Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-26

V1N outfits was a venture
of the last-resource
sort at best. Our uniformed ranks on land
and sea were filled with rough, reckless
homogeneous fellows and last-ditch
fighters, but difficult to curb impatient
OF discipline and contemptCous to de-
gree of better-fibered men not of their
own ilk. 1t happened not very many
years ago that a disconnected American
man-o'-war's crew, on edge over a fan
cied wrong inflicted by an ensign upon
a bluejacket, incontinently heaved all OF
the gun gear of the ship over the side
into the sea and then took their dose of
double irons as a whole ships company,
leaving the ship uEworked. Not more than
a decade ago it as no uncommon matter
for an unled battalion of registering from
tier soldiers of the United States regular
army to repair to the burg contiguous to
the garrison ana seek diversion in shoot
II & up the town. conventional bad-man
fashion. These things happen no more in
the American army AMI navy. There has
been strong infusion of a higher spirit
in both outfits within the past ten years
Personal pride and self-control are no
longer considered synonymical terms with
enlasculatiOn our enlisted ranks The
epoch of the bad man in uniform has pass
ed. The American private soldier of today
will fight hardly and as desperately as
fought the soldiers under Custer: the
American bluejacket of today will bid as
brazen a defiance to the roaring mouths of
projcctle-spitting guns mounted on foreign
| men-of-war as did the men forward whose
conduct in action made the ewes of Paul
Jones and of Decatur to sparkle. But the
enlisted men in both land ana sea forces
of this country now comprehend what the
dignity of uniform means. The Ameri-
can army and navy, as a result of this bet
ter comprehension on the part of the en-
listed men. are now notable among all the
land and sea outfits of the world for their
lack of rufiianism.
Earning II Commission.
A level-headed, fairly wel-educated young
man of moderately correct habits (Which
does not mean that he=s should belong to the
tribe of the long-eared and the truly good
has an admirable chance to make some
thing of himself in the United States army
1t is no such a colossal achievement now
adays fer clever young enlisted men of the
American army to acquire their Presidents
commission within three or four years af-
ter they take on If they behave them
selves-and now that the frontier has been
forced into the Pacific, and the Indians
have been practically rounded up, the man
who wears a mmissioned officers uni
OF comfort teven luxury and honor. OF
course. commissions from the ranks are on
~ Tor the fortunate-not as is quite COM
nonly believed, for the best backed bv
any means. There is many a. detour on
craggy roads for the young man who en-
tiers the army as a private with the purpose
IN his heart to win a commission; yet the
men who have Travelled those roads sue
cessfully look back after the Journey is
over ard marvel at the simplicity of it ALL
The plodder arrives" in the army just
as he does in civilian life. Within the past
i've years many "a young man who would
be esteemed unusually well endowed men,
tally and physically in private life has I'M
dertaken the struggle for a commission
from the ranks of the American army, and
been beaten In the climb by men not nearly
so well equipped by nature. but more amen
able to discipline, more studious, more com
! mon Observation-Disclosures. in brief About one
really brilliant enlisted soldier in five who
go in for commissions succeeds in land
ing" his sword-for the brilliant commits
sions-seekers are too often deficient in pa
thence, industry and correctness of habits.
aDd many of them have disastrous habit
or going to pieces In the stretch.
Almost Succeeded.
For example: Four years ago there
was young heavy artilleryman sta
tened at the Preside of San Fran
cisco who passed his examination for
commission at the top of the enlisted
mems class. His soldfery appearance mill
tary knowledge and general breadth of In
f rlnation won the admiration of the exam
lining officers at Fort Leavenworth. When
he returned from his examination at that
post to his duties sergeant at the Pre-
s:dio. he wore the candidates gold stripe
on his blouse sleeve, and was due to get his
commission soon as a vacancy made
room for him-the top enlisted man on the
waiting list. Then the young man en-
parked on gigantic spree in San Francis
co. When he turned up at the Preside,
week over his leave he not only suffered
the humiliation of having his candidates
gold stripe cut fir ,ra his sleeve, which meant
that there would never he commission in
the United States army for him, but he lost
his sergeants chevrons as well. On the
very day that this thing happened to him
the Newspaper dispatches announced that
his brother, cadet at Annapolis, had grad
uated from the Naval Academy with the
very first honorS. The busted" young ar
tilleryman was permitted to leave the
army, figure of remorseful youth.
1t is no simple matter nowadays to get
into the army. The time has gone by
when the man who has made a spectacular
fiZzle of civilian life could step into re-
cruiting Office. in tremor from the effects
OF his last debauch, and hop into the uni
form of a United States soldier. About one
In twenty-five applicants is now accepted.
About falf of the applicants are turned
down by the recruiting officers for a lack
of good account Of themselves previous
to their application for enlistment The
remainder of the rejected men fall down
on their physical examinations. 1t is 10
uncommon matter to see men of apparently
superb constitutions and huge strength re-
5ected out of hand at once by examining
surgeons attached to the recruiting offices
and these men ascertain for the first
time that there is something wrong with
their hearts or their lungs or some other
constituent portions of, their physical make
up.
VIII Get There.
Once in the uniform, of an American SOL
der the recruit wlio attends strictly to his
own business, and. above all. keeps stilr'
and throttles any atural tendency to gar
rulousness. is the recruit worth watching
for he will get there. Officers in the United
States army have habit of observing re-
cruits out Of the tail of the eye. officers
don't take fancies to talkative soldiers and
especially laxative recruits-for enc of the
latter is liable to develop into that I'M
speakable nuisance, the "barrack lawyer
Quiet, self-contained men are invariably
selected for the rank of non-commissioned
officers In our army. No matter how quick
clever recruit may be to catch on to the
intricate business of soldering, If he is
talker of the continuous performance va
rety there Is a hopeless wait for the chew
rons in store for him. The old soldiers
make a practice Of batting the recruits.
of endeavoring to draw them out. Of at
tempting to lead them into the relation of
their past histories and Of attempting to