The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-05
ANACONDA NEWS.
ENL|STMENTS ARE SLOW
No Men Yet Secured for the
Volunteer Army.
MANY ARE TURNED AWAY
Either Fail to Come Up to the Physical
Requirements or Have Intemper-
ate Habits-Every Care Used
in Recruiting.
MANY ARE TURNED AWAY

So far Lieutenant Green, the recruit
ing officer in Anaconda for the Saith U.
S. volunteer infantry, has not accepted
any of the would-be recruits that have
pesented themselves. He is following
the regulations strictly and will not ac-
eept any men who fail to come up to
the requirements Here are the rea-
sons for the rejection of the first 10 who
presented themselves:
Under weight, two; defective eye
sight, three defective limb, one over
age. one; under age, one; drunken
ness, two.
- Yesterday study specimen of man.
hood who had plainly been loading up
on Dutch courage to enlist presented
himself. In the course of cross xami-
nation the recruiting officer asked:
DO you drink"
Yes" was the frank reply
"Often?"
AS often as I can get it," said the
man, with a grin.
We don't want you" said the lieu
tenant. I'VE don't want any one in the
army who will drink whenever he can
get it,"
This is something about which the
army is very strict. Once recruiting
officers winked at drinking, for it was
considered an inalienable right pos
sessed by all soldiers to fill their skins
full of spirituous or malt liquors on all
possible occasions. Now all is changed.
A drinking man, it has been found is
more prone to fall a victim to disease
and to be less able to Withstand hard
ships than one who is sober The army
does not desire to be encountered by
sick men, and so demands a perfect
physique and temperate habits of all its
recruits. There is no sentiment about
it, but a cold blooded rule of action
learned by hard experience.
Men who have been drinking or are
at all under the influence of liquor are
never enlisted The war department
regulations are of the strictest in this
regard. A man otherwise might enlist
when drunk and repent when sober, to
desert or make trouble. Deserters and
trouble makers are not wanted
Several applications are now on file
and the applicants will be examined
physically to-day by Lieutenant Green
and a surgeon.
The Saith infantry, which has its
headquarters at Fort Logan, IL miles
from Denver, is filling up and will be
complete, it is thought, by the latter
part of August. Twenty-six recruits
We're sent this week from Pueblo, Colo,
an unusually large number for city
of that size. One hundred have also
been sent from the recruiting office at
st. Pauls Montana has sent few and
it is evident will not have a large repre-
sentation in the regiment.
There are several reasons for lack of
rapid enlistment in the far West. One
is the lack of the war spirit that was
rife at the opening of the Spanish war,
when men conceived it to be their pa
trotc duty to go, even if they had to
give up good positions. Another is the
fact that there is less dense popula-
ton to choose from than in the East,
where enlisting is going on at a more
rapid rate Still third reason is that
the adventure loving class is still in the
army. In some of the Eastern regi-
ments a. large portion of the men en-
listed are men who served either in the
regular army or volunteers last year
and who announced when mustered out
that they were through with soldier
ing. Nevertheless. there is something
about soldering that draws man
back to the service if there is taste
for adventure in him. In the Eastern
states the volunteer regiments have re-
turned and been mustered out, giving
abundant material to the recruiting
officer but here in the far West 1t is
different The state troops are still at
the front and just now are of the mind
that they do not like soldering, al
though they braveiy meet all the dan
gers that come their way.