The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-07-21
LILO at tho Springfield Armory,

The soldiers life in these pipinv
tllnes OF peace is not 50 full of excite.
meht as he might wish, but is bv no
means as unpleasant as t;,s been
pictured. Many young mGi who enlist
are FASCINATED by the uniforms, tales of
the rebellion and u life of ease, as if
seems to them; and when they find that
they are expected to work nine hours
a. uly the enthusiasm is dampened. and
they want to get out. From the dis
satisfaction Of this class has doubtless
arisen the prejudice against peaceful
army life. But there is another side to
the question. The average sollier ia
'Hv"'So, iiop iio trtdo and eWU,tNI
naVe>to work as n common laborer If
alscharged. 1t is said, however, that
ne "ould get more pay, and 50 it seems
ui!ta az giamce, but there it really very
ilttle oiilerence between the remuner-
atlon or the soldier and laborcr. The
,oll,ier receives from the government
his board, clothes and from S13 to S25
u month. The average is not far from
SIS, or $21G a year. The day Iahornr
working 300 days IA year at s. q dnv rn.
ccivcS $500. AS good board and jod~-
ing us the soldier has will cost at lcnst
- week, or $500 a year. Dcductinw
thlS and 500 for clothes from his FIJI
pay, nc has left $40, or S24 dollars =
year more han the soldier. But the
men arc not all uneducated. One mr.
Two III the service here have been
through college and many are well-rcad.
some men enlist to receive the restraint
Wnich The soldier is necessarily held
under. And this is one way in which
army llie does good, a man whose
passion Tor liquor is irresistible, cannot
ueFlse safer protection than that of
thc army. The lives of many men have
uhtl'!eSt lonably been prolonged Dy the
restriction under which they have been
paced. This restraint is, of course
lrkhomc and disagrceable, bul it is some
mems only salvation. Dissatisfied SOL
dlerS resort to all sorts of expedients to
get away. One German sl i'd that he
got so drunk ash never vas'' in the
nope that he would be discharged but
Tho scheme was too transparent. De-
ScrcIons have become SO frequent that
Ecl. sherman argues that it would he
advisable TO lessen the soldiers work.
pllc II sa strange fact that quite a large
percentage OF deScrters aftcrward rive
themselves up, 1t is seldom that anv
Two give The same reason for coming
Dack. One could not overcome tho faS
clnaClOn which had increased while he
served, another repcnted from consci-
ehtlouS motives, and still another found
that his lot rs soldier wasn't SO very
hara after all. But the prejudice
against army life has become SO strong
That there are very few enlistmcnts
.noWaaays, y and men will probably have
{9 be transferred from line service to
!t''sSe Nlacss soon to be vacated here
is chosen after five years ~-IiiSU Ulioe.-'Nc",,
but there is very seldom any difficulty
III discharged soldiers obtaining Il
place. Some of them make the most
of their time when III tho service and
come out fitted for positions, which
they were wholly unable to fill when
they enlisted. Many become police
men; and almost invariably make good
ones. Fully one-half OF the Washing
ton police force is composed of dis
charged soldiers, and one of Spring.
fields best officers lived 10 years within
the iron fence.