Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-02-26
Treatment of Soldiers.


The President has issued call for five
hundred thousand men, and the country
expects patriotic response to the call
before the 10th of next month, and will
not, we trust, be disappointed. But il
has occurred to us that men would more
readily volunteer to fill up the ranks Of
our thinned regiments, for patriotic mo-
tives alone, if they met with the proper
encouragement FIR o m their friends at
home. There was time when "brave
soldier boy" elected tokens of admira-
ton and respect wherever he went-and
justly too. How stands the case at the
present day? Everybody knows that
some of our best men are in the army,
and that many of them nobly fall on hot
ly contested battle>felds, and yet, de-
spite all this, a soldier now-ad days hardly
commands decent treatment from either
citizens or the men placed in command
over them. Why is it so?-Does a man,
when he becomes soldier lose all his
individuality, and dwindle into a part of
a machine, to be kicked about and abus-
ed by strplings, whose rich relations at
home have sufficient influence to secure
for them uniform and shoulder-straps
but unhappily never think of impressing
upon the minds of these Jack a-napes in
possession of little brief authority"
the value of kindness and small uuan.
tity of common sense. The fact cannot
be denied, although an unpleasant one,
that our soldiers are treated shamefully,
and repeatedly driven to tho wall, when
their interiors in everything that 60 to
make Man, are catered to and courted.
The very men who comprise the rank
and files of our armies are as good and |
citizens as any of US when
they are at their respective homes, and
why should they not be treated with at
least the same respect and attention that
a common traveller receives in the garb
Of a citizen. Is there any crime attach
I'd TO wearing Uncle Sans uniform
At the risk of being called "a BRUTE"
We are compelled to say that the fair sex
ire not altogether e m p t from this
barge of il-treating our soldiers
Where is the patriotism that electrified
very feminine Union loving b art
our land when our State Ban
er was first made to lick the dust at
'ort Sumter? 1t has not all died out,
re hope; for there is more need of it
ow than three years ago. The history
the world testifes that the approving
mile of woman has led men to deeds of I
airing and heroism when all other incen-
YES failed. We admit at women .
ave sacrificed, and are sacrificing, in this
ruggle, more than their very life: that /
Iure are those who rival the Spartan T.
Others Of old; but on the other hand. .
gu find few who think there is some n
ing communicating in the very touch of
common soldier )" that he is a person e
be Stunned. These ladies little think, n
at the common soldier from whom they Q
rink, is part Of a wall that protects a
em from revengeful and merciIess foe, b
I'd that he has at home wife or sister a
st as pure and gentle as they are. d
1t is high time this grievance was rem b
led. To use the words of an eloquent u
ID patriotic lady who delivered lect- n
e in this village, some time since "
We owe to the soldiers of the Union P
bt of gratitude we can never pay p e.
lerefore, the least we can do, is to treat r,
EN- with respect, and by so doing en- g
urage others to join them in the great c
'rk of putting down the rebellion and a
eserving our glorious Union.-Rut> ST
I'd Herald tn
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