Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-20
Thursday Morning, July 20, 1882.


THE UNITED STATES MILITARY SER
 VICE.
 MT. Archibald Forbes, the celebrated war correspondent, has been making a study of the United States army, and in the current number of the North Aane7ica7a Reoieao he gives the result of his observations, and makes an interesting comparison between the British military service and that of the United States. From this comparison it ap- pears that the soldier in the United States army is much more pleasantly situated than the British soldier.
 The British soldier is whesdled into the service by the flies and streamers of the re. oruiting sergeant, and visions of military glory cunningly pictured before his dszzlsd eye. When he once gets in the illusion is soon destroyed by plenty of work on three quarters of pound of meat and pound of bread day and shilling wages. The soldier who has anything saved out of this msagre | allowance at the end of his term of enlist ment is an exception. The American soldier usually enters the army with business fore thought. He knows that he will have more or less work to do, and may be called into active service, but he is of his pay of thirteen dollars month and liberal rations. This for five years, and if honorably dis charged at the end of that time he is entitled to one hundred and sixty acres of govern ment land which will become his own in ab- solute fee by years residence thereon. The same contrast runs through all grades of the service. Non officers in the United States not only get better pay and larger ratisns than their equals in rank in the British army. but they may by meritorious service achieve commission, and under our system of promotion rise to a higher rank with correspondingly better pay than is pos sible for an officer who has risen from the ranks in the Queens service to attain.
 The American army officer is much better off than the British army officer in the mat ter of 'retired pay.' q do not ask," says Mir. Forbes, ''the British boy subaltern, his in Ashantee Afghanistan, to fancy himself the life possessor of pension of two hun dred and ten pounds year or the grizzled major worn out by long and hard soldering, to conceive his retirement on the comforta ble income of six hundred pounds year. Imagination undergo only a certain strain But what for the British officer would be inconceivable chimera is for tho American officer pleasant matter of-fact re- ality'
 England, Mir. Forbes thinks, is far behind this country also in the matter of prison dis cipline for military offences. An English { soldier who has been guilty of a sufficient | breach of duty is thrust into confinement | with his head shorn like felon's, and oom- pelled to labor at york SO ostsntatiously use- \ less that it becomes doubly irksome. If he | violates any of the rules of the complicated prison code, he is punished according to the | degree of his offence, by further curtail- | ment of his liberty on scale which ends in solitary confinement. On his release he goes back to hls regiment sullen and diseontented, per ! haps discouraged with the weight of debt hanging over him for fines, and ready to de- sert at the first opportunity. The American military prison illustrated at Fort Leaven. 1 worth is very different institution. There the prisoner is allowed to wear his hair, may talk with his fellow prisoners, is put to some
 useful occupation and fed on regular army
 rations The dark cell and diet of bread ane
 water are not unknown but they are seldom
 required, and once tried are always afterwarG
 avoided, even by the most refractory, sine,
 the alternative of the ordinary prison re
 straint is so much more agreeable. By goot
 conduct the prisoner can shorten his term o
 confinement and many times obtain a certif
 cate which will permit his re-enlistment il
 the army, from which he is usually discharge'
 by the same sentence of court martial whicl
 imprisons him.
 From this it will be seen that the Americal
 soldiers lot is 8 comparatively happy one
 Judging from the number of assertions
 however, he does not seem to think so. Per
 haps he would if he knew from experience a
 much about the British military service a
 Mir. Forbes does.