The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-09-21
THE GOOSE STEP.
How German Army Recruits Are Drilled
and Disciplined.

How German Army Recruits Are Drilled
and Disciplined.
ICor. New York Post.l
If you leave the old Pin with a sad
heart, you may have your good nature
restored if the recruits are being drilled
in the Exercien- Platz opposite. The
Exercien-Platz is large space backed
by barracks; while in front, along the
street, are gymnastic apparatus and
simulations of such obstacles as may be
expected in an enemy's country. The
fundamental principle of German
drilling is obedience. Orders are not
propounded for discussion, French
fashion, but are given, and obedience
must follow Immediately When this
principle has been apprehended and &C
cepted by recruit, it is wonderful
what he will accomplish, and wonderful
are the changes that take place in his
physical and mental organization. The
process of experimenting is the difficult,
and, to the outsider, the entertaining,
part of the system.
For instance, every recruit must jump
over good ed cask, the cask lying
on its side. When first put in front of
the cask, he looks as if he had been
asked to Jump over house. From his
point of view he knows the thing is
utterly impossible. But that is
exa tjy where the German drill
di ers from the French; his point
of view is not a factor. Over
that cask he has got to go, if bayonets
have to drive him up to it and soldiers
have to fling him over. If his neck
should be broken, his military educa-
ton would of course cease if he should
happen only to break a rib, he would
be put to Led till his rib was mended.
when his military education would be
resumed exactly where it left OF. 1t
may require several fractures to thor
Oughly indoctrinate the erman notion
of obedience to orders: but when the
recruit has once unprecedented, he will
pop over the cask, or an thing else, like
a deer. In the same way he is taught
to shoot. With given number of car
tridSes he must put a given number of
bullets into target. Tie must do it, if
he even were to be kept blazing ava,
all his life. But there will be found
plenty Of ways for insuring success
within Il reasonable time
The evolutions of the recruit are very
entertaining when you have learned to
cease fearing for his bones. Especially
entertaining is the goose step, so called
a step so valuable in strengthening the
practiced by all edestrianS. | think
can make it so clear to every reader that
he may start it off in his own room
The recruit first takes the seVerest mill
tary position. That needs no eXplana-
ton. He stands very stiff and straight,
head slightly thrown back, chin in.
chest out, and the fingers stretched out
along seams of his trousers. Having
been kept in the military position till he
is ready to faint, he is then ordered to
pro Jet the right or left foot-it is i'm
material with which he begins-So
far in front of him as he can while
keeping the sole of the foot parallel
with the surface of the ground and the
knee sti The tired recruit will be sure
to lose his balance, and topple over.
But, in accordance with the principle
of obedience, he will be kept at top
ping till he ceases to topple, and can
stand in this extremely difficult and un-
comfortable position just as long as the
German government may desire lie is
then instructed to elevate himself on
the toe of the foot on which he is stand
ing, and to incline the body forward till
the sole of the projected foot reaches the
ground. lie is now in another position,
where perpendicularity and preservatioR
of la ance are difficult, and where still
further appeal may be necessary to the
German principle of obedience The
third motion is to bring the foot which
has remained stationary up alongside of
the pro ccted foot, and to reassume the
original strict military position. Then
the foot not first pro ected is in its turn
thrust forward, and so on and on. The
points of the step are the length of the
Stride-at least three and half feet
the preserved parallelism of the pro-
jected foot with the ground, and the
preserved stiffness of the knee
Let any novice try dozen steps of it.
The muscles of his legs will ache with
all the aches of dentistry. AS the re-
cruit becomes more pro cient there is
less pause at the military position; the
foot from behind sweeps by the station
airy one into the next step, but there is
always a pause when the advancing foot
reaches the ground, that the full stride
of the step may be felt and marked.
When the recruit is further accom-
thrown out from the sides, and the
way, in long lines, recruits are exercised
after month. till their legs are as tough
as steel, and the fatigues of the longest
march can be borne with comparative
ease. The German soldier, of course
does not use the goose step when he is
marching into battle, for it is a gym
nastic exercise; still, when on parade he
Is passing the saluting point, he uses a
modification of it, so as to let the in
speeding officer know that it has been
properly acquired. 1t is not too much
TO .av that the German emnire rests on