Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-03-05


foot had made common cause against
him despite the fact that he was one Of
their most devoted admirers. When
Mrs. Lane again called to them to come
in and sit on the veranda, however, the
captain calmly took his two friends by
the elbows and steered them through
the gate. Another moment and the
ladies were settling back in their seats,
and the major had the floor.
Yes, Mrs. Lane, am crank, as my
good friend Mrs. Graves has doubtless
told you: have reason to be, and the
crank's wound up today Your husband
and Hearn here have been combating
my views about the desirability of the
army as a vocation, and l crave your
pardon, Miss Marshall for talking
shop
'.l'm deeply interested, Maj. Kenyon, /"
responded that young lady. $50 on,
beg Of you
Well, my views are founded on long
experience, and not the very pleasantest.
I say-and l say it after years of rehec-
tion--that the more man may love his
profession, the better 4 soldier he is, the
more jealous of the honor and reputa-
tion of his cloth, the less can he afford
/ to take a position in the army of the
United States. Why? Why. because
the great mass Of the people have no
\ conception whatever of the duties that
4 devolye upon us, of the life we lead, of
4 the trials we encounter.
''In time Of peace they think they have
no use whatever for an army, and de-
clare that we do nothing but loaf and
drink and gamble. They are taught to
think SO by the press Of our great cities,
and, never having chance to see the
truth for themselves, they accept the
views Of their journalists, who really
know no more about it than they do, but
do not hesitate to announce as fact what
exists only in their imagination. Ever
since the war these attacks in the papers
have gradually increased from year to
year. Now, my home is in Chicago,
and, naturally, read the Chicago pa
pers. I was five years tramping, scout
ing, skirmishing all through Arizona and
Wyoming, without ever seeing the inside
of city or even of a railway car. We
lived on hardtack and bacon and what
we could pick up when we couldn't get
them. We lost many good soldier in
Indian battle during that time, and at
last got wound that laid me up and
sent me home. | hadn't seen the place
in seven years My boyhood had been
spent there.
Dozens OF my relatives and old school
mates lived there, and I looked forward
with pleasure to the rest and JOY should
have at the old fresides. l didn't sup
pose that people really believed all the
outrageous filings The Times and The
News and The Sun and The Herald, let
alone The Trades Union Gazette and
The Arbeiter Zeitung, had indulged in
at the expense of the army But | had
to wear my uniform for three or four
days about the old home, and not only
street boys bat grown men, respectfully
dressed, jeered and hooted at the dress
that for years in the Confederate south
and all over the frontier had never been
treated with insult. Old schoolmates
patronizingly asked me over their card
tables at the clubs what on earth | could
find to do with myself in the army, and
why I didn't quit it and come in here
and try to be something. You know
perfectly well, Lane. that when you
were recruiting in Cincinnati you had
just such questions put TO you, and you
had been through one campaign after
another for years.
s'The general manager of the Midland
Pacific, every mile of whose road through
the Sioux country l and my men had
helped to build by standing off the In
dians day after day, and having many a
sharp fight doing it-this general man
ager, l say, met me at the Union League
and asked me how l had managed to
kill time on the frontier, and remarked
that it must be very demoralizing life.
He was out next day in circular cutting
down the wages Of some twenty thousand
employees 10 per cent, but thought the
rank and file of the army were treated
rather like dogs by their superiors. A
man. he said, must be at the lowest ebb
Of self respect to enlist in the army; as
though every one Of his army Of twenty
thousand hard working, hard shaving men
was not infinitely more at the mercy of
a single official than could ever happen
in the army Of the United States. My
own people, by Jovel were so impressed
by what they had been reading for years
in the papers of army life and army
officers that they were perpetually urg
ing me to quit the service and come in
and begin life over again at forty-five-
clerking or something.
'.Why, only ten years before their
homes had been rescued from the mob,
after police and militia had been whipped
to the winds, only by the prompt rush
Of the regulars from the frontier. Oh,
they ionized the shoulder strapped
autocracy' then, and for Just about one
week it wasn't fashionable for a decent
paper to lampoon them. but the moment
the danger was over their gratitude fed
with their anxiety. | tell you, the pa
pers that are sold for two and three
cents in our big cities have to pander to
the prejudices Of the masses to keep
alive, and there is no sIIrer way of tick
ling the palates of the populace than by
ridiculing OF abusing the army officers,
and in lending themselves to this the
editors of course influence the Judgment
of people of a much better class-the
great middle class, SO to speak, Of the
whole nation.
sit isn't at all SO where l come FROM"
interposed Hearn, promptly. AT home
all my linsfolk are proud Of my being
in the army.
"Ahl you're n southerner, Mr.. Hearn,
and your people are all Americans. All
through the north, however, we have an
immense foreign population that has
fed from the Old World to escape mill
tary duty. They hate the very sight of
a soldier. Three-fourths of the people
of some of our big cities are Of foreign
birth or parentage. The papers seek
their patronage, and in trucking to
them they prejudice northern Ameri-
cans against their own friends and rela-
tives who have been idiots enough to
become their defenders. 1t was bad
enough before the war, God knows, but
it's worse now. People wonder how it
was that it took the north, with 3,000,
900 soldiers, SO long to subdue the south
with less than a fourth that number.
Now see nothing to wonder at what
ever. The south has always respected
the profession Of arms; the north has al
WAYS derided it. Lee, with $4,000
Arnnricane at HIS hack and only go 000