The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-26
THE NAVAL YEOMAN.
He Is a StoreI<eeper and Ranks As a
Petty Omcer.

From the Philadelphia Times.
A yeoman in the navy is in reality a
store clerk. The rank is that of first
class petty officer, and the man wh0sholds
it has charge of all the stores and material
used in the equipment of the vessel on
which he serves The yeoman keeps
set of books showing the receipts and ex-
penditures of stores and is required 10
make a weekly return to the executive
officer and a quarterly return to the navy
department at Washington, which the
executive officer signs and becomes re-
sponsible for. Like all the higher grades
of petty officers yeomen are divided INTO
classes. These are chief yeomen, and
yeomen of the first, second and third
classes, with the pay graded accordingly.
On a large vessel of war, the engineers
department has a yeoman in addition TO
the yeoman of the ship, to look after the
stores of that department. and the pay
master is also entitled to a yeoman who
has charge of the provisions and clothing.
This informs our friend what a yeoman
is in Uncle Sans service, but 1t does not
tell why he should be thus characterized.
1t is not very difficult to trace the
origin of the appellation In its original
sense the9erm yeOman describes the gen
teman attendant in a royal or noble
household, ranking between a sergeant
and groom. For instance, there was
yeoman of the crown; a yeOman usher;
yeoman of lower grades known as yeomen
of. the chamber and yeoman OF the ward
robe. butler was termed a yeoman for
the month. In other words, the term
was characteristic of one holding subor-
dinate position as an assistant or attend
ant upon some one nigh in authority.
The term, however, has other meanings.
In bills of indictment found by the grand
jury in this commonwealth to-day the
term yeoman is frequently used. In this
application il has reference under the old
English law TO d freebooter, one who owns
a small landed property. Later, how
ever, the term became to be applied IN a
more homely and simple sense to those
who gave strength and support to the
English armies, and one of yeoman's rank
was looked upon as one of a body of re-
tainers doing the service of a vassal. In
modern times the yeomanry consisted of
a volunteer cavalry force made up in
great part of gentlemen or wealthy far
mers and under what is known as the yeo-
many act of 1904 they are obliged TO I'M
dergo six days of training, and must at
tend certain number of drills a year, for
which they receive a money allowance.
They must furnish their own horses but
have a small allowance of clothing-the
government also supplying arms and am
munition. Unlike the ordinary volunteer
force the yeomanry cavalry may be called
out TO aid the civil power, in addition to
being liable for service on invasion of the
country by a foreign enemy" Few of
you there are who have not heard of ''yeo-
man of the guard" as applied 10 the body
guard of the English sovereign, and more
properly known as the "beef-eaters." They
get the latter title by reason of the fact
that they used to watch the buffet and
consequently We're called in Norman
French "buffettiers," which freely trans
lated means waters at the side board"
and hence the corruption "beef-eaters."
From all this you CLEAN the general idea
that yeoman is a valuable assistant, and
hence the use of the old time appenation
in the United States Navy in the manner
which has been explained to you, and
which the narrator CLEANED from one who
has occupied that position