Evening star., 1898-06-04
A Tedious Process.


| discharge, and he achieves his seventh sum-
| mary court-martiai in the space OF some
| thing bit under or above six months.
| Then. upon his final break-out, he is given
| a general court-martial, no matter how
| minor the nature of his offense. and bob
| tailed 1t does not require much knowl-
| edge of American military life to perceive
| that this is a somewhat arduous and pain
| full process. especially when consideration
| Is given 10 the fact that during each and
| ali OF mis- various incarceratons in the
| guard house the bob-iail worker is com
| PEELED at the point of a sentrys bayonet,
| TO work frcm fatigue call at graz dawn
| OF morning to recall late IN the afternoon
| like a dray mule. Nevertheless. there was
| always at least one man in every TWO or
three companies in a post whose general
/ line of conduct made ii plain to his bunkies
! that he was working for a bob-tail. II Is
| not to be supposed that the officers did
rot dppr@h md this fact themselVes Often.
too, they made the bOb-taii workers path
| as thorny possible by giving him unusa-
ally heavy sentences with each one OF his
| summary courts-martial. The b0b-tan
| worker always had to contemplate besides
the possibility ot his getting a six months
| sentence along with his dishonorable dis
| charge by general court-martial.
| by the Plug Route.
Recruits in the army whose ideal of
| solderirg was painted before their taxing
| On, in colors altogether too rosy, and who
| found the genuine article of soldering
vtry different from what they conceived
| it to be before donning their first suit of
government straigh;s, had a way of GET
| tlrg out of the army by what is known n
'he outht as the pug route" They wouhi
pretend to be utter dolts. They could
| learn nothing. The simplest movement in
| drill could not be drummed into their APP
parently thick skulls. They could do moth
ing right. were forever on the lag per-
| peiualiy in the way. slouchy, shambling.
| incapable, imbecle. This is harder game
! han
| bright Men have tried it, and failed dis
nally. for the simple reason that they
positively could not fierce themselves TO
act like no-accounts. The enlisted man
Who carries the pug manner about with
him is regarded suspiciously by the officers
who are familiar with recruits endeavoTs
| to slip out of uniform via the plug route
| and If man forgets himself for a moment
and eNhlblts uncor ScIous aptness IN drill
| or at any one of his tasks under the eyes
| of one of these suspicious officers, his
| chances of working his scheme are not
only exploded but he stands a heavy sho w
! of getting himself court-martlaled for in
different soldering The man who does
! the job skillfully, however and really sue
/ ceeds IN making it plain that he will never
amount to a row of beans A soldier. is
| let out without honor after he has thor
| oughly exhibited his p,uggishness There
are not many men who get out this way,
! however. Like the maingerer. the assum-
| ed plug is almost bound to make "A slip in
| the acting of his part If a man really
| knows anything about soldering he has
| the very greatest difficulty in covering his
| knowledge up from the pen-Ira tion of
shrewd officers or non-commissioned oili-
| GERS.
| He Knew Too Much
The writer has observed some funny in
stances of this. For example. few years
| ago man enlisted for the navy on board
che of the receiving ships. He had been
eishoncrably discharged from the army be-
| fore he entered the navy, and therefore he
| cid not, of course, tell the naval recruiting
| officer that he had ever scidiered. On the
/ day after this man donned his bluejacket
! uniform he was sent from the receiving
! snip TO the navy yard with battalion of
raw landsmen to be instructed in infantry
! Crlll by an old marine sergeant, the drill
master of the receiving ship.
The Gisfonorably discharged soldier in the
| blueJacket uniform-who knew his danger
| OF being hauled up for fraudulent enlist
ment IN the navy if he gave himself
| away in drili-tried desperately to be the
| thickeSt-headed man in his battalion in
| the way he handled himself and his gun
| 1t wouldn't do. The old marine drill-mas;er
| got his eye on him. He gave an impossible
| order. which all of the other men in the
battalion, except the ex-soldier tried
mIndedly declined to attempt to execute
| the impossible order-such orders being
| often given in drill in the army TO try OUT
| skilled men-and the old marine drill-mas-
| ter nailed him. He didn't say ANYTHING
aloud about it, not caring to get the ex-
solder in trouble, but he Slipped up behind
him and said My lad, you've been with
the dough-boyS." The soldier seeing that
his little game was up, then jumped in and
did a bit of drilling with his raw battalion
that opened the mems eyes, but the drill
master did rot give him away.
Working Moribund Relatives.
Bluejackets in the United States navy
have also always had various well-con-
trived and frequently successful schemes to
work themselves over the side without
being put to the necessity of jumping ship
or purchasing their discharges Malinger-
ing, of many different sorts, is of course
commonly employed, but naval surgeons
of these latter years are too shrewd for
any but the most scientific bluejackets in
the maiineerinS business, and more un-
usual methods have to be worked up. The
bluejacket on home station who wants
terribly to get ashore for good and all
makes the dying relative plan go through
once in a while, especially if he does not
amount to much aboard ship. He springs
a plaintive tale Of a slowly passing relative
of whom he is the single and solitary sup
port and comfort, and backs UP the mar
rative with numerous appealing letters
and kilograms dates and places all correct,
and with no sign on them of having been
carefully gotten up by pal at the other
end of the line. The skipper looks over
this mass of corroboratiye- data, and gives
the man his discharge doesn't, accord
ing as his lights inform him that the blue
jacket at the mast is a truthful tar a
liar of the most ingenious character. The
skipper has a way of informing himself
on these matters that bluejackets occa-
sionally figure on with little prescience.
Moreover, the commanding officer once in
a while catches the bluejacket working the
dying relative scheme by asking the tar
if furlough wouldn't do him as well. The
tar anxious to get out of the service for
good and all, shows his anxiety too openly
by saying that the furlough wouldn't do at
ALL and when asked why, he traps himself
in his efforts to explain why.
Getting Beached.
The naval bluejacket doesn't call it
working for bobtan." He calls his ef
forts to get out of the service an attempt
to get himself "beached." A dishonorably-
dischs rged man is called in the navy Il
'beached mali, and sailors we'll SOL
diers try on the worthless dodge to get
quit of their service. They never go ashore
that they do not return rum-incapable:
never figure at quarters that they do not
appear out of uniform slovenly; never
mix in a general drill that they do not fall
over themselves; smoke deck out of
hours, shirk duty, growl constantly, the
monotone of their complaints being pitch
ed to reach the ears of the officer of the