The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-12-23

guard in good shape. Indeed, there
is an incentive for them to do all of
the buckle shining and rife barrel
cleaning that they labor over, for the
adiutant. in mounting the new guard,
selects the "cleanest" man-that is,
the soldier whose Uniform fits him
best, and whose acoouterments are of
the most dazzling glisten-to act as
orderly tor the commanding officer.
The orderly for the commanding Of
ficer simply follows that digni6ed gen.
tleman around during Office hours,
and does not, like the other men Of
the guard, have to walk his 'two hours
on and four off, post during the weary
length of twenty.four hours. He gets
the night in his bunk. The struggle
for the prize of orderly is a fierce con-
test between the men known as "or-
derly buckers," on account of the
frantic desperation with which they
begin days in advance of going on
guard to clean up in order to capture
the plum. Each battery has one or
two conspicuously successful "orderly
buckers," and when one of these goes
upon guard, pitted against the :'buck-
ers'' of the other batteries, all han ds
take tremendous interest in the out.
come of the battle of cleanliness, and,
around pay days, bets are often made
as to who is to be the winner
The whole battery will often help
to "work up" the kit-belt, cartridge
box and rife-of the "orderly buck.
err in whom it takes the most pride,
and when, after all these voluntary
efforts, their man loses, the adiutant
is pronounced "partial'' and "unfair."
The adjutant> is himself often at o loss
as to which man O. the guard to pick
for orderly, for it occasionally hap
pens thst several men are equally we'll
gotten up. In such cases, these few
best men are drilled for the prize. IT
this manner of selection only narrows
the thing down to two men, who de-
cline to obey wrong "trick" COM
mands given by the adjutsnt in drill.
ing them, and are both equally prof.
cient in the manual farms, then the
two draw straws for the orderly's
billet. -.
Meanwhile, by the time the guard
has been mounted, recall from fatigue
is sounded, in order to give the men
OF the working parties time to shift
their uniforms for drill with their re-
spective batteries.
It is lsborious drill that calls for
the donnin2 of the brown canvas
fatigue uniforms. There are also
separate days for Instrumentation"
learning the uses of the numerous in
struments employed in range.fnding,
"charting," gauging the strength Of
the wind and the density of the at
mosphere, etc. A soldier must possess
weH.developed scientific tempera-
ment, in order to enter understand
ingly into instrument drill"
''Cordage drill" is another bette noir
of artillerymen. Here is where the
soldier who has been to sea either as a
marine or bluejacket gets in his
strong work. ~.
"Cordage drill" is for the purpose
of teaching the men proficiency in the
tieing of the innumerable knots used
in the moving of pieces Of heavy and
siege ordnance. 1t looks simple
enough to see another man tie ''tim-
Der hitch,"a "6gure-of-eight knot, a
"sheep's shank" or a granny" butt
is not easy by a whole lot. The SOL
dier who has had experience as q
"deep-water man." however, regards
it as chiid'a play. All of the soldiers
of the heavy batteries are given an ex-
animation every year as to their
mastery of these various drills, and,
for respective degrees of proficiency,