The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-20
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
HOW HE IeIPREssEs AN ENGLTsHMAN
USED TO OTHER ARMIES.
Neither Officers Nor Men Ornamental,
but They Command the Visitors
Admiration and Respect.
ampa Letter in London Mail.

AiStAtOlAOA. AS my lIlSUu, the nSutS4ldAbf
says:
Uncle Sam don't keep any soldiers for
parlor ornaments. He has his army get out
in the woodward and hustle for their hash
good
My friend the lieutenant is, personally, by
no means decorative. He did not shave this
morning; I rather fancy that he did not
shave yesterday. He has a grizzling mus
tache, for he is, / should say, forty years of
age; his face is tanned not with the new
surface brown tan of the Florida sun, but
tanned three inches deep with time and all
kinds Of weather. He wears his black
braided uniform coat-the thin shoulder
strap with the single bar, which denotes his
rank, is the only touch of millinery about
him-unbuttoned. showing his colored cot
ton shirt. His SLOUGH felt hat, denied in at
the top and pinched in at the sides, hangs
on the back protuberance of his head, so
that it's wide circle of prim forms frame
for his jolly. round, clean-shaven face.
He is not decorative by any means, but he
is six feet tall. Els coat, built by some
prairie post tailor. wrinkles over his back
and chest but his back is like the side of
house, and under the wrinkles there is
chest like hogshead Of Burton beer. His
brown canvas leggings do not fit him very
well, but that is because his calves are too
big for any reasonable size of Logging. No;
he is certainly not good sample of the or
namental army officer, but he is a perfect
picture of health. and strength and vigor,
and condition. When he moves it is with
the easy, graceful freedom of the athlete
When he rests there is the athletes easy
grace in his attitude. If he is not orna-
mental he is impressivey picturesque. and
if were Spaniard. or two, or even half
dozen Spaniards fancy should be anxl-
Gus to keep out of his way. ,
He received his military training at the
West Point Military Academy. He mas
learned his trade in twenty years APP
premiership out West fighting Indians and
which is just as difficult-keeping Indians
from lighting. He has distinguished himself
dozen times, does not know the meaning or
fear. hardly knows the meaning of fatigue;
is as simple. and honest, and truthful, ana
modest as he is tall, and straight, ana
strong, and brave. and is lieutenant sttll,
after twenty years service, not because ne
has not deserved promotion, but because IN
this democratic land they are SO fearful OF
promotion going by favor that tney fto man of
seniority.
TWO GENERALS.
The stout, solid-lookirg, elderly gentleman
in straw hat, who, in his severely plain
blue uniform looks like metropolitan po-
lice superintendent, is the general-General
Wade. The other placid. stout, solid, elderly
gentleman, who also looks like metropoli-
tan police superintendent. is the other gen.
eral-General Shafter. They are not gilt
tering ornaments; but General WADE is
known throughout the army as a Fighter
from Bloodville" and General Shafter,
| though he occupies much of the space
! in his rocking chair, has been famous ever
since the war for the vigor and dash of his
| lighting methods. The tall, spare gray,
| elderly man, who keeps cigar wasging be-
tween his teeth all the. while he is talking,
| is a colonel. Except for his riding boots
| and the straps across his shoulders, and the
| yellow stripe down the seam of his trousers
| leg, he looks like gas-meter inspector; but
he is as hard as a wire rope, and is, they
say, the very perfection of a cavalry officer.
The men who stand or sit about in groups,
looking like oVergroWn school board men,
are all off1cers-majors, and captains and
lieutenants. You could not describe them as
snowy; but they all stand like athletes, and
they all have the easy, confident style of the
man who knows his business and who knows
that he knows it.
/ The rank and file would not fetch fancy
prices as works of art. You may see hun
dreds of them walking about on the wooden
platform sidewalks of the little town. They
wear brown, laced leggings, like their Off
GERS, rough blue serge trousers, generally
the worse for wear, loose serge shirts of a
shade darker blue and soft felt. broad
brimmed gray SLOUGH hats with a narrow
pinched-up fore and aft dent in the crown.
They remind you of the men who do the
rough work in circus-hard-faced men
WIFI square Jaws ana proving eyes. IneY
smoke necessarily, there is reason to sus-
pect that they chew a good deal, in con-
versation they necessarily invoke a holy
name, and every time they invoke it they
spit But their average height is five feet
eight inches or five feet nine inches, and
every man looks like an athlete Afoot they
go with great swinging strides mounted
they sit in their saddles as if they had been
born there Physically, they are as fine SOL
diers as one could wish to see. Every man
It's like this, says my lieutenant, I'VE
don't keep any big army. but what we got
gets big money; SO we only want the best,
and we can afford to be very 'choosy' in
our recruiting. And when a good man joins
the outfit he lives good, and is fed good,
and is paid good and the life can't help
make good man of him. Why, some of
them have stopped with the outfit through
half a dozen re-enlistments."
Many of the men have never seen a big
town for years. They have been stationed
in small posts out in the remote West and
North, living the hard, healthy lives of dis
ing, in the saddle always. 1t is years since
any regiment has been gathered together as
the regiments are gathered here. The ma
ture of the army's ordinary duties demands
that the regiments should be split up into
small detachments stationed hundreds of
miles apart. One is curious to see how
men who have been accustomed only to act
individually or in small bodies will behave
now that. for the first time, they are called
upon TO hight In large combinations.
THEIR DISCIPLINE.
And what of their discipline? These great
big, athletic officers, you say to yourself, and
these great, big athletes of the rank and
file, are all very we'll NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
fellows-but what of them collectively?
Isn't their discipline rather lax? Each man
you notice seems to wear his hat at any
angle which suits his fancy, or fits in with
his comfort. AS they go about town each
man seems to walk with the stride which
suits his habit, and the accommodation of
! his own legs. The drill sergeant does not
| seem to have accomplished his customary
| uniformity. Each man-and to the Euro
| pean eye 1t seems so strange as to be all
| most 1udicrouS-each man seems actually
| Every man seems to retain, as well as his
| individuality, his own intelligence That TO
| the European view seems almost horrible.
| How, you wonder, can an officer exercise
| complete command over an aggregation of
| separate individuals? What he wants as
you have always known for certain. is a
| number of men reduced by long pressure
/ into a condition in which they will do just
| as they are told exactly as they have been
! taught to do 1t.
| i questioned my lieutenant upon this
| point. why, my boy" said he, that's just
| it-intelligence. The American soldier has
| more intelligence than any soldier in the
! world, just because he is expected to have
| gosIing, because he don't have 10. He don't
! have to learn any parlor tTi ks like that nor
| to dress himself up in parlor clothes, be-
| cause he don't have any kings and emperors
| to come and amuse themselves looking at
| him. But he's expected to be intelligent be-