Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-11-05
EASY BERTHS OF THE ARMY
Posts that officers Like and Some that
They Detest,
STAR ASSIGNMENTS IN THE EAST
joys of Army Lifc at New work.. Fort
Monroe, Fort MScr ana the
prrsiGio-DrSuintcW West
crn Posts,

Tho autumnal shifting of regular army
troops has begun. The shal,c-up this year
is unexpectedly thorough ana comprehon-
! sive and the joys and gricfs OF the officers
involved in the transfers are correspond
| ingly great fact visible even to the naked
| eye of him who has the merest eXoteric
! knowledge of the heights OF happiness and
the depths of despair which this inevitable
annually recurring shifting season produces
in the bosoms Of United States army officers.
Few private citizens possess knowledge
so exact and appreciative Of the points
| of difference between New York and ART
IONA California and Idaho, the District Of
Columbia and Wyoming, as the men with
! the shoulder straps, says the New York
| Sun. Acquired chiefly through experience
| by the older officers in the service, and
through hearsay by the young fellows fresh
! from West Point. this tremendous fund of
| information as to the relative advantages
| of existence in all parts of the country is
| of no merely superficial character, based
| upon such negative and unconvinCing de-
tails as climatic conditions and natural
surroundings, but is founded upon the suf-
ferings in exile and zest in eventual recall
| of army officers. The private citizen and
| the army officer may differ in minor details
of their respective viewpoints as to the in
| habitableness of certain sections of the
United States, but upon essential matters
! their judgment will generally be found to
| diverge very slightly. 1t is not likely, for
I instance, that an insurance agent with New
| York headquarters would hail with any
| great degree of delight order from the
president of his company transferring him
to some spot on the Mojave Desert or the
sagebrush plains of western Nebraska.
The whole career of an army officer is com
| posed of such heartrendng shifts, which,
officially. they for the most part endure uu-
complainngly. But many moan they
| make at mess.
Artilerymen. especially those assigned to
the heavy, or stationary batteries have the
best of their brothers in the other branches
of arms In the matter of choice assign
ments. The soldering Of the officer In the
heavy artillery branch Of the United States
| service is in truth of the supremest kid
gloved order. and the wonder is not great
that the lads at West Point struggle so
hard for honors in order to gain the chance
to enter It. The majority of the heavy arsil-
lery posts are situated in or near the large
cities on both coasts. and the isolation of
frontier soldering, which is the common LOT
of the Cavalryman and infantryman, or. as
the enlisted men put il. the "saber sinners"
and the dough boys" forms scarcely any
part of the existence of the officers whose
cape Innings are red.
THREE EANORlI les.
There Is a fairly even division of opinion
among the artillery officers as to the respec-
tive merits of New York harbor Fort Mon
roe in Virginia, and the Preside OF San
Francisco for their line of soldering the
posts named being always first choice The
artilleTymen devoted to the chain of posts
in the vicinity of New York are generally
men with money and club tastes equal to
the task of dispoSing of It. As a regiment
OF artillery is usually kept within one mill
tary department for from eight to ten years
There being only five regiments of artil-
lery all told and therefore less occasion
for the frequent exercise of the interchang
ing SYSTEM. the officer attached to a bat
terry stationed at one of the New York har-
Dor posts becomes pretty Intimately aC-
quainted with his own especial chair and his
own particular table at his club. He is eX
reedingy likely to develop into a first
nighter at the theaters, and not frequently
becomes one of the dancing men at the
cotillons. He is apt to become so completely
in touch with the sights and sounds OF New
| York after his decade OF existence within
a few miles of it that the universe ordinarily
seems blank enough to him when the bomb
shell IL exploded at the mess table that his
regiment has received orders to move, or
that he himself is to be transferred to an
other regiment. The only thing likely to
mitigate the dismay of an artilleryman thus
cruelty wrenched from his favoritc New
York is an order to proceed either to Fort
Monroe or to the Presidio.
A STAR ASSIGNMENT.
The Joy of the army officers lot at Fort
Monroe is pretty well known to the thou
sands of people who make it a point of
spending a week or at the Hyglea
Chamberin's during the in-between Old
Point Comfort season. Perhaps in no single
military post in the country is the army
officer with the red stripes on his trousers
more in evidence than at Fort Monroe. Old
Point Comfort is the congregating place i'm
| Wi " southern pppDlp who
have spent the summer at the Virginia
! Springs, and during the balmier months of
spring the walks around the have-been inn
pregnablc ramparts, pierced for out-ot-date
ffteen-nch smooth-bores and mu2zle -load-
ing converted eight-inch rifles are thronged
every day with pretty girls from the south
land four or five of whom, usually nieces,
constitute as a rule the suite of an invalid
aunt in quest for health. There Is not much
! "in bar heave" drill going on within the
confines of the ramparts of Fort Monroe
during this season, but there Is truly
wonderful amount of dancing and merr:
making from high noon to gray dawn. The
young civilian, no matter how great his dis
tinCtion or ample his purse, has never yet
been seen who has attained unusual popu-
| larty among the girls who fit through the
Fort Monroe season, but the attractiveness
of a combination of red and gilt when it
serves for the ornamentatiOn of a Strapping
! youth with a swagger and a military title,
I is a matter of common observation. The
young artillerymen fortunate enough to
catch a period of service at Fort Monroe
are not nfrequently equally fortunate in
marrying wealthy and otherwise well
equipped wives, which is not among the
! minor reasons why artilerymen consider
Fort Monroe an exceedingly desirable post.
And then Norfolk, town neither dead nor
| sleeping, in social sense, lies only few
miles across Hampton Roads; Baltimore,
dull only from the business point of view,
is only few hours ride up Chesapeake
! bay, and more than all, the night boat
from Fort Monroe lands the yoyager in
Washington at sunrise Last, but not least
the New York-hungry artilleryman may
get a few days leave and journey from
Fort Monroe to Manhattan island in baga-
telle of eight hours
The Preside of san Francisco Is another
! oasis for artilleTymen. Besides being the
most beautiful military post in the United
States. bar none, it is departmental and
regimental headquarters and the army Off
Ger Is as big factor in San Francisco
ciety az the naval officer is in Bar Harbor
society The Preside Is an artillery and
cavalry post combined, but the artillery
branch predomlnates, and the colonel OF the
| artillery regiment Is always In command,
| While us a residence city, San Francisco Is
almost as undesirable as Chicago, it offers
to the army officer (Gnd the harbor Of san
Francisco is thckly clustered with military
posts Of all the arms field for social ex-
| tgnh ia in