash, 'he, privileges, 
 here? Huh, he couldn't get the right time of day 
 here.' Scull went into a convulsion of laughter and, 
 Kelly left us with no hard feeling, but his saloon was 
 not opened. 
 
 "He always had characteristic ways of doing things, 
 and one of the most typical of them was when he came 
 into my office one afternoon and said: 'Boss, do you 
 suppose I could take a day off tomorrow. I'll be here 
 in the morning and take care of my mail, but I'd 
 like to get away around eleven o'clock — I'm going 
 to get married.' 
 
 "The next day, July 8, 1914, he was married,* and 
 
 *To Nancy Whitman, daughter of Mrs. Nannie Bostick Butler, in 
 the Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York City, by the Rev. Herbert 
 Shipman, who was chaplain of Holland Lodge, F. and A. M., of which 
 Scidl was a life member.
 
 f. 
 
 < 
 
 O
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 231 
 
 this began for him a life which brought out the best 
 that was in him, gave him genuine happiness, and 
 seemed to add to his fullness and power each suc- 
 ceeding year. His friends all felt that his wild wan- 
 derings, his uncertainties, his indulgences were over. 
 He settled into a happy home life. He was com- 
 pletely devoted to his wife and children and he 
 brought to the new tasks he undertook a largeness of 
 view and a ripeness of experience which promised 
 more and greater achievement." 
 
 Late in 1914 or early in 1915 there was a sudden 
 increase in homicides in the city. At Headquarters 
 in the new statistical room this column of figures had 
 become the official barometer. Unlike a ship barom- 
 eter, it rose with an approaching storm instead of 
 falling. Homicides usually mean murders, and an 
 increase in murders means lawlessness. Scull, having 
 just been promoted to Fifth Deputy Commissioner 
 and paired with Deputy Commissioner Lord in the 
 direction of the Detective Bureau, was put to the test 
 at once. His job was to reduce crime. It was either to 
 stop the frequency of "stick-ups," murders and as- 
 sassinations or resign his job. Scull didn't look for 
 excuses or plead ignorance or haul policemen up on 
 charges of neglect of duty. He took the whole bur- 
 den on his own shoulders, held his men blameless, and 
 worked twelve, fourteen and eighteen hours a day, 
 trying to find a reason for the outbreak. 
 
 The driver of Scull's police car used to wonder 
 when his chief ever got any sleep. No matter where
 
 232 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 Steull had been, or where he left him, or what time, or 
 how late into the gray dawn of morning it was, his 
 orders were to meet the "Commish" at the entrance of 
 his apartment house on East 79th Street, at eight 
 A. M. daily, and every day at that hour there was 
 Scull, fresh shaven, bathed and ready for another 
 day's work, waiting for the motor car to pick him up 
 and take him on his way. 
 
 Frank Lord, the Second Deputy, had a way of 
 "teasing Scull by going into the front office about 
 6:30 P.M. when the other deputies usually dropped 
 in for a last word preparatory to leaving for dinner, 
 and say: 
 
 "Mr. Commissioner, Five (Scull's official number) 
 says he's gomg home early and wants to know if he 
 can have a half a day off!" 
 
 But the crimes continued, and the newspapers be- 
 gan to print the sensational "Black Hand" stories. 
 This was on account of the fact that no motives were 
 shown for these killings save the sign of the "Black 
 Hand." Sometimes these crimes were committed 
 with the knife, sometimes the gun, and sometimes a 
 bomb. The miscreants did not stop with the death of 
 the victim, but usually tried to destroy his home or 
 place of business, or kill or kidnap a member of his 
 family. Over three-quarter of the victims were Ital- 
 ian. The police did not think much of the "Black 
 Hand" theory, nor the results of feuds or vendettas. 
 They had a fairly good suspicion that the Italian
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 233 
 
 lottery policy was at the bottom of the whole miser- 
 able business. 
 
 In this countrj'^ the Italian lottery policy is known 
 as a gambling game pure and simple. In Italy it is, 
 or was then, legal, the government le^'ying a tax on 
 the profits. The lottery here is unlawful, being 
 against both the Federal and the State statutes. Nu- 
 merous arrests had been made among the Italians 
 for this offense, but in each case where convictions 
 were secured, fines or short sentences only had been 
 imposed, neither of which had any effect upon the 
 big gamblers, who were the King Pins in the game 
 and who were making the big money. They also suc- 
 ceeded in keeping under cover. All these facts were 
 developed by Scull's investigations. He developed 
 the further and important fact that there was bitter 
 rivalry for the directors' jobs, the control of the lot- 
 tery, and the division of the spoils. 
 
 Scull started on the theory that if he could ascer- 
 tain who these gamblers were, it would be easy to 
 find out the leading members of the various groups, 
 what their particular grievances were against each 
 other, and if they were using violence to accomplish 
 their ends. 
 
 The usual method of the police in obtaining infor- 
 mation had been "stool pigeons," that is to say, using 
 a crook to catch a crook, or using one gambler to catch 
 another. This meant the use of bribe money or the 
 giving of privileges in the breaking of the law. Gam- 
 blers, however, are not given to "squealing." More-
 
 234 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 over, it appeared that "stool pigeons" had a discour- 
 aging way of pretending to give up information and 
 at the same time tipping off their friends of any con- 
 templated police action. In other words, the "stool 
 pigeon" was a "double-cross" artist. Scull rejected 
 the use of them in this hunt. He called in one Tun- 
 ney, then a captain of the Bomb Squad and after- 
 wards an inspector, and procuring the services of a 
 number of bright young probationers from the Train- 
 ing School and a few more from the eligible list, both 
 groups of whom were not known as policemen, put 
 these men under Tunney. All were Italians or of 
 Italian descent. They were kept at work at their 
 trade as citizens, and while so engaged were encour- 
 aged to work themselves into the good graces of 
 Italians who were playing the lottery. 
 
 These men succeeded in getting into the game, and 
 it wasn't very long before they were acquainted with 
 the heads of the system. Soon they actually got to 
 know personally the members of the so-called Cor- 
 poration or "Big Four." These four men controlled 
 the whole lottery policy game, not alone in Greater 
 New York, but in the New England States and up 
 and do^vn the coast, north and south. There was in 
 each State the drawing for numbers, the paying of 
 the money, the receiving of the lucky number from 
 Italy, the announcement of the same, and the paying 
 of the prizes to the winners. In all of this there was, 
 of course, much chance for crookedness and chance 
 to defraud the ignorant players of their hard-earned
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 235 
 
 money. This desire for being "in the know," for the 
 chance to defraud, turned out to be the cause of most 
 of the crimes. It was the old, old story of jealousy 
 and greed, hatred, temptation and murder. 
 
