Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-08-25
PASSING OF THE DRUM.

the United States Marine Corps writes
an article entitled 'The Last of the
Drums" for St. Nicholas. Lieuten-
ant Perkins says:
I think few know that of all the
time-honored equipments of war
which these days of military progress
have left us, the drum is the oldest;
but, like the sword and the bayonett,
the drum is fast disappearing. Its
companion, the fife, hallowed by ira
ditions of valor even in our own his
tory, from Lexington to Gettysburg,
is already gone, and another decade
will still forever the inspiriting marital
music of the drum.
What boy has not felt his pulses
thrill and his heart swell with patriotic
pride and martial ardor while gazing
upon the we'll known picture of the
Revolution, the 'Minute Men of rs"
forsaking the ploughshare and flying
tv take down the old fintlock at the
tocsin of war-the throbbing of the
drum and the shrill screaming of the
fife, sounded by two SCARED veterans,
bare-headed, white-haired, and in
their shirt-sleeves, marching through
fields and along the roads, calling the
patriots to arms.
Every New England schoolboy has
read the story of Abigail and Eliza
beth, the sisters of Newburyport, who
during the Revolution repelled alone
an attack of the British by beating
furiously an old drum and blowing
fife. The British troops, who were
about to land, hurried back to their
ships, thinking whole army lay in
ambush to repulse them!
Thus did fife and drum drive off
the enemy and save a town from pill
lage and ruin.
The military drum is supposed to
have been introduced in Europe by
the Moors and Saracens, during the
middle ages, and was quickly adopted
by armies. The drum of to-day differs
little, and in appearance only, from
the earliest form. 1t consists, as
every boy knows, of two pieces of
parchment, OF batter heads, stretched
over the ends of hollow cylinder and
struck with sticks. For ages this in
strument has been known among saw
ags tribes and barbaric nations, who
use its weird music to accompany their
religious rites, as we'll as for war pur-
poses.
The tom-tom of the Sioux Indian
is a good example of primitive
drum.
In civilized warfare the drum has
ever been connected with deeds of
martial valor, and its voice is dear to
the heart of the soldier who has fol-
lowed it's pulsing into the deadly fire
of battle, or even in reviews and
military parades, when rank upon
rank sweep up street keeping per-
feet alignment and step to the drums
inspiring beat.
It has found place in history
through the daring bravery of more
than one beardless boy who has
sounded at the critical moment the
pas de charge OF rally" just in time
TO turn the tide of battle.
Johnny Glenn, the drummer boy
of Shiloh" who beat the rally without
orders when his regiment had broken,
panic stricken, and thus helped to
save the day, was made an officer for
his heroism, and is now major in the
United States army.
In fable, song and story the drum
has even kept pace with the most
valiant deeds of men. Rudyard Kip
ling's pathetic little story of "The
Drums of the Fore and Aft, )" two
courageous drummer-boys who, at the
cost OF their own lives, led the charge
and saved the honor of their regiment
when routed by the Afghans, tells OF a
deed such as is to be found in history
as we'll as in fiction More than once
has the drum claimed place in the
front rank of storming hattalions, or
led desperate charges in the van OF
victorious army.
What wonder, then, that we look
sorrowfully into the future, when
battling will no longer be inspired by
the s'war- drums throb;" for we know
that the advance of military science,
with oil its death-dealing machine
guns, magazine-rifles, and its smoke
less powder, will surely sound the
kneli of the drum.