The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-20
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER.

Harpey'8 Weekly comes to the defense
of the American soldier. If we are to en-
courage men in the army to deserve, and
those not in it to enter the ranks, we
should by judicious praise give credit
fully to the soldier, and not measure him,
as our contemporary well remarks, by
the ''bucking faro'' and drinking strong
liquor'' standards.
The American soldier has not been
found wanting. Suppose it to be true
that in barrack and post dull life he is at
Zines conquered by temptation and led
into foolish improvidence and weak hab-
its. A few such should not tone our
Judgment of the whole force. When it
comes to testing the soldierIy mettle, the
American enlisted man has honored his
uniform, even if it be conceded that too
large percentage of desertion furnishes it,
Latterly, with pay reserved as a stimuIant
20 saving; broad opportunities to rise
from the ranks; leave to buy out enlist
ment, and other beneficent provisions of
me law, the desertion record is growing
much less men of still better stamp
are entering the service, and the ambition
to deserve commentator and promotion
is greatly stimulated, and, of course, with
marked good results.
The American soldier as a class is not
an ideal knight; he is not held up as a
model Of culture aQd refinement, nor yet
as an exempIar in morals, though it is
probably true that there is no larger pro-
portion of weak and unclean men in the
army than in most other professions.
The Weekly is disposed to look at the
American soldier from the standpoint of
his worthiest deeds, and we concur in its
judgment. For it is TO this same soldier
that we look for, and in him we find,
courage and endurance, patience and un-
complaining on the hot trails of savages,
on the suffocating plains of deserts, and
in the alkah stretches of Great Basin desc
iateness. We admire his resolution and
content at distant posts in severest win
ters of the north and the seorching heat
of the southwest. He is every inch the
soldier in barren wastes doing duty as the
picket guard of civilization, or when he
gives his life freely to the assaults of say
ages, that the national decree may be en-
forced upon warlike tribes. AS Harper's
puts it:
When you are sent out with him in the dead
OF winter over twenty inches of snow. your
equipments and supplies on bob-sleds, he it is
that dismounts time ana again without
3nurmur. pushing, TO help the mules up hill
ana repacking the overturned sled q dozen
Times in a day; then, after it all, digging his
mole 10 the snow, and putting up his tent at
might, ali the time joking with mis- "Bunkie,u
s4na ready as ever TO steal q wisp of hay or q
handful of oats for his shivering horse He It
IS thst jumped into a boiling hot spring TO
rave The NE OF the daughter of private citi-
sen--a deed for which The citizen. VINO was a
Itch man, proffered the astonishing sum of
50. and the Government the gold medal of
II honor; lie that took fat-bottomed boat
out in a heavy sea in New York harbor to res
cue drowning boy; that lost his life for his
served q field gun through an action. with a
bullet in his leg, to hold position.
We venture the assertion that. take
him all IN all, the American soldier is as
brave, clean, devoted, respectful of his
outy and as loyal to his trust as the arms
bearers of any other nation, excepting
none, and is the superior in intelligence,
wit, manliness and heroism to the sol
diery Of many other nations.
Let us not despise the man who serves
his country for the pittance we pay; it is
not true, as many assert, that man
worth anything will not become hire
ling for Sl3 month; that the fellow who
cannot do better is he who usually enters
the army; that it is only the ne'er-do-wen
who is found in the ranks of the regu-
lars, and that our American soldier is
poor makeshift for hero.
All such sneering talk-quite too COM
mon sounds very brave and wise, but it
is baseless. The regular forces of the
American Government have not only not
disgraced it by the cringing of the hire
ling or the weakness of the shiftless;
there is not a line of record to their dis
credit, save here and there where some