 To prove it Scull had to intercept the messages 
 from Italy, watch their delivery, and spot the persons 
 who received them. He presently developed the fact 
 that the numbers were cabled weekly to one of the 
 Big Four in New York. These messages were in 
 code, and they were delivered to a different address 
 each week. The first week the message in code would 
 be delivered to an address do^vntown, the second week 
 to one uptown, the third week to an address in Brook- 
 lyn, and the fourth to an address up in the Bronx. 
 The fifth week they would start all over again. In 
 each event a woman received the message. 
 
 When all these further facts had been developed, 
 the sj^stem w^atched and checked, and the method de- 
 termined whereby the necessary evidence could be 
 taken to secure a case in court, the detectives were 
 sent to their stations one day, the trap sprung, and 
 the entire gang taken into custody. The cable com- 
 pany was notified to stop sending and receiving the 
 messages, and the gambling effectively smashed. The 
 courts imposed good stiff sentences in all convictions 
 secured, the head gamblers were scattered or sent 
 to prison, and the "Black Hand" terror ended. 
 
 Inspector John J. Cray, one of Scull's chief detec- 
 tive officers, was an officer wlio had pushed his way 
 to the top through pure force of personality, native
 
 236 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 intelligence and physical leadership. It was natural 
 that some coldness and reserve lay between these two 
 at first — this Harvard man and this policeman born 
 and reared on the old East Side of New York; this 
 Boston man who had worked for the Fusionists and 
 this loyal son of Tammany Hall and kinsman of the 
 biggest boss of any political organization since 
 Croker! It wouldn't have been possible to think of 
 two more different men than Scull and Cray, and yet 
 from the day they met on a particularly baffling homi- 
 cide case to the day of Scull's death they worked to- 
 gether like the oldest pair of sleuths that ever teamed 
 up at Headquarters. I've often heard Scull say, 
 "Get Cray's slant on that. If he says 'yes' hop to 
 it." 
 
 Inspector Cray, who is now a Deputy Police Com- 
 missioner himself, writes: 
 
 "You have requested me to undertake the hardest 
 task I have ever been called upon to perform. The 
 great fault with writers of history is that their per- 
 sonal feelings influence their writings. I frankly 
 confess that my sincere admiration and friendship for 
 Guy Scull make it impossible for me to write any- 
 thing concerning him without appearing somewhat 
 biased. 
 
 "He was the ideal man for the job of commanding 
 the Detective Bureau. He was the greatest searcher 
 after facts I ever met. His deductions were always 
 sound. He had a wonderful tenacity of purpose. Let 
 him become convinced that he was on the right track
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 237 
 
 to solve a crime, and not anything could swerve him. 
 
 "He had a great sense of justice and right, a won- 
 derful memory, and would often surprise me with a 
 recital of the facts in some case that had been closed 
 but was re-opened for further investigation. 
 
 "The life of the citizen was dear to him and in con- 
 sequence a homicide case would engross all his at- 
 tention. I do not remember a case of homicide oc- 
 curring while he was in command that he failed to go 
 immediately to the scene. Any hour of the day or 
 night, it made no difference to him. 
 
 "And unassuming: How often some of us who 
 accompanied him talk of it. Amidst the excitement 
 at^"nding those scenes he remained as calm as if noth- 
 ing had happened. Detectives rushing here and there, 
 doctors, friends of the deceased, bystanders, all ex- 
 citement. Often the question was asked 'Who is that 
 quiet man standing there?' Unless kno\vn, he was 
 never suspected of being the 'Boss.' Nothing escaped 
 his notice. Often when everyone was 'up in the air' 
 a suggestion from him would clarify the situation. 
 He rarely gave orders, mostly always suggestions, 
 and his suggestions were always respected, because 
 we liked him and because we knew his suggestions 
 were never without merit. 
 
 "I wish I could write more about him. I wish I 
 could make it plain just what a man he was. My 
 literary powers are limited, and I can only express 
 my gratitude for having this opportunity of saying a 
 ■word in memory of the greatest man it has ever been
 
 238 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 my fortune to work with — The Hon. Guy H. Scull." 
 Inspector Thomas J. Tunney, Chief of the famous 
 Bomb Squad in the Woods Administration, was an- 
 other "Scull man'* in the Department. Tunney's 
 "mob," as policemen refer to different squads, lit- 
 erally worked their heads off for Scull, and as a rule 
 the Skipper rode with them on the chase or wasn't 
 very far behind them. When Scull left the Depart- 
 ment and went into the service, Tunney followed him 
 into the Army Intelligence, and Sergeant Barnitz, 
 Tunney's chief subordinate, into the Navy Intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 Tunney writes: 
 
 "The Major had a wonderful personality. He was 
 calm and collected at all times, never losing his tem- 
 per. He was what I would call an experienced execu- 
 tive, and owing to his absolute fairness and pleasing 
 manner, secured more results from the men work- 
 ing under his jurisdiction than any other superior I 
 had the pleasure of serving for over twenty years. 
 He had a very keen mind, and was able to grasp any 
 situation, however complex or difficult. He was very 
 persistent, never giving up hope of solving a prob- 
 lem until every possible means of investigation was 
 exhausted. The best evidence of this is the important 
 matters that were accomplished under his supervision, 
 and which I will now try to describe as briefly as 
 
 possible. 
 
 "After the recent European war broke out in Au-
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 239 
 
 gust, 1914, some time thereafter, various crimes of 
 violence were committed in New York, and particu- 
 larly on merchant vessels in the harbors and rivers 
 abounding New York. 
 
 "One of the cases in question that stands out very 
 prominently was the arrest of Lieut. Robert Fay and 
 his associates. Lieut. Robert Fay was on leave from 
 the Ro3'al Imperial German Army for the purpose of 
 coming to the United States to blow up ships in the 
 harbors of the United States. 
 
