The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-20 00:00:00

THE PROFESSION OF ARMS.

The Times has published the following interesting letter,
on the life ot a soldier :

•
Sir,—The excellent suggestions embodied in a leader
in The Times of Thursday are so much to the purpose
that I, an old soldier myself, have ventured to supple-
ment them with the following information for the pur-
pose, if possible, of driving your wedge still further
into the wall of ignorance which now hides a soldier's
real life from the view of the public.
At present, certainly, the time a man has to serve
in the Army is known, as likewise the pay he will re-
ceive and the quantity of food he will be supplied with,
daily, but of other matters equally, if not more, en-
ticing to young men, nothing is known whatever out-
side of the barrack-gate. A. man who is a soldier, if
he wishes to see foreign lands, can volunteer to any
regiment serving abroad, when, after a few years, he
can either return to England with his corps, or if he
prefers it remain where he is. His hours for drill are
few and his hours for amusement many; and whether
he spends these last in the barrack-room, the
cricket-field, the ball-alley, the gymnasium, the
billiard-room, the library, or at his club—the can-
teen—is left entirely to his own discretion. If
stationed near a river or at the sea-side he can go boat-
ing, and if in India shooting at any time duty does not
call him to other work. He can also have leave till
midnight as often as he chooses to apply for it, provid-
ing he behaves himself, and a month's furlough is at
his disposal every winter to go and see his friends,
while over and above all this his Colonel can grant him
a week's leave at any time. When it is likewise
remembered that during all such absence he receives
his pay the same as if he was on duty (rations ex-
cepted) and that he can travel by any train for third-
class fare, or cross any bridge, where other people pay,
without charge, I think I shall be pardoned for assert-
ing that even Infantry soldiers have many substantial
advantages over civilians who do not earn upwards of
a guinea weekly, while non-commissioned officers of
Foot and men of the Cavalry and Aztillery can bear a
favourable comparison with mechanics and shopmen
earning 255. per week.

' The difference between the life of an agricultural
.'labourer on 12s. or 15s. weekly, who seldom tastes
meat and that of a soldier who gets his three good
substantial meals daily, is always well housed and
clad, and whose work is not one half as severe as that
of the other, is immense; and if we go on to compare
a military life with that of the average shopman or
clerk, the advantage is still in favour of the former. A
draper's or grocer's assistant who receives £2O a year
and his board for working daily from seven a.m. till
half-past eight or nine p.m. does far more work, has
vastly less indulgences, and can never be so healthy as
a Dragoon, who receives at least 215 48. 2d. per annum
in clear money, and all his clothing, besides board,
washing, &c., additional. The one dare never be out be-
yond eleven p.m., and has only at least the Saturday
half-holyday weekly, while the other, as I have shown,
may have leave, every evening from six p.m.- till mid-
night, a day or two as often as he wants it, and a
month's furlough every winter. If we look higher
there are paths leading to superior positions open to
all well-behaved intelligent men, first as non-commis-
sioned officers with superior pay and comforts, and
subsequently to such positions as Adjutants, Quarter-
masters, &c., of regiments, now thrown open more
than ever as prizes to meritorious men in the ranks.
That there exists an antipathy among civilians to a
military life I will admit, but this, as I have already
hinted, is due partly to ignorance and partly to
tradition, for it is little more than a hundred years
since magistrates and others were empowered by
Act of Parliament to press as soldiers "such able-
bodied men as do not follow or exercise any lawful
calling or employment ; Churchwardens and constables
to be employed in searching for and securing able-
bodied men and to receive a reward of £1 for every
man they pressed, and 6d. a day for every day they
kept a man in confinement; none to be exempted from
the operations of the Act but persons who have a vote
for a member of Parliament, and labourers during hay
and corn harvest." In those days young men were
seized, sent to the nearest garrison town, and forced to
be soldiers, and to prevent escape sent off usually at
once to a regiment abroad. It is through such prac-
tices in times long past that one portion of the public
have continued to regard the Army either as the
national sewer into which the male refuse of the coon
try falls, or as the refuge for the destitute and ne'er-
do-wells of society.
Now, although by these means!the soldier has come
to be looked down upon by the rest of his fellow-men,
most of whom are both socially and morally his in-
feriors, I am anxious to show how much this com-
miseration and contempt is alike undeserved or
required. He is, as a rule, not only better fed, clothed,
and lodged than either the policeman, postman, or
railway porter, but he enjoys privileges to which they
and all other men earning the same or less wages, are
strangers. Whether on leave or sick in hospital his
pay goes on as usual. His daily work is far from being
fatiguing; in fact, is but sufficient to keep him in good
health, and he has not only plenty of excellent whole-
some food to eat, but he has this well cooked and takes
his meals at regular intervals. In all baracks now.
there are baths, in addition to the ablution
rooms, where he can wash himself. At his
club (the canteen), be can not only procure drink
cheaper and better than he can elsewhere,
but the profits arisine from the sale of the liquors are
used to lessen to him the price of tobacco, butter,
bread, &c., causing a reduction of about 20 per cent.
in the purchase of these articles, so that 2s. goes as fait
with him as a civilian's half-crown. At the gymnasium,
under qualified and efficient instructors, he can learn
to fence or box, to leap or run; and, should his tastes
lie in quieter amusements, there is the reading-room
open for him, with its billiard and bagatelle boards, its
games of chtss, draughts and backgammon, and its
regular supply of the daily and weekly newspaper s
In addition to all this there is a good library in each
regiment, where he can study books of every kind, or,
should he prefer it, take them with him to read on his
cot in the barrack-room
When farmers want labourers to till their fields, or
merchants' clerks to keep their accounts, or shop-
keepers assistants to sell their wares, they each publicly
inform those they are about to engage as to the full
remuneration and benefits the different engagements
offer; but our Government has as yet neglected to do
what the other competitors for labour-- the farmer,
the merchant, and the shopkeeper—do. It never has
effectually described the equivalent given to those who
agree to enlist and serve-as soldiers faithfully for a
certain term of years. Appealing to the eye and the
ear more than to the higher feelings of patriotism and
ambition, it has hitherto aimed to secure a sufficient
supply for the demand by such aids as music,
drink, and fine clothes can bestow. It has at-
tacked the worst passions of men, and, when
successful, is astonished to find that the seed thus
sown should blossom into such fruit as insub.