Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15
Go Together in Salt Lake as They Do
in the Land of Bengal.
THE WOMEN AREN'T BEAUTIFUL
And Perhaps the Injunction Of the Church
Gets Them Husbands.
DISCUSSION OF OUR CONCERTINA ARMY
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.I
Letter No. 6.

dAter lin VINO can LellI
1t has just occurred to me with great force
that delightful as these letters NAV be to
myself-on the same principle that made the
commercial traveller frolic lonely among his
samples-their length and breadth and
depth may be just the least little bit in the
world wearlsome to you. / will compress
myself vigorously. though 1 should like
very much to deliver a dissertation on the
American army aud the possibilities of its
extension. You see it is such a beautiful
little army and the dear people don't quite
understand what to do with it. The theory
is that it is an instructionalinucleus round
which the militia of the country will rally
and from which they will get a stiffening in
time of danger. Yet other people consider
that the army should be built like a pair Of
lazy tongs-on the principle of elasticity
and extension-so that in time OF need it
may fill up its skeleton battalions and empty
saddle troops. This is real wisdom because
the American army as at present constituted
is made I'D of: =
twenty-five regiments infantry, 10 COM
panies each.
Ten regiments cavalry. II companies each.
Five regiments artillery, II companies
each.
Now there is a notion in the air to reor-
ganize the service on these lines:
Eighteen regiments infantry at 4 bat
~talions, 4 companies each; third battalion,
skeleton; fourth on paper.
Eight regiment cavalry at 4 battalions, A
troops each; third battalion. skeleton; fourth
on paper.
Five regiments artillery at 4 battalions, 4
companies each; third battalion, skeleton;
fourth on paper.
Observe the beauty of this business. The
third battalion will have its officers but no
men; the fourth will probably have a rendez-
vous and some equipment. 1t is not con-
templated to give it anything more definite
at present. Assuming the regiments to be
made up to full complement, we get an army
OF 50 1000 men. which, after the need passes
away, must be cut down so per cent, to the
huge delight of the officers.
What the Army Is Needed For.
And the military needs of the States be
three; (a) Frontier warfare, an employ
ment we'll within the grip of the present
army of $4,000, and in the nature of things
growing less arduous year by year; OBJ in
ternaI riots and connections which rise up
like a dust devil. wbirl furiously and die
out long before the authorities at Washing
ton could begin to fill up even the third
skeleton battalions, much less hunt about
for material for the fourth; (c) civil war in
which, as in the case in the affair of the
North ana South. the regular army would
be swamped in the mass of militia and
armed volunteers that would turn the land
into a hell.
Yet the authorities persist in regarding an
external war as a thing to be seriously con-
sidered; and the power that would disem-
bark troops on Americal soil would be
capable of heaving a shovelful OF mud into
the Atlantic in the hope of filling it up.
Consequently the authorities are fascinated
with the idea of the sliding scale or con-
certina army. This is an hereditary in
stinct, for you know that when we English
have got together two companies, one ma
chine gun, a sick bullock, 40 generals and a
mass OF W. o. forms we say we possess IAN
army corps capable of indefinite extension"
The American army is a beautiful littls
army. Some day, when all the Indians are
happily dead or drunk, it ought to make the
finest scientific and survey corps that the
world has ever seen; it does excellent work
now, but there is this defect in its nature:
1t Is differed, as you know, from West
Point, but the mischief of it is that West
Point seems to be created for the purpose OF
spreading a general knowledge Of military
matters among the people. A boy goes MP
to that institution, gets his pass and returns
to civil life, so they tell me, with a danger
Gus knowledge that he is a sucking Won
Moltke and may apply his learning when
occasion offers.
His Opinion of West Pointers.
Given trouble, that man will be a nuisance,
because ne is a hideously versatile Ameri-
can to begin with, as cock sure of himself az
a man can be and with all the racial disre-
gard for human life to back linn through
any Observation-Disclosures generalship. In
a country where, as the records of the daily
papers show, men engage in a conflict with
police or jails are all too ready to adopt q
military formation and get heavily shot in q
sort of cheap, half instructed warfare in
stead Of being d~ecently scared by the ap-
pearance of the military, this sort of ar
rangement does not seem wise.
The bond between the States is of an
amazing tenuity. So long as they do not
absolutely march into the District of Colum-
bia, sit on the Washington statues and in.
vent q flag Of their own, they can Iegislate-
lynch, hunt negroes through swamps, dis
vorce, railroad ana rampage as much a.
ever they choose. They do not need knoul
edge of their own military strength to back
their genial lawlessness. That regular
army, which Il is a dear little army, should be
kept to itself. blooded on detachment duty,
turned into the paths of science and now and
again assembled at feasts Of Free Masons
and so forth.
It's too tiny to be a political power. The
immortal wreck of tine Grand Army of the
Republic is a political power of the largest
and most unblushing description. 1t ought
not to help TO lay the foundations OF an
amateur military power that is blind and
irresponsible.
Be thankful that the balance of the
lecture is suppressed and with it the ac-
count of a ''shIyeree" which L attended in
Livingstone City. The story Of the editor
and the sub-editor (and the latter was q pet
cougar or mountain lion), who used, they
said, skillfully to sub-edit disputants in the
Office of the Livingstone daily paper.
A Ride of Exquisite Torture. Z.
sOmitting a thousand matters of first in
portance let me pick up the, thread Of things
in a narrow gorge liue that took me down 70
Salt Lake. The run between Delhi and
Abmedabad on a May day would have been
hf<-. .. eLs. A& nLA--