 "Fay did not succeed in accomplishing this, al- 
 tiiough he was very close to it. He had four mines 
 or bombs already finished when he was apprehended. 
 These bombs would blow up a ship instantly and sink 
 everybody on board, if Fay had been successful in 
 attaching them. At the capture of Flay, I particu- 
 larly recollect Major Scull's visit to Weehawken, 
 N. J., where he remained with the other men and my- 
 self all night. He was always thoughtful, more of 
 others than himself, for he arranged and paid for a 
 meal for the men before he had one himself, and after 
 they were through he and I had some coffee, just 
 to keep ourselves awake. 
 
 "Another incident was that in which Frank Holt, 
 alias Muenter, had shot Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in 
 his summer home at Glen Cove, L. I., and, pre- 
 vious to that, had planted a bomb in the Senate wing 
 in the Capitol at Washington. Holt, it appears, had 
 written to his wife in Texas, saying that one of the 
 ships leaving New York harbor would sink after a
 
 240 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 few days' sail from New York. This made it imper- 
 ative for quick action and to locate, if possible, the 
 shipment of explosives from some place in Long 
 Island, where Holt had his dynamite, to the ships 
 sailing, as mentioned in Holt's letter. It had been 
 previously ascertained that Holt had purchased two 
 hundred pounds of dynamite and received it at Syos- 
 sett, L. I., but we were unable to account for more 
 than six of these sticks, three of which were used 
 in the bomb at Washington, D. C, and the remain- 
 ing three he had in his possession at the time of his 
 arrest. A considerable quantity of fuses and explo- 
 sive caps were also missing. 
 
 "This necessitated a search of all railroad stations 
 in Nassau County, as Holt was known to use an au- 
 tomobile in his movements. Mr. Scull worked all 
 night, traveling from one station to another, and in 
 many cases the railroad stations were closed and the 
 agents had to be located at their homes and awakened, 
 and then they visited their station and examined their 
 books. A funny incident occurred in Rockville Cen- 
 ter. About four o'clock in tiie morning we were all 
 cold and hungry, and the next thing we found to an 
 eating-place was a German bakery. The front door 
 was closed but unlocked. The counter on the inside 
 was filled with crullers and doughnuts. Major Scull 
 and several of the men entered the shop and spoke 
 to the German boss who was upstairs looking out of 
 the door, requesting him to make some coffee. This 
 
 mi
 
 ]Sr. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 241 
 
 the German refused to do, speaking through the crack 
 in the door, and then locking himself in. He evi- 
 dently thought that we were a bunch of thieves with 
 an automobile, and was frightened to death. We then 
 ate a number of crullers. Major Scull leaving fifty 
 cents on the counter to pay for them. I don't know 
 how long afterwards the German came downstairs, 
 but from his appearance he certainly was in no 
 hurry to show himself. 
 
 "We arrived in New York that morning, about 
 seven o'clock. The major got off at his home at 79th 
 Street, between Lexington and Third Avenue, and 
 we proceeded to get a shave and breakfast. I then 
 visited Police Headquarters to attend to some detail 
 matters and to give orders to the detectives to make 
 further investigations. After so doing, I was going 
 home to have some sleep, as I was tired out, and as 
 I was leaving the building about 8:45 a. m., I was 
 surprised to see Major Scull coming in to start work. 
 
 " 'Major,' I said, 'I thought you were going to bed 
 to sleep.' 
 
 "He replied, 'I am too busy. I haven't time to 
 sleep, but you go home and get to bed.' 
 
 "This was characteristic of him on numerous oc- 
 casions. He was always one of the first to arrive on 
 the scene of a crime and the last man to leave, and 
 the first man in the office in the morning. He was 
 what I would call a more than ordinary public of- 
 ficial, and there is no doubt in my mind but that the
 
 242 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 long hours, the hardships, and close attention to busi- 
 ness undermined his health, and were responsible for 
 his premature death." 
 
 Most persons mentally picture a policeman as an 
 overfed, flat-footed person with a heavy jaw and 
 fierce mustac^he. I can remember the surprise, almost 
 consternation, on the faces of some citizens who came 
 to Headquarters in Arthur Woods' administration. 
 They would actually gasp as they asked: "You don't 
 mean to say that man is a cop?" Commissioner Woods 
 had brought in to Headquarters and had placed in 
 the various branches (detective commands) the keen- 
 est men he could find on the force, and strangely 
 enough many of them in citizen's dress did not look 
 like policemen. 
 
 Captain William A. Jones was one of these. "Bill" 
 Jones, as he is known to police officers far and wide, 
 is the son of a New England clergyman. Tall, spare 
 of frame, dressed in sombre black, his solemn visage 
 heightened by gold-rimmed spectacles, he looks more 
 like a clergyman himself than a revolver expert and 
 authority on gun-shot wounds, or a terror to foreign 
 "gun-toters" and "stick-up" men. To see Scull and 
 "Capt. Bill" walk up the street together in those days 
 one would think they were on their way to church or 
 prayer-meeting, which they usually weren't. 
 
 "The death of Major Scull," writes Captain Jones, 
 "gave me a deep sense of personal loss, as it must 
 have anyone who came in close contact with his per- 
 sonality. His quiet efficiency and untiring devotion
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 243 
 
 to any work he undertook were an inspiration to those 
 who worked with him. 
 
 "When Major Scull was Deputy Commissioner 
 and I was in command of the Third Branch of the 
 Detective Bureau, which included the district known 
 as 'Harlem's Little Italy,' the work of overcoming the 
 different gang feuds which had existed for j'^ears and 
 were constantly coming to the surface, presented a 
 difficult problem. 
 
 "Major Scull was always on the job, day or night, 
 and his keen interest in the situation and the support 
 and assistance he gave to me and the detectives with 
 me, completely broke the backbone of the different 
 clans which had so long been a menace to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 "Under his direction I worked on many cases where 
 patience, judgment and perseverence were the qual- 
 ities necessary to reach a solution of the case, and he 
 possessed these qualities in an unusual degree; never 
 letting go until he had exhausted every clue. One 
 conspicuous case was the murder of Barnet Baff, the 
 chicken merchant, who was shot and killed in the 
 West Washington Market on November 24th, 1914. 
 This was a most difficult case. Into it Major Scull 
 entered with his usual perseverance, having daily 
 conferences with the detectives working on the case, 
 going over every clue, eliminating some and follow- 
 ing up others, until he had reached the desired end — 
 that of the conviction of the murderers. 
 
