The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25

glass. The bugler has no need to pub
out his purse; every trooper is ready to
treat him. Those of the men who have
seen active service can never forget how
those same notes that have just cheere6
them up the hill nerved them when they
had to charge the enemy, and know that
in many terrible battle, when the enc
my's guns did their deadly work too web,
one or two surviving buglers have brave
ly cheered on the diminished ranks to
the last, and perhaps turned the fortune
of battle
Next to the buglers comes the band
The appearance of the bandsmen is not
particularly martial; the uniform is a
little bit neglige. We are in the pres
ence of artistes now.
Why the trombone should be the old
est member of the band l have never
| been able to discover; but it is n fact that
| he is, nine times out of ten, a gray head
ed, specialized man, with grave express
sion and three stripes on his sleeves. He
feels the weight of his responsibility. Il
is all very well for the clarionet to take
life lightly; if he playsa note little flat,
/
without any disastrous consequences; but
a wrong note from the trombone is awful
| to think of! So he looks neither to right
nor left, and never loses sight of his ma
! jestic instrument. AS man who only
| plays accompaniment, the trombone Is
modest, and seems to apologize for the
noise he makes.
The cornet plays solos, and the ap-
plause he has won from the public in the
place d'arrnes has made him vain. Hold
| ing his instrument in the air, he is not
only seen and heard, but can see the ef-
feet he produces. He is young and good
looking, wakes his mustache and is o
perfect lady killer. Cornet PLAYERS, like
tenors, are conceited.
The flute is reserved. The habit OF
casting down his eyes on his tiny instru-
ment has made him bashful.
The clarionet is a picture of misery.
With head bent down, he looks like
plaintive philosopher giving utterance to
his sad views of life
The masher of the band is the hautboL
His uniform is unimpeachable, and more
than once the colonel has frowned on
him for showing too much white collar
He gives private lessons in town.
The Ophicleide is funeral. His general
expression is one of solemnity. The
only time his face lights up at all is when
he has to play the Prayer of Moses as
a solo. That is his triumph.
The bandmaster ranks with the quar-
termaster. In his numerous leisure hours
ne composes variations on the principal
airs of civilian Tell and "Norma'-s
thankless task, seeing that these airs Of
Rossini and Bellini are good enough for
most people in their original form. But
it is his pride to see his name on pro
gramme in company with these great
ones, and so he works away at his Airs
from William Tell, arranged (derangedD
by N, bandmaster of the Forty-sec-
ond Light Foot" Just as every English
chemist has composed a special tooth
powder, every French bandmaster has
composed an arrangement of William
Tell"
Here comes the colonel on horseback.
He looks sad and careworn. No Won
der, exclaims Jules Noriac, three thou
sand men to manage, and the variations
on civilian Tell to hear every day a.
dinner.
1 pass over the lieutenant colonel and
the chief of squadron to have the plea
sure of introducing to you a few subal-
terms, the nOn-commissioned officers, and
the French Tommy Atkins, who is called
''PitOu" by his compatriots.
The married officer keeps to himself,
and does his best to keep his wife at
home. French susceptibilities, in bar
racks especially, are soon wounded, and
he wants to avoid the possibility of quar-
rels that might arise from the dear
ladies tattle. He does wool work in his
spare moments, and looks forward to the
time when he will be able to retire CD
his pension. He is peace loving man.
In the army matrimony is the grave of
glory.
The serious officer is the one who looks
for promotion. He is soldier by pro
fession and by vocation. He studies
tactics and military history, and prac-
tees fencing, shooting at targets, swim
ming and all athletic sports. He has the
campaigns of Napoleon at his fingers
ends. You will always see him porting
over maps. He studies geography and
the German language He is of opinion
that when the French can all speak Ger
man, the Prussians will have a hard
time.
The officer of fortune is the one who
has not got any-and runs into debt
Give him a wide berth: he is the bulIy
of the regiment, very quick to take Of
tense, and Overticklish on the point of
honor.
The officer who has risen from the
ranks is very popular with the soldiers,
whose wants he knows much better than
do the young ieutenants fresh from the
military school. His messmates say che
is not a gentleman" He is, however, 8
good soldier and trusty, straightfor-
ward man. 1t is true that his manners
are not refined. He can speak very fair
French, but prefers bad language, and
can swear for a quarter of an hour with
out using the same oath twice.
remember. during the Franco-Prus-
sian war, happened to be quartered for
a day in an aristocratic household in
Lorraine with lieutenant of this type.
Trembling at the thought of my worthy g.
friends unruly member, l seated myself
at our hosts dinner table. All went well
until the conversation unluckily fell
upon military marches, when the lady
of the house wanted to know whether
the feet did not suffer very much with