Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-22

OF the utllltarian side of our existence.
These 'lilies of the field" were the wives oi
our officers. A military man is generally
conceded to be the most engaging Of beings.
His personal appearance takes him long
distance on the road to favor, for he is
trained to erectness, to fine carriage of the
head; his muscular development follows on
the habits of his active life; his uniform
transforms one who might be passed BY in a
crowd into cynosure for all eyes. Add to
physique, carriage and clothes the manner
which man in so social life as the army
requires, and it is seldom that he comes
knocking at the barely half-closed door of a
susceptible heart that it is not flung wide to
welcome him.
If our American can be made to admit
that there is an aristocracy in the United
States, the army belongs to it. 1t is one
profession where money is not necessary.
An officer dares to be poor, because for
tune cannot improve his social position; it
is independent of filthy lucre.
The military man, therefore, poor as he
is, is welcomed with cordiality in all the
higher walks Of life. While among civilians
on duty, or when on leave of absence, he is
thrown among the fairest women of the
land, and he, of coulse, proceeds to fall in
love. The father who smiles on him would
! frown on a clerk with the same salary. The
paternal mind is at rest about the daughter s
social standing.
A LOVERS CoMPUNCTIoNs.
Compunctions do assail the officer when
| the object OF his alteration is the center of
devoted family, living in idleness and
luxury. He pictures her enduring hard
ships, and shuts his heart against tempta-
tions. How often have heard them say:
'How- could I have the effrontery to ask a
girl to endure our life?" and yet, in the end,
they all do. When he tells girl that he
loves her, he has the grace to mention that
there are trials. The girl usually tells him,
in wise little way, no life is without its
an existence with him, no matter how hard,
is preferable to lifetime of luxury without
him.
The prize he gains is a pretty, accom-
plished, agreeable girl who knows literally
nothing of the practical side of existence;
who very soon after her initiation to the
piano in exchange for the secret of bread
making; she would barter her skill with
the brush and pencil for the gift of an ex-
pert needle, or the power to cut and model
the simplest garment. Nevertheless, with
her charming head, empty of all that per-
tains to the prosaic side of life and its
grind, she is still prize. The daintier and
more butterfly her previous existence, the
l-ar 10 trQn info
housewife. have hardly known it to fail
that the more luxurious her former exist
ence, the less mention of it and the fewer
complaints an army woman makes These
fine, fastidious creatures, courted in con-
seryatory and won in ballroom, can exhibit
more adaptability and show more endurance
than any women 1 eyer knew.
Our women as nation are becoming more
renowned for adaptability than all the women
the world over; and if young girl can come
from school and fill the highest seat in the
land without an error, or if our beautiful
bellies can enter the nobility as wives, and
shine with such efulgence at the most for
NAL and austere court in the world, why
should we not claim that there is no situa-
ton in life that an American woman can.
not grace?
SHORT NOTICE TO MOVE.
1t may not be generally known that it is
the policy of the Government to give each
regiment five years tour of duty in de-
partment. Circumstances change it to two
years, and, even after year inf one Terri
tory. unexpected orders transfer troops to
the Gulf of Mexico or California, perhaps. |
A young army woman holding up her rosy |
tipped fingers to tell off the stations in |
which she has lived, finds, even when she is
but new campalgner, that her fingers give
out in keeping tally.
Governments forget that there are such
blessings as domestic life among those who
serve. While a woman looks about her
plain quarters in Texas, and congratulates
herself that her inventions and devices have
turned the barrack into ''homey" spot,
and reasons to herself, "Oh, if it is so dread
fully warm, still this is better than moving"
at that very moment perhaps the orderly
crosses the parade ground with an order for
ner husband to prepare to take up his march
for some post hundreds of miles in the
North. Possibly but a few hours are given,
and In the hurry of preparation the pretty
devices for beautifying the home are torn
from the walls or hurriedly iumbled into
crowded packing cases; the choice garments
crushed into trunks; the china which. in her
inexperience, the young wife has brought
from home, instead of earthenware, is put
into barrels by clumsy hands.
At dawn next day the ambulance in which
she is to journey is brought to the door, and
almost filled with the last forgotten traps,
guns, books, ammunition, baskets and
boxes.
ROUGH BRIDAL COACH.
In the first place, the ambulance in which
the bride is going to travel tor hundreds of
miles is not luxuriant equipage. The
Government builds them for the sick, but
happily there are few ill people on the
frontier, and they are, therefore, often
loaned to the officers by the Quartermaster
to transport their families. The wagon is
long enough to admit of two seats on the
side being Joined in the middle and con-
structed into bed over six feet long, on
which the wounded or sick can lie. Under
these seats at the end are round holes, in
which the kegs of water are carried. The
nfron fc OF tha Al L. |