 "Another case that stands out in my mind was the
 
 244 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 murder of Mrs. Elizabeth Nichols, who was on Sep- 
 tember 8th, 1915, strangled in her home. No. 4 East 
 79th Street, by four men who went there with the in- 
 tention of robbing her, and who were assisted by an 
 inside accomplice. Three and the inside man were 
 arrested and convicted; one escaped to Finland, was 
 located there, but could not be extradited. 
 
 "Both the Baff and the Nichols cases required more 
 than a year of hard work, and it required his sending 
 detectives into several states, one to France and Italy. 
 At times the results seemed discouraging, but Major 
 Scull never lost heart, but kept at it untiringly and 
 with a spirit I have never seen surpassed. 
 
 "He loved his work, and every detective under him 
 felt impelled to do his best when the Major assigned 
 him to any dutJ^" 
 
 The police microscope discloses few meaner forms 
 of predatory life nor few in grosser degradation than 
 the "dope pedler." This person is one who purchases 
 habit-forming drugs in lump quantities and retails 
 them to those whose appetite is such they will com- 
 mit crime to buy. The traffic was and is illegal but 
 it is still a gaining one and when Scull went to Head- 
 quarters as Commissioner Woods' secretary one of his 
 assignments was the command of Lieutenant Scherb's 
 "Dope Squad," organized by Woods, whose duty it 
 was to cut down this traffic if not stop it entirely. 
 Scull and Lieutenant Scherb never stopped it nor has 
 anyone else before or since. In a paper advocating 
 Federal control of the manufacture, importation, sale
 
 
 ■ - >^ c. 
 
 c . ~ 
 
 : S . • i -^ 5 ~ 
 
 -^ -" ^ I: !E .^ U 
 ^^ ' ^ « "^ . 
 
 "^ * ^ ^ ^* ^ 
 
 -*< ^ '^ •? ~ ;; ■■'- 
 
 X. t 
 
 r. ~ - ^- = . 
 
 
 :f2itr? 
 
 ■;—'■<':.£ . E
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 245 
 
 and distribution of these drugs as the only solution 
 of the problem Scull admits that all he and his men 
 did was little better than "bailing out the ocean with 
 a bucket." 
 
 Scull knew whereof he spoke. He had worked on 
 the streets with the "Dope Squad" in order to be- 
 come acquainted at first hand with the drug traffic, 
 the unfortunate victims and the pedlers. Scull soon 
 came to know the tricks of the pedlers as thoroughly as 
 the detectives themselves. In his police report, urging 
 the passing of a Federal law, he describes the prac- 
 tices of the pedlers and the addicts as follows : 
 
 "A man who has the drugs for sale will stand on 
 the corner, just idling, say in front of a saloon. One 
 of his customers will come along and will pay him 
 for the 'dope.' Of course, this man has no narcotics 
 in his possession; he is too wise for that. The cus- 
 tomer is told to walk around the street and look out 
 for a woman with blond hair who will be walking 
 toward him. He does this and as he passes the woman 
 she slips him a 'deck' (small paper package as big as 
 a paper of needles) from her muff. The next day 
 the customer will come around for his usual supply, 
 pay the man on the corner, and will be told to stand 
 in front of a certain house and wait. Presently a 
 cigarette box will drop from an upper story window ; 
 he will find a 'deck' of cocaine in it. On another day 
 he will be told to go around to a certain saloon and 
 ask for 'Johnny.' 'Johnny' will tell him to meet him 
 in twenty minutes in another saloon. In the mean-
 
 246 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 time 'Johnny' goes somew'here and obtains tKe 'deck' 
 of cocaine. 
 
 "A less clever man will carry 'dope' on his person 
 in all kinds of ways. He will have the false fountain 
 pen, half full of ink and half full of 'drugs'; he will 
 have a false memorandum book ; he will carry it sewed 
 in the lining of his coat. Sometimes it is sold in 
 candy falsely made up, hollow inside and packed full 
 of dope; sometimes in cigarettes, or in hollowed-out 
 rubber heels which are easily detachable from the 
 boot. Women will conceal it in their hair. 
 
 "Another phase of this traffic in drugs is concerned 
 with smuggling the drugs into prisons. They will 
 use any extent of patience in order to get the drug 
 to the inmates of the different jails. Of course, the 
 profits are enormous. One man used to split post- 
 cards, put the white powder between the two parts 
 and cleverly paste the parts together again, write a 
 message on it, and address it to the person in jail. 
 Another trick of his was to remove about twenty or 
 thirty pages of a magazine and paste the dope right 
 in the binding, then put the pages back again. Some- 
 times he would write a letter on a piece of paper that 
 had been soaked with some narcotic solution, so that 
 the person receiving it could chew the paper and get 
 some effect from the narcotic." 
 
 Scull's office on the second floor at the head of the 
 stairs was the center of interest for a large part of 
 the day and night. At night his were usually the 
 only lights burning on this floor. Something of in-
 
 N. Y. C. POLICE DEPT.— 1914-1917 247 
 
 terest, something big or little, was always under 
 scrutiny here. One would usually find someone 
 from the P. C.'s office here, two or three deputies, 
 an inspector, a captain or two and a stream of de- 
 tectives coming and going and they all appeared to 
 be taking enjoyment in their work. There was a 
 certain keenness of interest, brightness of eye and an 
 altogether wholesome, healthy tone around Scull's 
 office. Guy Scull may not have been the greatest 
 detective officer in the country, nor the most bril- 
 liant, but there never was a more conscientious head 
 of a detective force, a more honest one, or one who 
 was better liked by his men, or who did more for 
 them or who got more out of them in service to the 
 people.
 
