The Opelousas courier., 1884-02-23
RECRUITS FOR THE r M
The STRANGE Let shat Drift into the New
YSrk Reg uifinR Once

Men wanted for the U. S. Army
is the legend which flies, tackled on t.
the end Of the Stars and Stripe, from
the window of each of the three re.
cruiting stations in this city. The in.
vitatlon looks so general and ALIEN.
bracing, standing as it does without
quasiicati N of any kind, that it is not
to be wondered at that the response:
come from men of all kinds and from
almost every class of life. All day long
a sergeant lies in wait at the o1ice tC
secure the queer fishes that drop in
one by one attracted by the bait out.
side, and when the captain comes down
in the morning he finds a days catch
of from five to five-and-twenty men
a miraculous draught drawn from all
the n~ationalities that 60 to make up
New York. Unfortunately, however,
it is much easier to get men than to
get good ones; and though the placard
outside is so generously catholic, there
are various small formalit;es to be gone
through before a recruit can be &C
cepted, which result at the best OF
times in the rejection of four
cand dates out OF every five. II
is not only that a man has
to be between certain limits of age
and height and weight to be fit for
service; but almost every superfuous
incumbrance, from a wife to a tooth.
ache, suffices to disqualify him. Be
side, moreover, passing through a
searching medical examination for re-
cruits have to 60 to all kinds Of eli
mates), he must have had, so far as is
ascertainable. a respectable past. But
though the captains and sergeants
(and above al the examining DOCTOR
have by long experience become ex-
pert detective many queer characters
pass through the Offices and succeed in
keeping their past a mystery. Each
of cour4e assigns a profession, trade or
employment to himself with a great
show of candor, and in the Official lists
almost all are formally labeled as COM
Ing from this or that craft. Thus out
of the 200 and odd recruits last year
over 1000 are accredited with being
laborers, a quarter that number farm
ers--an1 SO on through every calling,
however sedentary and unmartial, till
the tale winds up with n sailmaker
and one calker. After the most care
full sitting, however. there still re-
mains a residue of 445 "mlscella-
neous'-from whom might probably
be culled as odd a collection OF bicg-
raphies as ever noyelists invented.
Now and again young fellows Of IN
mistakably good birth and breeding
turn up and do all they a to pretend
they are nothing of the sort. Only a
few days ago one of the captains found
waiting f r him among a motley CON-
pany of ne'er-do-weels a young Ken
tuckian of good family and W IL
dressed. who hal run through his
money on a visit t, New York and
was ashamed to apply to his relatives
for more to return home with. The
captain advised hi to take a few days
more to think about enlisting-which
he did, and has not come back to the
Office.
A large number of the applicants
however, take up the service from de-
Iibarate choice, and have every honest
intention of doing their duty in it.
But more numerous than these are
those who come from the inexhaustible
class of loafers-men who have tried
most ways of living and found they all
involve too much hard work. As a
last resource they enlist, for there is a
common fallacy afioat that a soldiers
life in these piping times is chiefly one
Of idleness. And to this delusion may
probably be astribed the otherwise in
applicable number of desertions-
which run up to as many as athousand
annually. Many are doubtless tempt
ed away by the positions on the farms
anu in the mines which they see open
to th m when they are sent out West.
from which even the penalty of two
years imprisonment does not suffice
TO keep them back. On some of
the most inyeterate loafers, indeed,
The imprisonment seems to act
rather as an inducement than other
wise, AM convicted deserters have
been known to write from Leayen-
worth prison exholting their former
comrades to do likewise and not to go
on toiling at drill and guard-mounting
when the easy life of a iail-bird was
within their reach. Not a few. how
ever, do not even wait to see what the
life is like. but disappear mysteriously
the very day after applying-so forcing
dpon the officers the melancholy con-
viction that they have been hoaxed
and that the whole process of applica-
tion and medical examination was
gone through merely with a view to
securing the one nights lodging and o
meal. Every morning, too, as regular
II as the doctors visit, the drunken
applicant appears. Sometimes he
comes in tipsy more frequently he
has only been tipsy oyer night and is
comparatively sober in the morning ;
and sometimes he looks SO quiet and
wen dignifed that only the doctors
skillful eye can see in him the traces Of
The regular topper. Anyway he is not
the man the army wants. But thrust
ing, as hs sometimes does. three or four
sc himself in during the morning, he
makes no small item in the officers
work and mixed up as he is with a
miscellaneous collection of men of all
sorts and nationalities, he helps to
make these strange morning receptions
at the recruiting stations still more