West-Jersey pioneer., 1878-06-20
0LD-TIME MILITIA MUSTERS.

0LD-TIME MILITIA MUSTERS.
The crude militia" companies, according
to law, met twice year at their respective
headquarters for days drill aud nstruc-
tion. The regiment was assembled once a
! year, usually in the month of May, at the
county town, where it was man9uvred and
instructed rather after Dryden's system
than either of those prescribed by Congress.
Prepatory and for three days immediate
ly preceding the general muster, the officers
Of all arms were assembled and drilled to-
gether as light infantry commanded by
their field officers. They were instructed
in the manual of arms, company tactics,
regimental man9ures, and wound up by a
ceremonious rehearsal of the part they were
to play in the grand review next day.
Although this company exhibited the elite
of our regimental splendors, glittering with
tinsel and Haunting with feathers, more
heterogeneous and unsoldierly parade could
scarcely be imagined. There were the elect
from the mountains, who sometimes
marched to the rendezvous barefoot, carry
ing their boots and soldier clothes in bun
dle-the ambitious cobblers, tailors, and
ploughboys from cross-road hamlets and re-
mote rural districts, short, tall, fat, skinny,
bow-legged, sheep-shanked, cock-eyed,
hump-shouldered, and swayed- backed
equipped by art as econimically, awkward
ly, and varionsly as they were endowed by
nature, uniformed in contempt of all uni
formity, armed with old fiint-lock muskets.
horsemen's carbines, long squirrel rifles,
double -barrelled shot-guns, bell-muzzled
blunderbusses, with side-arms of as many
different patterns, from the old dragoon
sabre that had belonged to Harry Lees
Legion, to the slim basket. hilted rapies
which had probably graced the thigh of
some of our French allies in the Revolution
The officers of the volunteer companies, on
the other hand, were generally selected for
their handsome appearance and martial
bearing, and shone with certain elegance
of equipment, each in the uniform per-
tanning to his company. There was also a
sprinkling of ex-veterans of 1912, recogniz-
able by certain martinez precision in their
department, and shadow of contempt for
their crude comrades, but quick to resent
any extraneous comment derogatory to the
service. A city dandy who undertook to
ridicule the old-fashioned way in which
some officers carried their swords, was 81
lenced by the snappish reply: "Young
man, I've seen the best troops of Great
Britain beaten by men who carried their
swords in that way"
This harlequinade of equipment, costume
and character was duly paraded twice a
day, marched through the streets, and put
through its man9uvres on the green COM
mon adjoining our village, much to the sat
isfaction of all emancipated school boys
negroes, ragamuffins, idlers, tavern keepers,
cake and beer vendors, and somewhat, per-
haps, to the WEAKNESS of our Quaker ele-
ment, industrious mechanics who had ap-
prentices to manage, and busy housewives
who depended on little negroes for help
came the great day of days, when all vul-
gar industry was for the time suspended
and all hope Of domestic discipline deferred
Even the law students were constrained to
close their commentaries on Blackstone
and as they met at the "bar'' would learned
ly observe (between glass of whiskey and
a quid of tobacco), "Inter arma silent
| leges."
But how we school-boys leaped at the
first tap Of the reveile eager for the reali-
cation of our golden dreams! How hope
fully we scanned the eastern horizon for as
surance of clear day! With what misery
delight we counted over our stock of cop
pers, boarded for the occasion, and calcula-
ted their equivalent in cakes, beer and
sticks of taffy! How doubtfully we consid-
cred the worn efigy of "Georgius Rex on
coin we had found in a dirt pile, and
wondered if we could pass it on old Murqu-
hartford "gunger" Then how we watched
the dusty roads as the wild mountainers
came trooping in to swell the buzzing
swarms already gathered around the taverns,
groceries, and street corners! And with
what sublime emotion we mingled with the
NhOWu, odW OuC plulutu utIOcS uuITNlug To
and fro, as with ceaseless rub-a-dub-dub-
| bing. sound of bug]es, waving of banners,
flashing of swords, with ''the thunder of
the captains and the shooting" this inco-
herent and refractory mob was at length
marshalled into some resemblance of line
of battle! Then the march atield, with its
exciting accidents and incidents, several
hours of tactical man9uvres, such as we
might imagine Sitting Bull and staff would
execute with herd of buffaloes. Then
the return of the dusty, thirsty veterans of
the days campaign, and the final resolution
of martial organization into storm of
drunken anarchy and isticuff fights. For
besides the prescribed military duties, it
was well understood that general muster
day, being reckoned among the dies non in
civil law, afforded the people a convenient
opportunity for settling all the standing &C
counts, jealousies, rivalries, quarrels, horse
trades, and swindles of the current year,
after their own fashion; and the solution of
these difficulties by whiskey and judicial
combat was considered quite as satisfactory
as resort to lawyers, far more economical.
For all in all, it was day worthy of six
months eager anticipation and six months
of pleasant remembrance.-Har Maga-
zine.
A curious popularity of the baobab tree,
found in Africa and Madagascar, is, that
scarcely any injury will destroy it, Fire