 Chapter XVII 
 THE WORLD'S WAR— 1918-1920 
 
 Everyone at Police Headquarters took it for 
 granted that the Fifth Deputy Police Commissioner 
 would enter the service as soon as he could get leave 
 from his duties in the Detective Bureau. The Mit- 
 chel administration was drawing to a close, the cam- 
 paign for re-election was on, but whether or not the 
 Mayor was re-elected Headquarters knew it would 
 take more than the stock argument of duty to the 
 city to hold Scull much longer. Scull offered his 
 services to the Government in November, 1917, and 
 on December 22 he received notification by wire that 
 he had been nominated for a captaincy in the Army. 
 Hundreds of less capable men had been commis- 
 sioned majors and colonels, but if this disturbed the 
 equanimity of the Skipper's mind, no one ever knew 
 it. Only two or three of his intimates were aware 
 that he was disappointed. Not that he wanted rank. 
 He wanted authority. He felt that he had already 
 rendered considerable service to the Government and 
 to both France and England in his capacity as Dep- 
 uty Police Commissioner, and he had. Very few 
 men had accomplished what he and his squads of 
 detectives had done in foiling the plans of German 
 secret agents, in protecting lives of non-combatants, 
 
 24,9
 
 WORLD WAR 249 
 
 in protecting supplies of the Allies, and in fact sav- 
 ing millions of dollars worth of allied shipping here 
 in the Port of New York, destined for overseas, 
 which was a rich prize and the object of a hundred 
 plots directed from the German foreign office. 
 Nevertheless, he took what he could get and accepted 
 the commission the Government offered him. 
 
 The following is a copy of the notice he received 
 from the War Department that he had been ap- 
 pointed : 
 
 Washington, D, C, Dec. 24, 1917. 
 
 Guy Hamilton Scull, 
 156 East 79th Street, 
 New York. 
 
 You have been appointed Captain Quartermaster 
 Reserve Period. Wire acceptance giving full name 
 and rank. McCain 
 
 This message came in so many different forms that 
 Scull finally became exceedingly annoyed. Each 
 message he received he would formally acknowledge 
 and accept. He showed the collection to me one 
 day, saying: 
 
 "Gosh. I guess they want to impress me with my 
 job. If I got this ton of paper with a Captain's 
 commission, I'd a been buried if they had slipped me 
 a majority. The Lord do provide." 
 
 After he had accepted his commission, he began 
 receiving orders where to report and like the an- 
 nouncement of his appointment, they made such a
 
 250 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 bulky pile of correspondence that he couldn't carry 
 it in his pocket. He would receive one order one day, 
 and the next day a different one canceling the first. 
 This so got on his nerves that he told his wife that he 
 didn't think he wanted to try and work in a service 
 where there was so much red tape. 
 
 Scull, however, finally landed in Washington, and 
 after some delay was given a desk in the Quarter- 
 master's Department and assigned to the task of run- 
 ning down grafters and crooks in the contract and 
 supply business. Before his family joined him he 
 lived for a time with the writer. Lodgings were 
 difficult to obtain in Washington in those days. War 
 workers packed the city. Houses were overcrowded. 
 Living acconmiodations, both hotels, boarding-houses 
 and residences, were taxed beyond their capacity. 
 The writer at that time was working with Francis 
 P. Garvan, Chief of the Bureau of Investigations of 
 the Alien Property Custodian, and the latter in the 
 emergency had been forced to lease a family resi- 
 dence at 2132 B Street, N. W., to have a place to 
 sleep when he was in town. Here for several weeks 
 during a hot summer, Mr. Garvan gave us quarters. 
 The house was always open to Mr. Garvan's friends, 
 and there was always a quota of officers and civilians 
 in the Government service stopping there. Scull and 
 I usually met at breakfast and were in our respective 
 offices all day. When not detained at the office, we 
 had dinner together in the evening and passed the 
 time until retiring sitting in the parks or strolling
 
 WORLD WAR 251 
 
 through the quiet streets, trying to keep cool. Dur- 
 ing these hours together we talked of many things. 
 We had been in newspaper work together, and had 
 been closely associated at Police Headquarters in 
 New York through the Woods administration. The 
 problems of the old police administration was one 
 topic we discussed, and the military tactics as de- 
 veloped overseas another. But save for a com- 
 plaint or two at army red tape that prevented him 
 from getting a staff of experienced operators, not 
 once did Scull in all this time refer to any of the 
 cases he was working on. As much as he knew and 
 as close as we had been together in other work of 
 this kind, never did he take me into his confidence. 
 This was Scull's way. His lips were sealed, and the 
 confidence placed in him by his superiors was locked 
 tightly and safely within himself. 
 
 Later he left Washington, being transferred to the 
 Northeastern Department, and finishing this work in 
 and around Boston, he returned to Washington, se- 
 cured a small house, and moved his wife and small 
 family down from New York. I found him one day 
 at his new quarters, blouse off, trying to put on a 
 new set of rank insignia. 
 
 "How do you stick these darn things on anyway?" 
 was his greeting. 
 
 I picked up one of them to examine it, and found 
 it a gold leaf instead of the twin silver bars. That 
 was his first and only allusion to the fact that he had 
 been promoted.
 
 252 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 One of his associates says: 
 
 "I had never seen him or come into contact with 
 him until the early spring of 1917, when he was sta- 
 tioned at the Northeastern Department as an In- 
 telligence Officer, and I had him pointed out to me 
 as he stood before the open fire in the Tennis and 
 Racquet Club in Boston. In addition to the halo of 
 romance which surrounded him, he had the additional 
 attraction which the Army Officer in uniform has to 
 one still a civilian, in wartime. His shy reserve, how- 
 ever, permitted only a perfunctory acquaintance at 
 this time. 
 
 "In the summer of 1918, I went into the Army, 
 and was stationed at Washington, where although 
 in a different department, I saw a great deal of the 
 Skipper in the late afternoons at the Metropolitan 
 Club. He used to spend an hour there every after- 
 noon from about 5 to 6 o'clock, seat himself in a 
 comer and bury himself in the latest stock market 
 news. I used to join him there almost every after- 
 noon, and we would talk over the market situation 
 and protest bitterly to each other against Prohibi- 
 tion. These little afternoon sessions usually wound 
 up by our going to the bar and having a glass of cider 
 together. You can imagine our pleasure when for 
 one well-remembered period of two weeks we dis- 
 covered that the Club cider had a very decided 'kick' 
 in it. We kept this entirely to ourselves as a very 
 dark secret and consumed it in sufficient quantity so
 
 WORLD WAR 253 
 
 that for those happy two weeks, each of us actually 
 left the Club in a glow. 
 
