The herald., 1898-08-07
OURMODERN CHAPLAlNS
THEIR REMARKABLE GOODNESS
AND COURAGE IN BATTLE
Strong and Brave, They Know How to
Fight as Well as Pray-The1r
Rank and Privileges

fused into everything that pertains 10
the art of war as well as peace, the old
chaplain, who knew only how to pray
and preach, was forced out of the line,
and now, except for an old one here and
there, already decrepit with years ana
near retiring, he has disappeared. His
place has been taken by younger man.
whose education includes the training
of the body as we'll as the mind. The re-
suit has been that the religious men or
our present army and navy are men OF
war as well as peace. When the 1nf1u-
ence exerted by the chapains over the
men in the ranks was formerly only OF a
religious nature, the chaplain OF the
present day depends more upon the nigh
est standard of physical as well as NOR
al courage He finds that 1t has an
effect which the old methods did not
have, and as result the world has never
seen such bravery as has been exhibited
time after time under the most trying
circumstances of the present war. Where
work was being done either on land or
sea, there the chaplain has been. The
old intrusion of religion has ceased, and
the men now find friend and an exam
pie in the man who was once feared
rather than loved.
The stories which have come up from
the land and sea fights about Cuba tell
how the chaplain, strong and brave, has
again and again placed himself in ex-
treme danger, needlessly, the old chap
lain would say, that the men behind the
guns or in the lines at a charge might
know that where one man did not rear
to go they need not fear to follow. AS
often as the ships of Admiral Simpsons
fleet off Santiago went into their bonn
bardments and engagements the chap
lains were sent below decks with the
surgeons, where tradition and naval reg
ula tions say they must remain. ITadi-
ton played as small part in the fighting
parsons conduct as did the regulations,
for wherever there was danger there he
was. One minute in the gun port, ex-
posed to the fire of small guns and burn
ing shells, the next behind gun where
q man has fallen, his shoulder against
the stock and his hand as steady as that
of the most experienced gunner. He
has learned in times of peace to shoot
the guns, and many an unfortunate
Spaniard owes a hard knock, perhaps
fatal blow, to the skill and determine
ton of Americas fighting chaplains.
Down in the magazine and on the lower
decks, where the men work In semi
darkness and awful heat, hearing the
thunder of the battle above and about
them, but never knowing until it is all
over what has gone on, the new chaplain
is as familiar a sight as on the quarter
deck. He knows how to handle pow
der, and doesn't care a jot whether his
clerical garb goes to make wadding or
stays on his back. He is a churchman
then, but he eXemplifies the church mill
tant rather than the church of peace.
American sailors and soldiers would
fight to the death anyway, chaplain or
no chaplain. but death has even less
terrors for them because of the chap
lain's efforts. His words of encourage
ment ring out clear above the din and
his voice goes to swell the shouts of the
men when a victory has been won.
In compensation for the arduous du-
ties of his calling. and in order that he
may have an official status among the
men, the chaplain receives a rank which
entities him to quarters with the Off
GERS of the ship, place at the officers
mess, and the privileges of the quarter
deck and the wardroom. After three
years in the service in which time he
ant, through letter from the secretary
of the navy, he becomes full lieutenant
and receives his commission, signed by
the president, with and by the authority
Of the senate. He is then regularly and
in fact line officer, and is promoted
as vacancies occur to the grades of COM
mander and captain. There his advance
ends. and when he has attained his last
promotion he is relieved from sea duty
and assigned to some one or another of
the naval stations on shore. Every navy
yard and naval hospital has a chaplain.
and whenever naval training ship is
stationed elsewhere than q a navy yard
one is assigned to it also. The chaplain
gets the full pay of the grade which he
| holds and Is in reality entitled to the
stripes and bars of the grade, but does
not wear the naval uniform, owing to
prohibtory naval regulation put into
| force a few years ago. His uniform now
is clerical frock coat of blue, trousers
of the same color and material and a
black felt hat similar in shape to the
hat of an army officer.
| AS great as are the hardships of the
chaplain atioat, he on shore has even
more of hardship, and when men are
falling on all sides. dead and dying only
a man of herculean strength of purpose
can accomplish even a fraction of the
| duties which fall to his lot. The soldier
on the land is never without his friend
and adviser, who Is an example as well,
and when there is fighting to be DONE he
forces the soldier, by the bravery he him
self displays, to follow until he drops
dead or fires the last gun.
The army chaplain, like his brother in
the navy, begins with the idea that what
any man can do he can do also, and that
it is his to lead and not to follow. When
he espoused the cause of the church his
! hands did not become too holy to take
up the gun and the sword. The weapons
/ became consecrated in his hands, and
the power that gave him the grace to
| live up to his belief also gave his eye its
! keenness and his aim its deadly truth.
! 1t has been a common occurrence all
! through the war for the soldiers and
1 sailors to leave word or mementO for
/ those at home with their chaplains be-
| fore going into battle.
| There is no law, save that of duty and
conscience, which says that the chap
| lain of infantry or artillery must share
| danger with his men. Yet he does it.
! And where there is bloodshed there he
is, ready to perform his priesty duties
whenever there is need, as we'll as to
assist others at theirs, be 1t In the smoke