Nevada County picayune., 1889-10-23

ana inspections, preparatory to that great annual event, the visit of the commander-in-ch Then the wei come winter, bringing leave ane freedom for two or three months arrives. and the barracks is left be hind, with all it's restraints and pleas ures, its duns and other trivial draw. backs, for home and it's civilian joys. Most youngsters get sick of home be- fore their leave is half expired. They find barracks far more congenial, nor can it be wondered at, for the first two years or so. After this the glamor soon wears off, never to return.
 Discipline Is very strict in the En- glish service; your superior officer IS always sir to his face, even off duty, though the social relations of all ranks arc most cordial. There is no inter- ference with your private customs, unless they be discreditable to the regiment, and friendly word of ad- vice from senior to a junior is ire quently given, and usually received in the same spirit. Though the army is not an abode of sanctity, as a rule youngsters don't stray very far from the paths of virtue, and parental anxiety on this head is generally quite unnecessary. Men don't get intoxi- cated nowadays in the disgraceful way once prevalent in the English mess rooms.
 Perhaps 1t is not generally knonw among Americans that English soldiers regard those of the United States serv- ice with a good deal of admiration and respect, despite differences in Organi- zation. The writer has often heard it laid down by old and experienced off, I cers that no troops in the world ever fought more bravely under equal dis advantages than the Americans in the late war. He also entertains a very vivid recollection of an occasion on which two United States army men were the guests of his old regiment; certainly if the entente cordiale did not exist that evening between red and blue, there is no harmony in Nature!
 It may be doubted, however, if the relations of the British private soldiers with their officers are as satisfactory as in the American service. There is lamentable want of sympathy between them. An English officer in the vast majority of cases knows absolutely nothing of his men, and there is also a very mar row-minded and regretable tendency to down look upon such men as have by years of steady determination and work obtained place among the commits stoned ranks. So strong is this feeling that the writer has known several in- stances of first-rate men. who, when urged to go in for a commission, have replied that they were deterred by the conviction that they would be out of place, and merely tolerated through courtesy, and. therefore, preferred to remain sergeants or ergeant-maj jors to the end of their service. It is hard to perceive any remedy for this unjust state of affairs in view of the present state of English society, although the government is at length tardily fol- lowing the example of the United States, in throwing open the higher ranks of the army to such men as prove themselves worthy and desirous of the reward.
 It is popularly said that the French soldier carries field marshafS baton in his knapsack. but the facts tend to show that the American has the best chance of such recognition of his merit. Certainly, the Englishman has not. There are authentic cases of men leav- ing the British army in disgust, to re- enlist in that of the United States, and finally attain to positions for which their abilities qualified them. Sheer merit is the standard by which Amer ica measures it's military servants, and man who "haS the sand" has only himself to blame if he does not come to the front. It is pity that England does not adopt an equally just aud large-minded system. HI. J. Fuller, in N. Y. Star,