Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-02
LESS FREQUENT NOW
Comparatively Few Deserters From
Uncle Sans Service.
md THESE ARE MAINLY RECRUITS
Little Effort is Ever Made to Ap-
prehend Them.
HOW THEY GO ABOUT II


Written for The Evening Star.
short time ago cable dispatch from
Madrid announced that about dozen blue
jackets had deserted from an American
E,sn-of-war anchored in the harbor Of Lis
bon. The growing lack of humor of the
Latin stuck out in the concluding para
graph Of the dispatch.
IAN Of the deserters were Span.ards," 1t
read. This is interesting as showing that,
after all. there are occasions upon which
Spaniard does know how to seize the
proper time for disappearing, even IL he is
deficient in the nerve and elasticity OF spir-
it to bob up serenely.
Desertions from the United States navy
are becoming more and more uncommon
every year. 1t is likely that the statistics
Of assertions from the naval service for Inc
present year will be proportionateiy smaller
than they have ever been at any time since
the foundation OF this government. No-ac-
count soldiers and sailors of the American
land and sea forces Jump the outfit or
go over the side" in time of peace in about
the same ratio as uniformed men The world
over; but even the no-accounts stick to
thelr guns when the flag they serve unoer
Is Denaced. The man whose conscience
would not greatly disturb him IL he yoiun-
tarily shuffied off his uniform and quit
when white-wiEged peace lowered over rne
nation does heap of thinking before ne
takes French leave from either of our sery-
ices in the face of impending war; 1t is
decidedly not an American characteristic
to desert in the face of a foreign enemy.
CommOncst Among Recruits.
Desertions from the United States navy
are commonest among recruits. Under or
dirary circumstances. when the country Is
mixed up in no international considerations.
1t is an exceedingly difficult matter to get a
crew for new American vessel of war or
even for one that is being newly commits
stoned. There can be only a scattering of
oid-timers, who have been on the guard
os,' or receiving ships waiting for assign
ments in such a crew; SO the greater por-
ton of the ships company must necessarily
be composed of recruits. These recruits
are In many cases young fellows who have
enlisted without any realization Of the dis
comforts and hardships to which man-o'-
wars men are subjected, and who quickly
become dissatisfied when the realization
comes home to them. Their first experience
at coaIng ship, which is the hardest kind
or work for all hands, often puts a quietus
ID their ambition for life on the ocean
wave. Although this is not likely to be the
case with the United States warships just
recommissioned or about to be recommls-
stoned, there have been swarms of desert
ers from every new ship that is coaled for
the first time by these crews, mostly made
up or recruits. 1t Is an experience which
the commanders of all new warships have
to figure on. Two or three crews have
often to be sent to new vessel before she
is sufficiently manned to go to sea- SO great
is the number of assertions.
Not Fit for the Service.
For the past ten years the Navy De-
partment has made hardly any effort to
apprehend deserters. The principle in the
navy is that men who Jump Ship are
not fit for the service, and, therefore, not
worth hunting for. 1t is principle tina.
in some cases is in error, but these cases
are exceptional. A reward of $40 is paid
by the commanding officer of a warshi;,
for the capture of deserter but this re-
ward is seldom claimed in home ports In
ports on foreign stations however, il is
different. In every port in the world,
even in China and Japan, the special Off
GERS ashore know of the reward paid by
American commanders for deserters and
they are interchangeable in their efforts to
lay hold of escaping bluejackets and ma
riEes. AS in the army a man may be
absent from his post for ten days before
he is officially declared deserter, so it
is In the navy. The sailor and the sea
soldier must have ten days leeway before
the capital ID" is written after their names
on the ships muster rolls. 1t very often
happens, however, when a man-of-war is
short-handed in foreign port, by reason
handing officer will offer the reward of
$40 for the return of men aboard who are
merely overstaying their shore leave. The
commanding officer hardly ever fails in
such cases TO get them. In deserving on a
foreign station the man-o'-war's man is
thoroughly aware of the danger of remain
ing in the port of the harbor in which
his ship lies, and he starts out with the
determination of Immediately striking out
up country, for his only safety from cap
ture lies in the interior. Almost invariably
however he accumulates a load of saki
or meSoal or some other barbarous COM
pound of the country he happens to be
in, and he doesn't get far before he is
taken. To gendarne at Genoa, for in
stance, $40 in American gold is a consid-
cradle sum, as it is also to the poorly paid
chaps who police majority of foreign
ports. For simply carrying a drunken
sailorman or soldier off to the gang
way of a man-o'-war in a shore boat it is
money easily earned-that is, if the victim
is drunk enough to be helpless. Otherwise,
it occasionally happens that the ports
whole constabulary has to be brought into
action to get determined fighting man
aboard.
Give Themselves Up.
A very large majority of the men who
are now serving time for desertion at the
army garrison prisons and at the naval
prisons at Boston and Mare Island, Cal,
voluntarily surrendered themselves. De-
serters get hungry. as do other persons,
and they also get cold. When they are
suffering from combination of the two
Ills. and are friendless and unable to get
work, they are exceedingly apt to draw
comparisons in their minds between their
present woefui condition and the compare
tive comfort and cheer even of military and
naval prisons. and thus they gradually
work themselves up to the point of sur
rendering. They are not taken by the hand
and greeted enthusiastically when they do
this. Deserters from the navy generally
give themselves up on the "guardos." They
are regarded with unconcealed disgust by
the officers OF the deck to whom they pre-
sent themselves, as we'll as by all the en-
listed men who happen 10 be around. 1t
has happened that deck officers to whom
deserters have announced themselves on re-
ceiving ships have had them forcibly fired
ever the side by the master-at-arms, rather
than engage In the job Of hunting up rec
ords and undergoing all the rest of the
worry incident to the surrendering Of de-
serters. This. of course. is strictly forbid