Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-25

wv United States? And
| that of these nearly eco are officers Of the
| line, and the rest are officers Of the staff!
These 1, 400 officers include several corps
and one of the most important of these is
a small corps composed of exactly ninety
six men, and known as the pay corps. 1t
is its duty to manage the finances and
commissariet of the whole naval establish
ment both afloat and ashore. Its members
are officers of the staff. and the staff, as
the public doubtless knows. includes tbe-
sides the pay cCrps) the surgeons, the en-
Eineers, the chaDlains, the professors of
mathematics and the constructors of the
navy The rem aiming three-fifths Of the
commissioned officers OF the navy COM
pose the line officers whose grades run all
the way from ensign TO rear admiral.
Admission to the Pay Corps.
To get into the pay corps a candidate
must be a man-that is, he must be TWEEN
ty-oEe years old; but he must not have
rassed the settled age Of twenty-slx. Our
lawgivers long ago decided that any age
beyond this was too late for a man to
learn to lurch in his walk or to hitch his
trousers easily. The men who enter the
lay corps are old enough to be sure of
their minds. and not too old to be
adaptable to the pecuiiarities OF the life
appointment to it are considered very
fortunate by their fellow officers, for the
POSITION is one which carries great respon-
sbility with it. and commands that con-
sderation which always attaches to i'm
rortant duty in the navy. Pay officers, or
payInasters, as they are generally called,
are not required TO be graduates OF the
Naval Academy. and the appOlnteeS select
ed must simply be young men of good
character. good education and good health
"a combination that as not as easy to ind
as might suppose.
The lowest grade Of the pay corps is
known as that of assistant paynnaStar, of
which there are ten. The appointment to
this grade is made by 1ahe President. by
and with the advice Lof the Senate, and
appoin tmantS are made whenever a va
cancy occurs account of the retirement
by age or the death or dismissal of some
officer of the corps. In 50 small d corps
any one of these events is rare. and some
times there are only one two appoint
ments in year. t.i-
ReIuireni ents.
To give an idea how greatly priced is the
position Of a payrnaster in the navy ii is
only necessary to state that there are
sometimes over enc hundred apple ants be-
sieging the Secretary Of the Navy and the
President for the right to fill a single va
cancy. But before any enc Of them can
nave that right he must have proved his
| claim by submitting to an examination by
tai and moral auaiifioa tons and also by
allowing three naval surgeons to make an
exhaustive examination into his physical
health. A candidate must also be citiz.
of the United States. The men tai exam
ination is one which is aimed to prove the
high general education and intelligence of
the candidate. The young men who seek
admission to the corps are sometimes col
lege graduates, sometimes Naval Academy
graduates, sometimes neither. They include
young business men or professional men
who may have started in a career on shore.
but who have discovered that their interest
in it is only half-hearted, and that their
instincts lead them to the sea. The old
Anglo-SaXon trait Of love of the sea, ac-
CURED through centuries, breaks out in
them and causes them TO Spurn an exist
ence of desk and ledger n dingy back Of
| flee. Their eyes water for big horizon
and blue fields Of waves. Such are the
workings of the sea fever in the veins of
orderly and humdrun young men, and be-
fore their parents know it a bookkeeper or
young lawyer is turned into rover and
a paymaster.
Promotions.
After passing through the grade of as
sistant paymaster the grade of passed as
sistant paymaster is reached. then that of
simple paymaster then pay inspector. then
pay director, and finally there is one officer
With the title of paymaster general of the
navy. This last position is by special ap-
pointment of the President from the corps.
In general, with his advancement to each
grade pay officer is assigned to duty in
Volying increased responsibilities. Promo
ton to each successive grade is dependent
on the occurrence of a vacancy in a high
er grade, and every promotion must be
justified by a mental, moral and physical
examination. just required on first
entering the corps. Thus paymaster has
it always before him that a relaxation in
any one of these requisites may cause his
retirement from active service or possibly
his dismissal from the navy.
Respon ST biIfties.
The paymasters of the navy are not only
paymasters, pure and simple. but they are
also commissaries, and sometimes quarter
masters. On board of a man-of-war the
pay officer not only has custody of the gov
ernment's funds. but also of all the pro-
visions and clothing, and the small stores"
of the entire ships crew. Not single con-
tract or ships bill Of any kind can be en-
tered into. or paid, except through his
agency, and the pay of every officer and
man on board is attended to by him alone.
The expenditures of ships vary so-aceord-
ing to their size and complement of men
that it Is hard to fix proper average. but
a small ship usually spends from 5000 to
$4,000 month, and a large one may go as
high as from $4,000 to $4,000 month.
A paymaster on duty at a navy yard,
where he has to keep the accounts of sll
the operatives, may have over million
dollars pass through his hands in the
course of year. All the myriad ships
supplies and equipments which are amassed
IN the huge storehouses of navy yards are
also put in the charge of pay officers, who
are held responsible for their safekeeping.
An idea may be formed Of the Importance
OF the office OF paymaster general of the
navy when 1t Is stated that under his man
agement the complete expense of the Amer
lcan navy is carried on and syStematized
and that this gfeat task involves an an
nual expenditure of from thirty to forty
millions of dollars. These are large figures
ana they show that the ability and the in
tegrity requisite to deal with them must be
commensurate with them.
Duties at Sea.
On board of a man-of-war there is rarely
more than one paymaster. AS the head of
the pay department on the ship. he is call
ed on to send many written returns to
Washington. Indeed, he is always writing
or figuring, and he is not required to stand
watch, as line officers are. In a company
Of fighters his duties are comparatively
peaceful, and his pen is almost as mighty
as his sword. However, in time Of battle
his small division, which consists of his
clerk, his yeoman and sailor, known as
the jack-of-the-dust, may be stationed
wherever the captain deems best; and II
one looks back into the record OF the pay