The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-07


row. He made a mess of the whole
matter For making the muss they
blame him; not for treating Hammond
barbarously or as an ordinary man
would characterize the treatment. They
hold to the Spartan idea; it isn't wrong
to kick and stab a private, but it is
wrong to do it in such a manner as to
create newspaper notoriety.
Army officers are quoted in the news
papers, not about this specific case, but
on the general subject of the treatment
given enlisted men. A colonel, who
would not permit his name to be used,
says: Anything in the shape of strik-
ing a soldier as a customary means of
/ punishment is not recognized in the
army of any civilized power" 1t GER
/ tainly is not recognized in our army,
and never has been. In the years i'm
mediately succeeding the rebellion,
when the ranks of the army contained
| a considerable residuum of bummerS
! and bounty jumpers, and when there
was often q. necessity of checking nlu-
tinous conduct in isolated attachments
in the Indian country where the ma
chinery Of military law was not always
at hand, harsh measures were some
times needed, but all this has been
changed"
The officer naturally ascribes the re-
form to the actions of the officers them
selves. Writers on sociological topics
say reform movements start from be-
low and go up, never from above TO go
downward in the various strata of So
ciety. The officer calls attention to the
! fact that in Great Britain's army,
Tommy Atkins, for punishment. has
frequently to undergo pack drill
I Tommy carries a knapsack full of
bricks. The officer adds that such a
punishment was never known in our
army
The colonel has a bad memory or he
is kin to Baron Munchausen. Pack
drills were comparatively common,
even in his own time, and it is even
now sometimes imposed by militia Of
ficers. When a soldier undergoes a
knapsack drill he has another soldier
back of him ito see to it that the burden
is not lightened for a minute. Recent
ly promoted captains are more ant TO
impose this punishment than the Older
ones. And more than one captain has
beer called down" by a superior of
ffcer for such harsh treatment of a
private.
Many a soldier of the rebellion still
bears his officer a grudge for indignity
inflicted by way of punishment. In
the good old days when the volunteers
made the army of the United States a
great fighting machine, there were all
kinds of punishmenes for the same Of
Tense. Each officer selected the kind
of punishment he thought most ef-
fective. Physical suffering was Thought
the best curative for back talk, y
drunkenness, absence without leave
INSTRUMENTATION, sitting while on
guard, gambling and leaving the guard
beat without relief.
The cavalryman found guilty of some
| infraction of the rules was punished by
2 being compelled to take his saddle anG
accountrements packed on his back fol
a day at a time. An infantrymar
: would have grinned at the lightness
of such punishment, but cavalrymar
! found it hard enough. He was not ac-
: customed to carrying a knapsack.
The bad artilleryman was dashed tx
the spare wheel that is carried or
5 every caisson in a battery. There was
| no rest for his head which he coult
not permit to hang down without dan
L ger of strangling himself That is real