Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14

en- masse. 1t was humiliating to the verge
of shamefulness to be subject to The will O
not one but a hundred masters. We fel
the wrong, the injustice of our treatment
but We could do nothing.
The drills were severe and, as we were a.
| yet unused to exertion, tired US very much
yet life in camp would have been none toe
hard if 1t had not been for the fact that We
were "plebes."
Doing Drudgery for Upper Class Men.
One can never forget the tingling of shame
that came over him when first he Welded tc
his fears and did the menial work of an
| upper class mau. 1t would be something in
this wise: The 'tplebe" would come back
| TO camp tired, hot and dusty from the drill.
Someone would call him and he would
answer If his reply were not couched in
terms sufficiently humble he would get o
sharp rebuke along with some such order as
''Step into that tent and pile my bedding.
Step out!''
The ''plebe" would obey always, but he
would have a hurt feeling and he would
have learned lesson that appealed to some
thing brutal within him. If there were
much latent cruelty in his makeup that
lesson would not be lost, but would repeat
itself on the plains of the Dakotas or along
the Rio Grande perhaps when that ''plebe'
had come himself to command men and to
be able to give selfshness full swing.
We drew water for other men, we made
their beds and swept floors not our own.
We were clumsy and needed all the time
We had for our own equipment. We were
expected to be much more precise than the
upper class men. For dirty guns or badly
adjusted belts officers of the guard and cadet
captains reported US without mercy. But
often we were kept SO busy at cleaning
other mems equipments that we had no
time for our own. The upper class man
would appear at inspection with brasses
polished like mirrors byssome "plebe, "who
would himself be e1plosively rebuked and
reported TOR the tarnished appearance of his
own.
They Didn't Care for Discipline.
We we're not allowed to have any soldier
ly pride. If we went on guard we found
that We could not make our posts respected
Members of the third and first classes would
come on our beats and take away our rifles
officers and corperals of the guard en-
couraged this demoralizing practice by tax
ing part in it themselves, although they
must have known that sentry duty is the
most important function of the private SOL
dier, and that to induce its neglect is ruin
ously to damage discipline.
1t used to be common for upper class men
to punish "plebes" by compelling them to
do ''choo-choo." an exercise SO called from
the fact that it was intended to represent
the motion of an engine. The ''plebe" had
to lie down on his back and paw the ar
with his hands and feet at the same time.
making sort of putting sound with his vo-
cal organs. This punishment inflicted
great fatigue and sometimes pain, and it
was looked fpon as extremely degrading.
though not SO degrading as some other tor
ments.
Now, our particular fourth class man was
sent one night with an insulting message
from one upper class man to another Very
reluctantly he reported at the tent desie-
mated and said his say. Immediately the
third class man grew indignant and ordered
him TO "do Thousand choo-choo.'
Settled by Ring Fight.
This meant that he should continue the
motion while 200 was being counted rather
slowly. Now it happened that s'choc-cboo
tor some physical reason, hurt our classmate
exceedingly. He therefore asked that he
might be allowed TO do some other kind of
penance, but the old cadet was obdurate.