Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1893-07-20
UNCLE SANS SOLDIERS.
Their Lot Cannot Be Said to Be c
Happy One
Fsvcriti.n Mt Washington sadly Democrat
Ises the Army a Complaint Pre-
ferred by omeerx and Men
Freatisr Post Duty.

"I do not see why any boy or young
man with any ambition for tho future
should enlist in either the army or
navy in time Of peace" said a dis
tinguished officer at the war depart
ment to-day.
"It seems 10 me hat no career could
be chosen with less prospect Of reward
for diligence, intelligence and capa-
bility. OF course / could not say these
things publicly. for we have hard
enough time keeping our ranks full
noy., and I ought not TO discourage
cnlistments. As a matter Of fact. how
ever, our regular army is composed
mainly Of foreigners. many of them
not uaturalized."
why l. the service dis~tssteful?"
Let me give you an example OF my
experience. My company is sta
toned AZ an isolated post away out
on the Upper Mississippi. whctc it is
likely To remain for many years, unless
called out by some emergency. There
i a m~addening monotony in the life
we lead which il relieved but once a
year when the government supplies
are sci to rs. used to wonder why
country people would stand out on
their front door steps, or in their front
yards, to look at railroad trains pass
by; but understand it now. appre-
ciate the loneliness and monotony Of
farm life ven better than folks on the
farms. The passing railroad trains,
although they all look very much alike.
em~I = ~-Ns.r. 49,. ---s--
into the Same family faces all the year
round. and talking to the same neigh
bors from day to day. But the farmer
Is not lonely compared with the sol
der on 4 frontier post. I have seen
the day, man a time, when the pass
ing of n freight train or a cattle train,
once n week. would have furnished
new gossip for Us and relieved the ter
ribie sameness of camp life. We would
have travelled twenty or thirty miles,
willingly, just to see a train rush by.
You cannot understand what home
sickness is until you have lived such a
life for six months or more. But when
you think of living hat way for a year,
or two years, or on up to twenty years
you can possibly have 4 better idea of
how dreadful and unhappy Il life it is. -
Twenty years is an exaggcration,
isn't it,
NO, il is not. Gen. Crook spent
twenty years in the service without OBJ
tang a single leave of absence. OF
course that IS an exceptional case. |
never heard Of any other officer who
served that long without leave; but /
mention twenty years as the time linn
it \ man maj serve on frontier posts
and lead the most depressing sort OF
existence for from six months to TWEEN
~ years; and yet he is expected to be
happy all the time because he is serv-
ing his country. l tell you there is nc
fun in it,
My friends conversation was so un-
usual and 50 interesting that 7 pressed
him to tell me more of army life.
@ curse an officer can get leave OF
absence he continued. "but he is not
entitled to II. know of officers who
have married in haste to repent a,
leisure; married solely to have some
com~paniOnship on the frontier; mar
ried, only to find afterwards tina,
there was ineompatability between
husband and wife. Then the poor
girl was doomed to n terrible life. more
terrible. because there are very few
women ut the army posts, and theiI
stock Of gossip soon runs out. Ever
when husband and wife are well
mated the life n woman leads is one o.
almost diurnal misery; for woman is
particularly Il social creature, and a.