Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-23
ARMORY ECHOES.
How Capt. Rider Runs the Light
Infantry.


Infantry.
He Tells the Second Regiment Officers
About It at SpringfieId-ot Items
of Interest for the Militia Men.
Militiamen all over the state are now
interested in the annual inspection, and
they have commenced preparation for
the ordeal. The information has been
sent out that armory inspections will be-
gin Feb. Is. and continue until May l.
Each company will be notified of the
visit Of the inspecting officer at least
one week in advance. Organizations
Will be paraded and equipped as for In
etant duty and ready for AS hours work
Col. James A. Frye Of the governors
staff has been detailed to inspect the
I'd regiment, which includes Co.'s A, G
and H of the local armory. Gen. Carter
will inspect the 9th, which includes Co.
G of the armory, and Battery B win be
inspected by Col. Wellington, who will
also inspect the cavalry and the rest of
the artillery of the service.
BY the time the inspections are held
the men will be equipped with the new
rifle recently adopted by the state.
These new arms win necessitate some
changes in the conditions OF the inspec-
tlons, as with the new rifle the bayo-
nets will not be used except in case Of
an emergency. Not even on guard duty
win the private affix the bayonet to his
gun.
Col e. P. Clark held a meeting of the
officers of the second regiment at
Springfield, Friday, which was attended
by all the officers from this city, in
cluding Col e. r. Shumway and Major
H. B. Fairbanks. Col. Clark gave an in
teresting informal talk upon the subject
Of sharpshooting and the award of the
tli-color prize, in which he took ground
in favor of the adoption of q different
system than the one now in vogue. The
new marksmen's decorations were dis
tributed among thefcompany command
ers, and will be distributed among the
companies this week. Each sharp
shooter will receive a solid silver medal,
bearing the coat of arms of the state.
The medal is small and Is pendant
from rife green ribbon in the center Of
which is the tri-color. In addition to
this, each sharpshooter will wear upon
the sleeve OF his blouse a gold thread
r1f1e on Helu OF reQ.
The medals for the first, second and
third class marBsmen are similar in
shape to the sharpshooters. They differ,
however, in the color of ribbon used,
and the material of the medal. In the
case of the first class, the medal is or
red enamel, backed with silver and. in
stead of the tri-color red is used. In the
second class, white enamel and white rib
bon are the designating features In
the third class, blue is the color used
in the enamel and ribbon. An interest,"
ing feature Of the gathering was a
paper on Chow 1 run my company" by
Capt. P L. Rider of the Worcester Light
Infantry which he prepared at the
order of Col. Clark. The paper was re-
ceived with many compliments from the
officers present. In it, Captain Rider
said, among other things:
"a company commander who looks to
the best interest of his company, the mi
litia and the state, will seek to enlist the
best material he can find. In my opin-
| ion, the arms of the military in this, and
/ of every other state, should be placed
| in the hands OF the very best people
| those who have no sympathy whatever
with lawlesSness, n1obs or disorder of
whatever sort; and when that time ar
rives, we will have a force. of militia
| that the state will be proud of and
can depend upon, and some Of those
young men whom we now find it i'm
possible, or at least hard to enlist will
be glad to become members.
After man has been voted into our
company, 1 take him in hand and tell
him the duty the state requires Of him.
lecture him upon discipline and mill
tary etiquette and various matters. In
fact, I paint .he picture q little darker
than 1t really is, just to try his ardor:
! Then I go and see his employer and
explain to him what is required, and if
/ he gives his consent, l have reason to
| believe that I shall have the man pres
ent on all state duty, unless some emer-
gency arises against which we cannot
guard l try to impress upon every
member of my company that he must
obey each and every military order that
he receives. promptly and without any
question, No member of my company
unless he were raw recruit, who
might have forgotten for the moment
his instructions, fails to shout "Atten-
tion" and come to the position Of sol
der and uncover whenever an officer
enters our company room, and no one
Of them, even the clerk whose duties are
in my office, fails to rap outside the Of
flee door and stand there uncovered un-
til he is hidden to enter, or states his
business when spoken TO, giving the sa-
lutte when addressing the officer and
upon leaving. This is not from fear, nor
simply because want them to do so,
but because they are taught that mill
tary etiquette demands that they pay
this Difference to a commissioned Off
GER who represents authority above
him.
All the money that is earned by our
company goes into the company treas
ury collect it all and pay it to the
clerk, who enters it upon cash book,
and then pays it to the treasurer. 1 do
this that there may be a double entry
of it, and one serves as a check upon
the other, and obviates, as far as pos
sible, any chance of questionable tran
saction In money matters that have
sometimes happened. We have never
believed however, in my company in
laying up a big treasury to be spent by
those who should come after US, but in
stead, have enjoyed it as we went along.
We Try to pay our bills promptly, and
establish our credit as good.
Quite an important element in our
revenue is the amount the company re-
ceives from its honorary members, who
are the prominent business men in the
city, many of whom are past members
Of the company, while many others are