The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-24


the officers will employ their servants
who are most commonly negroes. Of
iicers' servants and mess attendant:
constitute quite a large class of camp
followers, and ordinarily there are q
good many people who straggls along
in the wake of an army. looking for
employment. Under the regulations. an
officer is not permitted to compel an en-
listed man to do any sort of material
toll, such as cooking or washing AT
the same time the enlisted man is ct
liberty TO accept pay for such work
ficm an officer.
The army "canteen" has taken the
place of the old-time suffers store Of
/ ncers and men together subscribe the
money required for the establishment
OF the canteen, to pay for the stock in
| trade, etc. and after a certain reason
able percentage on the investment has
been paid back TO them, the balance of
the profit goes TO the soldiers. The
profits. chiefly derived from the sale of
peer; are very large. and they are an
pheu 10 the improvement of the condi-
ton OF the men, paying for various
| Injuries which make a welcome addi-
/ ton to their messes. Thus. for ex-
ample, they are enabled to have on
their tables butter and milk, which are
not furnished by the commissary. After
a while the original debt for the cam
II
men run it for themselves.
1t is natural that the war deDart-
ment should wish to do away with the
eXtortions which inevitably accompany
the sutler system. Hence the new de-
parture, which contemplates the fur
nishing of the soldiers, through the
canteens. with everything that the suit
lers used to sell. AT the same time
the sale of distilled liquors is rigidly
prohibited, on grounds that seem ra-
tional enough. The only drawback
about this prohibition is that men de-
prived of whisky by official order will
always try to get it by underhand
means. The consequence is that the
most abominable sort of stuff is smug-
sied INTO the camps, and the men turn
up drunk in squads. Aretired army Of
hcer was telling the writer yesterday
about the trouble he had at an army
post IN the far west, when the sale of
whisky within the post limits was for
hidden by an order from the war de-
partment- The soldiers used to sneak
away at night to certain Questionable
establishments that were set up in the
nelghborhood. called, in military par
lance, hog ranches, and many of them
were constantly unfit for duty The Of
nicer quoted, on his own responsibility
directed the post trader TO get a guam
tity of good whisky and sell it to the |
men at a reasonable price, the only re- |
striction being that no soldier should !
be permitted to get drunk. The result |
was that nobody did get drunk, and /
the hog ranches quickly went out of /
business.
In the neighborhood of a settled mil |
itary camp there are always unscrupu- |
louS persons who sell the rottenest kind |
OF whisky by the canteen. bottle or jug. J
There is no law to reach them, and II !
caught, they suffer no penalty beyond |
the confiscation of their stock n trade,
and perhaps a brief Imprisonment in
the guardhouse. Worse than these are
camp followers of another kind who
prey upon the soldiers. They are pro-
fessional gamblers-short-c card men.
provided with marked cards and some
times with small faro layOuts sOcca-
sionally they are fair gamblers e..
experts who rely simply on their super
Tor Skill In every regiment there are
enlisted men who are such excellent
card players as to be able to win large
sums of money from their comrades.
General Forsyth, the famous Indian
lighter. told your correspondent about
a man in his command who, after a
pay day-the troops having been paid
off for four months service-sent home
S2,OOo which he had won at poker fair
~. He won that amount inside of a
week.
1t is impossible to prevent soldiers
from gambling. They will do it in
q corner behind a blanket if no better
opportunity serves. The fact that a
man is fond of playing cards does not
initiate against his being a good SOL
der. The average enlisted man, when
payday comes and he has liquidated
his small debts, is uneasy until he gets
rid of his money. Many soldiers look
upon service in the army as a mere
fr,a~
put OF 1t as they can. They mean to :
quit at the close of the war, and they
do not expect to lay up anything. If !
any cash comes their way they are
to spend it for whatever is I
going. These same men, like Mark ,
rapley, come out strong under adverse 8
circumstances, and are apt to prove
themselves capital fighters on occa-
sion. :
On the other hand, some soldiers save
surprising amounts of money Pay
masters in the regular army are COM
oelled, if the men request it, to take 7
money from them on deposit. On such =
deposits the government pays per cent
Der annum. The question as to whether
volunteers during the present war are
% enjoy this privilege has not come
Up for decision as yet. In San Fran $
'lsco. few years ago, a sergeant ap c
Tegimental paymaster and 6
tstonished him by laying down $4,000
IN the pay table, asking that it be '
redited to him. The paymaster re- [
used, on the ground that he was OBJ S
ICED to take only the savings and
ordinary accommodations of the men [
The sergeant replied that the SIS, 900 a
represented his savings as an enlisted t
nan, inasmuch as he had bought a e
wharf lot ten years before and had S
ust sold it for the sum in question I
NE paymaster said that the govern I
nent could get all the money it wanted I
t per cent, and it ought not to be d
bliged to pay 4 per cent under such b
circumstances. The sergeant then re- d
used to take the money back, and the b
natter was referred to the attorney
eneral. who. decided in his favor. f
General Forsyth says that when he il
'as in command at Fort Huachuca, o
.rizona, there was an infantryman in o
is regiment who was a company tailor. p
lie had been in the service for 50 odd n
ears, and had saved his money He b
armed, outside of his pay, by mending
nd altering clothes for soldiers and Of &
GERS from S12 to 500 a month and was v
aputed to have a very large sum on p
sposit in California savings banks. d
eing questioned on the subject, he "
I'D General Forsyth that the amount G.
, his credit was $4,000. He began to il
ake deposits when he first enlisted, at o.
time when the savings banks on the &
acific coast we're paying ? per cent a NJ
cnth Interest. re
In India an army of three thousand il
four thousand native troops is ac- di
'mDanied customarily by anywhere &C