 "Skipper Scull was the most careless man about 
 his uniform whom I think I have ever seen, and yet 
 you only had to glance at him to see that he was a 
 man of unusual distinction. His trousers always 
 looked as though they would drop off at the next 
 step, and his shirt invariably showed below the bot- 
 tom button of his blouse. Whenever Mrs. Scull took 
 him out to dinner, which was very much more often 
 than he wished, the one ceremony that had to be ac- 
 complished was the shining of his shoes, which was 
 only done at such times. It didn't require the talent 
 of a Sherlock Holmes to know when Guy Scull was 
 going out to dinner, as on such evenings he would 
 always spend a growling five minutes in the boot- 
 black's chair at the Metropolitan Club having a 
 party shine put on his shoes. Those shoes were most 
 peculiar, as by the next day all trace of the shine 
 had vanished and they were ready for action again. 
 
 "Scull was Chief of the Military Intelligence Di- 
 vision, General Staff, known as the Graft and Fraud 
 Section (M. I. 13), and was charged with the detec- 
 tion and prevention of graft and fraud in or con- 
 nected with the Army. Skipper started under Gen- 
 eral Goethals to do this sort of work for the Quarter- 
 master Corps, and due to his native ability and his 
 invaluable training as Chief of the Detective Force 
 of the New York Police Department, his work was 
 such a success that in August, 1918, the scope of
 
 254 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 his work was enlarged to include the entire Army. 
 His force was the finest Secret Service force which 
 the country has ever seen, and the results which he 
 achieved in his field, which covered the entire United 
 States of America, were little short of remarkable. 
 Our one regret was that M. I. 13 could not have been 
 started earlier, as it would have been a very potent 
 factor in putting a stop to a great deal of the un- 
 necessary waste and extravagance which marked the 
 era of the entering of the United States into the 
 War. 
 
 "I have never known anyone who had such a lov- 
 able nature, but the quality which impressed me most 
 in him was his absolute and undeviating sense of jus- 
 tice and fairness. If a man was a crook, whether a 
 friend of his or not, he w^ould prosecute him to the 
 utmost. But, if the accused person were in the right, 
 he would back him to the limit of his power and 
 ability, which were tremendous." 
 
 Another officer in M. I. 13 who was associated 
 with Scull in Washington, says: 
 
 "Major Guy Scull's life and adventures will be 
 discussed whenever tv/o or more mutual friends 
 gather. And thus the memory of this truly remark- 
 able man will be kept ever green for years and 
 years to come. 
 
 "Robert Ingersoll, standing at the grave of his 
 brother, said: 'If each one to whom he did some lov- 
 ing kindness were to drop a bloom upon this grave, 
 he would sleep tonight beneath an avalanche of flow-
 
 WORLD WAR 255 
 
 ers.* And so if each friend were to write something 
 — a recollection or a little story concerning the late 
 Major — many volumes would have to be published. 
 
 "Skipper Scull had fewer enemies and more gen- 
 uine friends than any man of my acquaintance. His 
 friends are to be found in every clime, in every land ; 
 his enemies — well, they must have all preceded him 
 to the grave for I don't recall ever having heard an 
 unkind word said against him. I have heard him de- 
 scribed thus: *A swell guy,' 'a He-Man,' 'a genuine 
 fellow,' 'a real fellow,' *a true friend,' 'a sj^lendid gen- 
 tleman.' I have frequently referred to him as 'one 
 of the most lovable men I ever met.' 
 
 "One of the first lessons I learned from the Major 
 was that we were not to direct the men in the field 
 as to how they should proceed in their investigations, 
 
 " 'The man in the field is on the ground,' said the 
 Major, 'He is in a better position to size up the sit- 
 uation than we are.' That might not have been ex- 
 actly military, but it produced results. 
 
 " 'When we go after grafters against the Govern- 
 ment,' said the Major at another time, 'we should 
 not allow cost of an investigation or criminal action 
 to deter us. When you start an investigation go right 
 through with it until you place the guilty parties be- 
 hind the bars or else clear up the suspicion.' 
 
 "The Major had little faith in the so-called effi- 
 ciency reports on officers. 'I don't go much on these 
 reports,' said the Major, 'a poor devil may work his 
 head off and be unfortunate enough to get under
 
 256 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 some fellow who has taken a personal dislike for him 
 and he gets a poor rating. Another fellow, the most 
 inefficient officer in the world, may shower favors on 
 his superior officer and he will be given a high rat- 
 ing. No, don't take these efficiency reports too 
 seriously.' 
 
 "No officer was ever accorded more loyal support 
 than was Major Scull. I am quite convinced that 
 the men and women under him took the attitude that 
 they were working for Major Scull, rather than for 
 the Government. The result of their efforts under 
 Major Scull, and later under Major Peters, is in- 
 deed a tribute not only to these two splendid officers 
 but a marked distinction of services rendered faith- 
 fully and courageously to the Government of the 
 United States. These men matched their wits with 
 the cleverest crooks in the land, and the fact that over 
 three thousand arrests were made and more than 
 $10,000,000 recovered for the Government is suffi- 
 cient evidence of the earnestness of these men." 
 
 Another officer in M. I. 13, an experienced news- 
 paper correspondent before the war, writes: 
 
 "It is a pity that the veil of secrecy must forever 
 conceal the war record of Guy H. Scull— a record 
 that is written large and legibly in the hidden ar- 
 chives of the Military Intelligence Division of the 
 United States Army. It is a record that reflects 
 upon a gentleman whose real character and capacity 
 were appreciated and admired by his close associates,
 
 WORLD WAR 257 
 
 who were undeceived as to these virtues by a becom- 
 ing modesty and a retiring disposition. 
 
 "Mild-mannered, easy-going, agreeable in the hum- 
 drum, ordinary pursuits of life, Scull was an alto- 
 gether different character as regards lawlessness and 
 criminals. He was indomitable, relentless as a man- 
 hunter, yet his methods were as creditable to his high 
 conception of honor as they were effective in bring- 
 ing results. 
 
 "M. I. 13, otherwise the Graft and Fraud Section 
 of the Military Intelligence Division, owed its origin 
 and development to Scull. I am familiar with its 
 inception and creation. Scull, by natural bent, train- 
 ing and experience, an admirable Intelligence Officer, 
 was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps, under 
 General George W. Goethals, to keep an eye on 
 crooked contractors who were waxing rich in swin- 
 dling the Government. 
 
