The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-02-22

, az Eilor u az Leader:

TO The EinOr a the LeGdeF:
have read, very carefully, an article
in your weekly issue of the 18th inst.
under the caption Of sarmy punish
ment," COPIED from the Washington
Republic. Iwould not deem the article
in question worthy of a reply, did it
not, coming from SO eminent a source,
tend, by a distortion of facts, to fill the
public mind with an erroneous impress
sion in regard to the United States
army service. The writer, in the Re
public, has evidently misconstrued his
friends 1.-THE army oficer) account of
the fines imposed on the American SOL
dier, or else he has given us only one
side of the story, and that the brightest.
Fines Of fifty cents, one and three dol
lars, are the exception, and not the
rHle. Even on garrison court martials,
whose jurisdiction extends only to the
minor offenses, it is not an infrequent
occurrence for the soldier to receive a
fine of eight, ten, or twelve dollars,
with Imprisonment from ten to fifteen
days, and sometimes a month. In some
instances a portion Of these days Of i'm
prisonment are to be spent in solitary
confinement on bread and water. Some
times a log, weighing from thirty TO
fifty pounds. is given the prisoner to
carry upon his shoulders from sunrise
TO sunset, with half an hours relief for
meals. / am not aware that this mode
of punishment has entirely ceased in
the army; though in the United States
revised statutes, title military Pris-
on" chap. vi. sec. 1154, it must be
construed as being strictly forbidden,
with branding and whipping in the
same section.
The more serious offenses of the SOL
der, such as desertion, striking a supe-
rior officer, etc., ETC., are tried by gen.
eral courts martial, to whose jurisdic-
tion they properly belong, and the pun
ishments, in the way of fine and i'm
prisonment. are much greater; such as
one month and twenty dollars, six
months and sixty dollars, eight months
and one hundred dollars; and, in cases
of desertion, besides the forfeiture Of
all pay and allowances, two, three, and
perhaps five years in a military prison,
are specimens of some of the punish
ments melted out by this higher court.
1t is very true that drinking in the
army has much to do with the soldiers
misfortunes; and, as police courts in
civil communities have their throng of
adherents, 81 in the army there are
many who seem to have a penchant for
the associations of the guard house.
And il the Kellys and M~ulrooneys, as
the worthy officer facetiously remarks,
are in the habit of regularly throwing
themselves upon the ''marcy av the
coort," it appears to me that there are
times when, IL they would find the
''marcy av tie c~oort,'' or throw them
selves upon it, they would need the
assistance of a very powerful pneumat-
ic tube; for, with a fine of ten or twelve
dollars, and a number OF days impris-
onment as o reward for their plea, they
must think the "marcy av the coort'' a
long distance from the place of their
arraignment and trial.
The writer in the Republic has con-
trasted the mode of punishment in the
British army with that practiced here,
and is inclined to favor the barbarous
method of fogging. But even here he
Is at fault, for logging in the British
army has been abolished. He tells us
that, owing to poor pay, fines in the
British army are small. But let us see
how much of truth there be in that
assertion. The pay of the British SOL
der, including rations, is about sixteen
pence per day, OF thirty-two cents,
while that of the American soldier, in
Guiding rations, about se~venty-ive
cents. A deduction of the ration
allowance gives the American soldiers
about fifty cents, and the British SOL
diers about twenty cents. Quite a dis
arrangement, we must admit, in the
number Of cents received, in favor of
the former. But, fortunately for the
British soldier, he finds that the twenty
cents in his country has as much value
as has the American soldiers fifty cents
in his country, which gives us an op-
p~ortunity to apply the old saying-that
il twenty cents have the same purchas-
ing power in England that fifty cents