The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-08-03
SEA SOLDIERS.
The Marine Is an Incongruous
Element Aboard Ship.
If He Is an Officer, However,
He Is Rather Lucky.

"Iell that to the marines" is
phrase of the forecastlc rather than
J the ward room. 1t seldom happens
that the marine corps is represented
aboard ship by more than one officer,
aud i'll some of the smaller ships there
Is none. The marine officer on ship
board is a member of the staff, and he
has his bunk and his seat at the table
along with the paymaster, tue sur
geon, and the engineer officers in the
ward room. He is not esteemed es-
pecially green, and being neither
"greaser," like the engineer, nor
civilian, like the surgeon and the pay
master, but military person, some
what out of place, to be sure, he is
viewed by the line with perhaps less
of1icia! prejudice than the other MEM
bers of the staff As often as not he
receives the complimentary title of
Major from his shipmates while yet
he is merely Lieutenant and officially
addressed as 'tMister."
There are less than seventy-fve ma
rine officers on the active list of the navy
and only few over one hundred ac-
tive and retired. A marine officer is a
lucky fellow from the naval point of
view. He enters the navy at S1400
year, and he receives after time
longevity pay that may amount to
forty per cent. of his current annual
pay. He has little to do at sea, and
he has great deal of shore duty,
usually at agreeable stations, The
Colonel-Commandant of marines has
been thirty-fve years IN the service,
and has had shore duty of more than
twenty five years of that time. The
officers of the general staff have had
from seven to thirty-seveu years of
shore duty, end from four to twelve
years of sea service.
The marine is soldier and not sailor,
and as such he is marked out from his
fellows aboard ship. This is more
strikingly true of the marine private
than of the marine officer. The
superior charm of the nautical to the
military dress is strongly brought out
upon the deck of an American man.
of-war when sailors and marines are
seen side by side The stiffness of the
military cap and the forma!ity of the
military jacket seem to intensity the
coarse or dull features, while the
grace, ease, aud beauty of the whole
sailor costume soften rough outlines
and refine even coarse features. The
ordinary observer seeing the sailor
and the marine side by side would say
that the former was chosen from
better educated and more refined
portion of the community than the
latter.
AS matter of fact. however. the
marine is, perhaps, the more knowing
mqn of the two ashore. When a
sailor enters the ward room on an er-
rand, a rare occurrence, his appear
ance takes nothing from the harmony
of the scene. lie comes hat in hand,
and his whole makeup fits into his
surroundings. When the marine
clanks in however, with cap on the
side of his head and arms in his hands,
he seems to bring with him an incon-
gruous element, a note of dlscord.
Standing OH the quarter deck i'll his
capacity of Captains orderly, he seems
mere intruding landsman. On the
guu deck among the men he seems a
stranger and an interloper. 1t would
seem little short of sacrilege for a
marine to essay sailors hornpipe. -
New York SIM