 "Scull began at the beginning. He realized the 
 importance of covering the great Quartermaster De- 
 pots, where supplies for the Army were purchased, 
 stored and distributed. Within a very short time 
 after his assignment. Scull's activity began to bring 
 results, but the effectiveness of his work was hin- 
 dered by the need of cooperation and funds. 
 
 "General Goethals was so favorably impressed 
 with the progress and results of Scull's single-handed 
 efforts that he called for an estimate of the cost of 
 enlarging the field. It was my good fortune to be 
 in the Quartermaster's Corps at the time, and I had
 
 258 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the further good fortune to become associated with 
 Scull. 
 
 "The estimates as to the cost of expanding Scull's 
 field in the Q.M.C. were submitted to the General 
 Staff, with the approval of General Goethals, and the 
 Staff was so well impressed with his accomplish- 
 ments in the Quartermaster's Corps that it was de- 
 cided to expand the service to include all other corps 
 of the Army — Engineers, Medical, Ordnance, Air- 
 craft, and to coordinate the work under the Military 
 Intelligence Division. 
 
 "Scull was placed in charge of the Graft and 
 Fraud Section of the M. I. D. thus created, and again 
 fortune favored me. I followed him, and it was an 
 inspiration to observe the zeal and determination with 
 which Scull labored to achieve the results that soon 
 made M.I. 13 one of the effective units of the Mili- 
 tary Intelligence Division. 
 
 "As an officer in charge of the section, Scull en- 
 joyed the confidence and love of every one of his 
 subordinates and held a place in the respect and re- 
 gard of his superiors that contributed to the success 
 of the work. 
 
 "In this humble effort to pay tribute to his mem- 
 ory, I may add parenthetically, that from a strictly 
 personal experience I was made to realize and ap- 
 preciate the fairness and impartiality of Guy H. 
 Scull and in a long experience I have never met nor 
 known a person more entitled to admiration for these 
 sterling attributes."
 
 WASm.VC'ION, I'lis
 
 WORLD WAR 259 
 
 Such was the volume of work intrusted to Scull's 
 bureau that he continued at it for several months 
 after the armistice and it was not until the following 
 May that he felt compelled to leave the service and 
 go back to civil life. He had, like many others, sac- 
 rificed opportunities for personal advancement in or- 
 der to give his services to the Government in work 
 that he felt he was qualified to do. He had drawn 
 upon his slender personal means to fortify his small 
 army pay against the demands made upon it in the 
 support of his family, and it was because of these 
 family obligations that he was forced to retire from 
 the service he liked so well and go back to the hum- 
 drum existence of making a living. 
 
 That his resignation was received with regret is 
 evidenced by letters written at that time by officers of 
 high and low rank, from Brigadier General Marl- 
 borough Churchill, Director of Military Intelligence, 
 down, a few of which are printed below: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT 
 
 Office of the Director of Military Intelligence 
 
 Washington, May 14, 1919. 
 My dear Major Scull: 
 
 I wish to express to you the regret, both personal 
 and official, I feel at being obliged to sign your 
 discharge papers. Colonel Masteller tells me that 
 for both personal and business reasons it is absolutely 
 necessary for you to leave the service.
 
 260 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 When you came to the Military Intelligence Di- 
 vision there was considerable possibility that every 
 bureau and department of the Government con- 
 cerned with the letting of contracts might start up 
 a separate agency to investigate graft and fraud. 
 Under your able guidance the matter was so central- 
 ized that duplication of effort was avoided and the 
 matter handled in such a way as to best safeguard 
 the interests of the United States. I have been as- 
 tonished at seeing the figures representing the actual 
 amount of money restored to the Government, and 
 my imagination has been stimulated by thinking of 
 the possible financial equivalent of the graft and 
 fraud which your section has prevented in an indirect 
 way. 
 
 I wish to go on record as Director of Military In- 
 telligence as stating officially that the work done by 
 you and the officers, non-commissioned officers and 
 agents under your charge has been of immense value 
 to the Government. 
 
 In the event of another war, or any emergency re- 
 quiring the letting of a large number of Government 
 contracts, I shall take pleasure in recommending that 
 the work of investigating graft and fraud be given 
 place under your direction. 
 
 With kindest personal regards, I am, . 
 
 Yery sincerely yours, 
 (Signed) M. Chuhchill. 
 
 Major G. H. Scull, 
 
 Military Intelligence Division, 
 
 Washington, D. C.
 
 WORLD WAR 261 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT 
 
 Headquarters Central Department 
 
 Chicago, May 16, 1919. 
 Major Guy H. Scull, 
 Graft Section, Military Intelligence, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 My dear Major: 
 
 It is with regret that I learn that you are about to 
 be discharged from the Army. Your words of appre- 
 ciation of the service of the Graft Section, Central 
 Department, is but another evidence of the kind per- 
 sonal interest which you have taken in all our activi- 
 ties and which has done so much to make the work 
 a pleasure. 
 
 I would be ungrateful, indeed, if I did not express 
 to you my sincere thanks for your many favors and 
 my association with you during the war will always 
 be a pleasant memory. 
 
 I trust I may hear from you occasionally and if 
 fate brings you to Chicago, that you will look me up. 
 
 With very best wishes, I am. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 (Signed) Francis D. Hanna. 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT 
 
 Office of Military Intelligence 
 Boatmen's Bank Building 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., May 16, 1919. 
 Major Guy H. Scull, 
 156 West 79th St., 
 New York City. 
 My dear Major: 
 
 Yours of the 13th came this morning and contained 
 the saddest tidings that have reached this office in
 
 262 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 many a moon. We were all very sorry to hear of 
 your retirement from the service, and want to assure 
 you that we more than appreciate the manner in 
 which you handled our affairs, and the way in which 
 you always backed us up in every situation. 
 
 If I am able to go over to New Haven in June, as 
 I trust I will be able to, I will certainly endeavor 
 to see you on my way through New York. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 (Signed) T. S. Maffitt, 
 
 Captain, U. S. A.
 
 Chapter XVIII 
 CEDARHURST— 1920 
 
 The Sculls in 1920 decided that their New York 
 apartment was too confining for a pair of active 
 small boys so they found a house in Cedarhurst, Long 
 Island, in the middle of a quiet colony of their 
 friends. 
 
