Evening star., 1898-06-04

" of ,,oo ;.Il,,.
either paying for them or waiting for their
terms of enlistment to run out, cannot be
put down Il telling OF tales out of
school that is liable to work harm to the
services. The soldier or sailor in the ser
vice of the United States could do, with
comparative impUnity. d lot of things last
year, or even up to April - of this year
mat he cannot do now without jcopardiz-
ing his neck The declaration of war
makes all the difference. Both the army
and navy books of regulations TEEN with
prescriptions of death, in time of war:
| in time of peace, such punishment as a
general court-martiai'' may dish out, for
serious military ofenses. In time of peace
the soldier gets, say. six months in the
guard house, and a restoration to dirty
lot oHenses that are now. when war ex-
lsts punishable by nothing short of death
1hree months ago a soldier or sailor
ptaricd or his service, could have Jumped
ms outht' ana, upon capture, his SEN
tehce would have amounted to from six
months TO two years imprisonmenf in a
| mihtary penitcntiary. Just now the SOL
olef VINO deserts is liable to get as his
last view of humankind, the sigh, of a
nrlng party of half dozen of his comrades
one OF Whom may OF may not have a blank
IN his gun, which, however makes no diff
ieience IN the inevitable result-before the
handkerchief is bound over his eyes More
over. sailors in the United States seryiee
are careful, those of them who get shore
hberty-and shore liberty is rare enough
IN Uncle Samueis line of fighting packets
JUST hoW-not 10 overstay their leaves 1t
| Is merely a custom, not a law that holds
nberty-breaking blueiacket to be no de-
serter until he has oyerstayed his shore
leave Tor the period of ten days Command
li.S olilcers may, at their discretion, in time
ot war, declare man forward deserter
IL ne remains ashore an hour after he is
| due back aboard his ship Shippers in our
service are not prone to be so hard upon
the blueJackets as their discretion in this
| matter permits them to be, but all the
same the bluejackets are not taking any
| cnahces, and, until the treaty of peace is
signed between the United States, party
Oh the nrst part, and what remains of
| Spain. they will be back on board their
| ships on time to the moment when their
| shore liberty is up.
Discharges by Purchase
Up 70 the declaration of war, the soldier
| or sailor here and there in our two SER
vices who found he had made mistake in
| getting into a goveI nment uniform. and
who wanted to get out of the service by
| any hook or crook short of deserving. had
various ready-made and often-w worked
schemes from which to choose Now an
enlisted man. when war is in progress,
! may puy his way out of either of This gov
| erhme1ts TWO military services iroyidin,
MS conduct up to the time he makes appli-
cation Tor discharge by purchase bas
| been good. But very few men get out of
| either the two services by purchase In
the frSt place, few men, badly as tfey wish
| TO resume the pleasures of civil life care
| to pay for that privilege which is a COSTLY
one dlfhcult of accomplishment except by
men who have well-fXed relations The
shortef the time man has been in his
service, The greater the amount of money ii
requires for him to secure his discharge bv
purchase. The discharge purchase rates
fi.,r,
who wants to get out serves in hi:, branch
IL dWindles to almost nothing when the
man term of enlistment is practically con-
Guided In the second place very few If
the mtn who want to get out coIIld MAKE
the dlscharge-by-purch plan stick. +"
even if they had ten times the amount of
money money relulrei. for the reason that. when
tney become lnwaidly clamorouS to shake
the dust of the service off of their heels
hine out of ten of them have committed
serious infractions of discipline, and done
thelr bits of time for the same which nuts
them out of the class of enlisted men
who, upon unvarying good conduct. are
given the privilege of purchasing their dis .
charges from the service
Leaving by Order.
Before the discharge e-by-purchase regula-
ton was made young men who found after
they entered one or other of our military
services, that they had no vocation
therefor, and who could muster the as
SiStdiiCe VI Biiiueitidi men, COntrlNed to
DON their uniforms through the scheme
known as by order'-by order that is of
the Secretary of War or the Secretary of
the Navy. The Secretaries of the two mill
fuse In the dishing out of these favors
and the enlisted mans people had to make
pretty hefty fight to get the order is
sued-a peremptory affair. requiring that
fantfy shall be discharged the service
without honor, upon the receipt of this or
der by the commanding officer of the post +"
Nevertheless. the enlisted men who had
people behind them always tried this
scheme first of all, and deferred ATTEMPT
ing the other plans for getting out of the
service until they ascertained if the "by
order plan went or not Even now,
when the discharge-by-pur regulation
is in operation. discharges by order are
| occasicnally-only very occasionally-is-
sued in cases where enlisted men have
heavy influence at their backs Fewer men
have secured their discharges in this way
since Secretary Alger became chief of the
war establishment than since the institu-
ton of the acknowledgements law At
the outset of his secretaryship Mr. Alger
declared against the practice with empha-
sis, stating that all of the enlisted men in
the army should have fair deal, but no
favor.
Working for a BObtaiI.
The ordinary. everyday soldier, mo
body in the sense of having no powerful
ed to get shut of the army had to
make his point by the tedious, difficult and
heart-breaking ordeal known among the
enlisted men as working for bobtail."
A bobtail Is a dishonorable discharge. The
man who went deliberately to work to get
a bobtail discharge had his pace cut out
for him, and he had to play it fine. The
skillful worker for a bobtail was the man
who eventually gained his bad discharge
with the shortest incarcerations In the
guardhouse. There was never any exact
law on the subject, but the unwritten law
Of the United States army, when peace
prevails. is that the soldier who gets
seven summary courts-martial for minor
offenses is eligible. upon his eighth infrac-
tion Of regulations. for general court-mar-
tial and a dishonorable discharge from the
service, with or without Imprisonment.
The soldiers understand this, and when a
man wants to get out Of his uniform very
badly he is willing to begin the whirl From
a fairly good or even an excellent soldier
he becomes an utterly worthless, reckless
no-acccunt soldier. Take, fer example, q
man who concludes, after he has served
six months in the army that he has haG
enough of 1t, but who doesn't want to de-
sert, out OF fear of capture. or because he
doesn't care to shoulder the disgrace of
deserting He goes on a payday Spree and
overstays his leave. For this he gets,
probably. summary court-martial and ten
dayS in the guard hOl.se He no sooner ic