Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-09-04

behlnd Dy ms shlp Ii 1t makes but .z brief stay in port. The navy does :, make the effort to recover ifs dos nof CTS that the army previously maaa less the ship should. be short-banaea's,7 e',7 It's officers do not care to have on 1tu sI;s beard men who would prefer to
 ashore. Life on shipboard is 9oo sarily so intimate that the nresas of disaffected and restless ma doubly undesirable. It was this cl.. that, in the old days, caused mnfias At one time, noslonger ago than Isas the number of deserters from n army reached the very considerahis figure of 200 q month. With the oreas ly increased force at present matis. up the army, it is doubtful if the 6oans is one-fourth soiarge.
 There are other methods besido ,,. serting which are sometimes resortaa to by soldiers and sailors to whom Bfa in the army an6 navy has become irl some. Tn the army these methods as. known as paying out" or discharoe bg purchase; "by order, which means br order from the secretary of wax. working for a bobtail," j" or a disbon. orable discharge, and the "plug route rl
 Discharge by purchase is now ms sible both in the army and navy. al soldier or sailor who has a clearrecora may secure discharge by this meth. od; provided the country is not at war
 But this is an expensive means of se. curing release, and difficult and full ofI delays unless the soldier seeking the discharge has powerful friends atl Washington. The longer the soldier has served the less the cost of his dis. charge. The rewly enlisted man. ot coarse. pays the largest sum.
 The discharge .by order" has inrari. ably to be obtained through influence It comes directly from the pen of the secretary of war-or the secretary of the navy, as the case may be. Very few of these orders are issued, but f the applicant has friends at Washing. ton he is sometimes able to secure the arrival at the post of formal note 1 tlaa ISStNuS- Sliiii DV diS- charged from he service, without honor, upon the receipt of this order by the commanding officer of the post"
 Working for bobtail" or dishonor. able discharge may be pursued by sev. eral methods. The unwritten law of , the army is that a soldier who has been seven times eourt-martialed for petty offenses is liable to a general eourt-martial and a dishonorable dis ! charge for the eighth offense. It requires a nice discrimination on the part of the soldier to get into the guardhouse q sufficient number of times without overshooting his mark and landing in the military prison. Drunkenness. 9verstaying leave of ab- sence, carelesshess in dress, etc, are the devices usually resorted to by the man who wants "bobtaii."
 The "plug route" though fraught with many difficulties when it is pur- sued under the wary eye of q strict off cer, is easy to explain to tie nnin- itiated. The soldier desiring discharge simply acts the dolt and dullard, fail ing to understand the simplest order and generally giving all the trouble he can through an assumption Of atteF incapability to perform his duties In this way he seeks 10 tire cut the pa tience of his superiors, who are soon clad +o ba 1.idl of him
 Sailors have their own methods Of obtaining similar results. To be set ashore with dishonorable discharge is called being "beached" in the yer racHlar of the navy. It IS needless to say that few desirable men either "work for a bobtail," follow the plug route," or seek to be ''beached. .