The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-10-31

light matter, more especially IN the Item
of the boots.
The imposition of fines is another
method of furnishing infringements of
regimental rnles If an officer is not
properly shaven, if he puts on any part
of his uniform wrongly, he must pay for
the champagne drunk at dinner thateve-
ming. This fine is also enforced for
swearing or using bad language in the
presence of the Chaplain or any senior
officer, and also for dropping the sword,
On certain occasions an officer must pay
when it is not a case of fning. If he gets
promotion, if he brings home the regi-
ment from the drill field for the first
time as commanding officer, if he wins Il
race, or is going to be married, at all
such times he has to ''stand" the cham
pagne.
Our novelists do we'll to give their
military heroes an exhaustible rent-roll
There are very few such out of the
Guards, and soldier servants have to be
very we'll up in methods of getting rid of
duns and such other unwecome visitors
as their masters do not care to be at home
to.
Another terrible mistake made by nov
elists is the magnifcence with which they
surround their heroes in quarters. If
such could but once peep into the room
(for an officer has seldom but one room,
even if he is no longer subaltern, ex-
cepting at Colchester, where each cavalry
officer has room about II feet by IA
and tiny dressing-room, just half that
size) of any ordinary hussar, dragon, or
lancer, he or she-I suspect 1t is most
often the women who are so fond of sol
}, dier heroes-would never again depict
him in rooms resembling very fine
lady's boudoir. O the patched walls,
the bare paint, the marks on
the door where the lock gave
way the last time the owner was
, drawn" by his comrades, the blackened
ceiling, the almost invariable absence OF
window-blinds, the miserable regulation
fender fastened to the floor, the more
, miserable regulation coal-scuttle, and
most miserable of all, the regulation bar
{ rack chairs! 1t is all so wonderfully un.
like the barrack- room of fiction. There
is the rickety crib of bed, made to take
in pieces upon occasion, and which by
daytime the servant, with the aid of ere
tonne covers for the pillows and ful
carriage rug, converts into sofa; and
there is dressing-table, likewise hung al
: round with cretonne, and which strikes
one as being remarkably high for its pur
pose. Just pull the cretonne curtain 6
little, and half the front will open, show
ing you that it is but make-beiieve table
after all, and, stripped of it's hangings
would stand forth packing-case! Well
it is both a toilet-table and a wardrobe
now, for piled upon the shelves which
have been put in temporarily, are the va
rious suits of clothes, belonging to the
owner of the room.
Then over there, on the other side o
the room, is the inevitable chest Of
drawers, which, when travelling, Just fl,
nicely inside of the dressing They
are exactly like the drawers in every
room in the barracks; are of mahogany
have brass handles, and dispatch-boz
{ and writing-desk combined in the middle
A drawer at the top. Then the lid of oul
friends bath, being fitted with three leg.
which screw in and out at pleasure
makes very convenient writing table il
covered with cloth, and into the bath
itself, for travelling, the legs go, together
with the tripod, washlng-stand and the
tin basin and ever. Some officers have
pianos, but they are always hired; and
most officers have few pictures and lit
tie trihes to scatter about their room
.. For instance, couple of fur rugs thrown
across the huge 5arrack arm-chairs takt
off from their ugliness much; and if
| soldier is fortunate enough to know
! lady who will work him cover for hi
: cot, his room will look much more pre-
sentable. And yet at best soldier
room is but shake-down; and if he b
: rich or poor, he seldom attempts to max
= it otherwise. The handsomest room
. ever saw in barracks was that of a car
' tain of dragons; in fact, he had bee
fortunate enough to secure two larg
T rooms, those which, if he had require
them, would have been allotted to tn
major. This man was very rich. an
S had certainly taken a good deal {
e trouble to make his rooms habitable, an
IS yet-wcll, they were only barrack-room
( There were the usual make-shifts; an
when the fur rug slipped off the gres
= easy chair in which / sat, l saw the broa
i straps which served for arms, and whic
h told me it was just the same as | ha
o seen in barrack-rooms SO many tint
6 before.
!. The rooms of well-known Colonel {
IS cavalry, man who now possesses tit
l and thirty thousand a year, were simpl
" beggarIy, not nearly 50 handsome as W,
the one little room of his Vet, of whic
IS | had just a glimpse. And why? B
q cause one room was the mans home; Il
C other was not.
l. One more word and / have done;
e concerns the fancy names bestowed upc
$, soldiers in novels. They are all fanc
n names, and in real life do not exist.
e no case have | ever known name give
t, in recognition of mans personal coml
Is nasc such as (Ihnr1h Reoutv dopi