People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-07-28
UNCLE SANS SOLDIERS.
Their Lot Cannot Be Said to Be a
Happy One.
Favoritism at Washington Sadly Democrat
lies the Army A Complaint Pre-
ferred by Officers and Men
Frontier Post Duty.
Especial Washington letter.

do not see why any boy or young
man with any ambition for the 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.
at seems to me that 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
now, and ought not to discourage
enlistments. As matter of fact, how
ever, our regular army is composed
mainly Of foreigners, many of them
not naturalized."
"Why is the service distasteful?"
LET me give you an example of my
own experience. My company is sta
toned at an isolated post away out
on the Upper Mississippi, where it is
likely to remain for many years, unless
called out by some emergency. There
is maddening monotony in the life
we lead which is relieved but once a
year when the government supplies
are sent to us. 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. Iappre-
ciate the loneliness and monotony of
farm life even better than folks on the
farms. The passing railroad trains,
although they all look very much alike,
tend to relieve the monotony of gazing
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 a frontier post. ! have seen
the day, many time, when the pass
ing of freight train or cattle train,
once week. would have furnished
new gossip for us and relieved the ter
rible sameness of camp life. We would
have travelled twenty or thirty miles,
willingly, just to see 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 that way for a year,
or two years, or on up to twenty years
you can possibly have a better idea of
how dreadful and unhappy a life it is. 3"
Twenty years is an exaggeration,
isn't ito"
No, it 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
1t. A man may serve on frontier posts
and lead the most depressing sort of
existence for from six months to TWEEN
ty years; and yet he is expected to be
happy all the time because he is serv-
ing his country. tell you there is no
fun in it."
My friends conversation was so un.
usual and so interesting that | pressed
him to tell me more of army life.
"Of course an officer can get leave of
absence" he continued, but he is not
entitled to it. know OF officers who
have married in haste to repent at
leisure; married solely to have some
companionship on the frontier; mar
ried, only to find afterwards that
there was incompatability between
husband and wife. Then the poor
girl was doomed to terrible life, more
terrible, because there are very few
women at the army posts, and their
stock of gossip soon runs out Even
when husband and wife are well
mated the life woman leads is one of
almost diurnal misery; for woman is
particularly social creature, and at