Connecticut western news., 1884-02-20
THE EGYPTIAN SOLDIER.
He is a Coward, for his G Government Makes him sO-Alwnys Ready to Run Away.

The Egyptian soldier is brought up on the h,trbash (stick). The stick is al- ways in near proximity to his bare back or the soles of his feet. Whatever the government wants of him, whether taxes or military service-and it never mani fests itself to him in any other light | the first indication of it's needs is dis closed to his apprehension by the kur- | bash.
 The method of recruiting for the army is simple. The village sheikh gives the names of certain number of men to the local police, who go to the novels of into the street, put iron collars or yokes around their necks, fasten the several collars together by chain, and drive them, as cattle are driven in other coun- tries, to the prison, to be examined by the medical officers. A stranger, says Mir. Wallace, "when stopping in a quiet village, may be suddenly awakened at night by violent altercation outside, which begins by gruff, bass male voices, and culminates in shrill, hysterical fal- setto tones, resembling the unmusical, plaintive howlings of the professional walters at native funeral. The first time he is so disturbed he probably as- sumes that it is case of burglary or manslaughter, and rushes out with the laudable purpose of supporting vigor- ously the party of law and order; but he finds, to his disappointment, that it is nothing more serious than the capturing of a recruit for the army. In vain the police, with the aid of their sticks and switches, endeavor to keep order and impose silence; the more ob- stinate consistently break from the ranks and have to be kept in their places by force. Those who have no glaring cor poral defect, and who have not succeed ed in conciliating the medical officer or the military authorities, are marched off," etc.
 Once in the army the recruit is given up for dead by all his friends. His term of service is fixed by the Government, and if he survives the hard treatment of his officers and the casualties of war until old age, he is turned out almost pensionless, to be burden upon relatives who have forgotten him and who have scarcely enough for their own support. It is no wonder, with such prospects be- fore them, that those liable to conscrip- tion mutilate themselves by cutting of the right forefnger and putting out the right eye. This practice was so com mon in the time of Mehemet Ali that that enlightened priuce formed battalions of one-eyed men and sent them into bat tie with Turkish bashi. bazouIs and artil- lery behind them with orders to shoot down every man who attempted to run arway. This plan for infusing courage into the soldiery has been tried so often that it has ceased to have any effect. The fellah would as lief be shot by the enemy in his rear as by the one in front. By nature the most submissive of all male creatures, the felleh never shows signs of disobedience until brought into the neighborhood of the enemy. He then braves danger from his superiors in order to get out of bullet range. Whole regiments have been known to mutiny, murder their officers, and disband when within 0 days march of the opposing | force.