The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-02-12

uuhuicu INSTANCES lDe same individual
figures separately six, eight, and more
times In q single year. The army is
not so bad as il would seem.n
This certainly disposes of the ques-
ton affecting the number of courts
martials held in the course of one year,
but in the detail OF crime which my
friendly correspondent adds to the fore
going, 1 find that drink is the bane of
the American Is it is of the British
army. To check the dreadful, destruc-
tive passion for alcoholic beverage
which strikes at the very root Of discip-
line a variety of schemes have been
tried and with very little effect. Fines,
imprisonment and occasional PRONE
nades with the companionship at the
ankle of a few links of chain attached
to a cylindrical-twelye FOUNDER shot are
the ordinary DEGREES of the courts
martial in the United States; fines and
fogging are the punishments in the
British army. Judging from results,
the English system is the most effec-
tive; but humanitarianism revolts from
the idea of excoriating a mans back.
and the punishment, therefore, is
limited to fifty lashes. To go into an
argument as to the relative degrees of
cruelty in fashion at either side or the
Atlantic might by Improbable, or l
think it would be easy to demonstrate
that i~agellstion is not only the most
effectual form of punishment, but is
even less Objectionable as a matter of
physical suffering than the tedious i'm
prisonment and its accompanying chain
and ball torture, which involve the &C.
cupation of the time and services of
other land innocent) soldiers in keeping
watch over the imprisoned culprits and
accompanying their painful peripateti-
cism.
Fines in the British army are small
in amount, for the pay Of the soldiers
will not admit of their punitory appli-
cation. 1t 1.-THE pay is only half as
good as that of the American soldier,
and the poor red-coat has to meet the
expense Of his ration, or mess. as it is
called, out Of his stipend. And those
fines contribute to a fund for the re-
ward of good conduct. The well paid
United States soldier, on the other
hand, can afford to be fined occasionally,
for he has still a large surplus left out
of his two months pay for another
bout. 1t would seem, therefore, that
the different systems of punishment in
the two armies arise partially from a
difference in the pecuniary clrcum
stance Of the two services and partially
from the existence of a prejudice on
one side against a form of punishment
which English magistrates have found
eficacious in extinguishing the gdrotte
and Virginia magistrates impose on
cases of fragrant venalty. But there
is n point IN which, it appears to me,
the authors of the military systems of
both nations fatally agree. They
equally ignore the value of reward.
Fear is their only deterrent agent. The
hope Of advancement is altogether dis
regarded. A lamentable mistakel Let
the soldier understand that, as the
French metaphorically have it, he al
ries a field-marshal's baton in his pack
let it, in other words, be impressed
on his mind, by frequent examples, that
commissioned rank is the sure guerdon
of certain conditions of praiseworthy
conduct in the ranks, and we shall soon
see the cat and the ball and the chain,
and their friend John Barleycorn,"
vanish from the records of the ar
miles, Washington Republic.