 "The Sculls moved into the house next door to 
 us on 'The Lane' in the autumn of 1920," writes the 
 wife of an old friend of Guy's. "My hus- 
 band had known Guy in Boston when they were boys, 
 but I had never met him until just before they came 
 here to live, and I had only met Nancy casually. We 
 were in the dining car en route to Bar Harbor late 
 in the summer of 1920 when my husband suddenly 
 said, 'There is your neighbor to be, Guy Scull.' He 
 was only a few tables away so that I had an excellent 
 opportunity of studying his face. Guy was an un- 
 usually distinguished looking man, with grayish hair 
 and keen eyes, and an expression that combined 
 force, even sternness, with kindliness and humor. 
 The next day crossing over to Bar Harbor on the 
 boat we had a long talk with Guy and he asked us a 
 great many questions about suburban life which we 
 tried to answer both truthfully and satisfactorily! I 
 remember wondering at the time if our simple life on
 
 264 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 the little lane in Cedarhurst would appeal to a man 
 who had wandered all over the world, and had lived 
 such an interesting life full of adventure. I need not 
 have worried about that for I have rarely seen any- 
 one happier or more contented than Guy was in his 
 home in Cedarhurst. 
 
 *'A month or two later Nancy and Guy and the 
 two boys, Guy and David, arrived from New York 
 and settled next door to us, and we very soon drifted 
 into a delightful friendship. 
 
 "We all had great fun together. It was an un- 
 usually snowy winter and we went on straw rides, 
 and pulled our children all over the country on sleds 
 and looked, not always in vain, for hills to slide down. 
 Guy loved the winter life and spent whole days dig- 
 ging out the snow drifts in 'The Lane' with a gang 
 of admiring small boys and making slides and mar- 
 velous snow men for Guy and David. Guy was won- 
 derful with children. I remember so vividly some 
 of the late afternoons I spent in the Scull's living 
 room with the lamps lit and a fire burning, and my 
 children and Guy and David on the floor playing the 
 most entrancing games with Guy senior. Nancy and 
 I were an appreciative audience and no one paid the 
 slightest attention to us. Sometimes they played a 
 thrilling game called 'Hippopotamus,' but their very 
 favorite was called 'Going to Bar Harbor,' and they 
 showed as much enthusiasm over it the fiftieth time 
 as they did the first time it was perpetrated. 
 
 "People of all ages were drawn to Guy, and he
 
 CEDARHURST 265 
 
 seemed to enjoy the informal social life here in the 
 country. In his own home he was at his best and 
 with Nancy and the children he was absolutely happy. 
 The devotion and understanding between those four 
 was a very wonderful thing to see. 
 
 "In the spring he took up golf and became very en- 
 thusiastic about the game, playing most of Satur- 
 days and Sundays. Sometimes he would stop in here 
 on his way back from the links — my husband would 
 be working in the garden and Nancy and I would be 
 comfortably ensconced in steamer chairs making help- 
 ful suggestions. Guy would describe his afternoon's 
 experiences with delightful humor, and then he 
 would inquire politely for 'the crops,' and eventually 
 he would drift into a heated political discussion. My 
 husband and Guy enjoyed their political differences 
 more than almost anything in that delightful year. 
 One could always start Guy off by a slight refer- 
 ence to suffrage and an argument of that nature was 
 always worth listening to. He usually ended by 
 sighing, and saying in no uncertain tones, 'The whole 
 world is going to pieces.' 
 
 "We often spent our evenings together — we 
 would wander over to the Scull's porch after dinner 
 and sometimes Guy would fefel in the mood and 
 would tell us wonderful tales of his travels. One 
 night he told us all about his cruise on the May- 
 flower. He had a rare gift for story-telling and he 
 made us feel the thrill of that adventure from start 
 to finish.
 
 266 GUY HAMILTON SCULL 
 
 "The Sunday before Guy died was a clear crisp 
 autumn day. We all spent the afternoon outdoors — 
 Guy on the golf links — and late in the afternoon we 
 stopped in at the Scull's for tea and sat around for 
 a long time talking. That day is a pleasant memory. 
 
 "Guy died on Friday, October 29th, at St. Luke's 
 Hospital. We lost a friend whose place no one can 
 ever fill, and we count it a very great privilege to 
 have known him intimately for one delightful year." 
 
 Scull was ill but three days and it was not until 
 noon of the day he died, October 29th, that he knew 
 there was no hope. His thought then was for his two 
 boys, their mother and his mother; not for himself. 
 He tried in every way he could to cheer his wife, he 
 even "kidded" the doctor's opinion, to show her that 
 his old strength and courage still remained and that 
 he could fight and win by himself. No one but the 
 surgeons knew the fight he made and they still 
 wonder today at the stamina and reserve strength 
 left in this man who could put up such a battle for 
 his life as he did. 
 
 The virulent infection which caused his death be- 
 gan with a slight carbuncle on the end and inside of 
 his nose the Tuesday before. In fact he was playing 
 golf the same afternoon, although the following day, 
 Wednesday, he and his wife went to town in the 
 afternoon to see their own doctor. They were so sure 
 of returning a few hours later that they made no 
 preparations for being away longer than a night at 
 the most. The infection, however, progressed so
 
 CEDARHURST 267 
 
 rapidly that when they went to St. Luke's Hospital 
 Thursday morning Scull's face had swollen beyond 
 recognition. The pain and discomfort were intense. 
 The operation which was thought might be helpful 
 brought no relief, the infection had gone too far. 
 
 Scull rallied Friday morning, however, and those 
 at his bedside thought that the danger was over. He 
 became unconscious Friday noon and died that eve- 
 ning about ten o'clock. Dr. Fellowes Davis, one of 
 Guy's closest friends, was with him to the end. 
 
 This strong courageous life which took such full 
 enjoyment in so short a span, matching its strength 
 against all comers in all kinds of adventures was 
 snuffed out suddenly and almost without warning by 
 an insignificant pimple on the end of his nose. 
 
 The news of his death came with terrific sudden- 
 ness. All of the newspapers in Xew York and Bos- 
 ton carried column stories on his life. The body was 
 taken the following day to Boston and on Monday, 
 November 1st, Scull was buried in Mount Auburn 
 Cemetery after a most impressive service in the 
 Chapel there, attended by many of his lifelong 
 friends, the Colonel of his old regiment, the Rough 
 Riders, being one of the pallbearers.
 
 AA 000 688 169 2
 
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