St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-08-05
CHARACTER OF CHAPLAIN&


That the army is not exactly condu
Give to the upbuilding Of splendid mora
characters is pretty generally conced
ed. but soldiers sometimes have thing
to say about their spiritual adviser
that induce one to believe something o
what Sam Small had to say about chap
lains - that they are not very muci
good and are merely "sops to public
sentiment"
Many chaplsins are as good men II
the army as out and the lives OF stric
upright Christianity they led before en-
tering the army have been followed VI
with even greater precision than be
fore they dolfed their clerical vestment'
to don the soldiers coat with the cross
on the shoulder strap. But there an
others.
A regiment that arrived not long
since from Cuba and passed on through
to another city to be mustered out had
what the soldiers denominated peach
Of a chaplain" He had been minis
ter before entering the service and 1t II
probable he will return to his congre-
CATION when he is mustered out and bs
as sanctimonius as requirements de
mand. But in the army he has been
looked upon az q sort of bon vivant and
. rare old sport. =
While the chaplain did not play poker
he was yet = judge of the great game
and it always gave him q pain to see
q novice losing golden opportunities
with good hands. He sat behind an
officer. young in the service, on the way
ND from Cuba. Time had hung heavily
and a quiet little six-handed game had
started. Pay day had been almost for.
gotten and it had been 20 long since
the paymaster had turned over the
crisp new bills that Uncle Sam uses to
pay OF his soldiers, 30 the limit was
small.
The chaplain was interested. Per.
haps in his younger and sinful days
he had bucked the striped cat himself,
and a little of the virus of those days
remained. He continued to inspect the
hands rs they were dealt the officer in
front of him. The latter was not su-
perstitious and made no objection to
the chaplain sitting behind him. but
finally he got three jacks. Another
player made q good stin bluff and raked
down the pot the jacks should havs
won. "You play like . fish," said thu
chaplain. "Why the mischief didn''
you kick him up?'' which. in the day.
of the pastor chaplain's youth. meant
''raise him."
When one Of the regiments dis
charged here was about to 60 out o.
the service = question arose about thu
chaplain. His senior officers were IL
u quandary. The chaplain had for
saken the strait and narrow paths, OF
ficers and men said, and there had beer
nothing Of . very religious character
about him since his connection will
the command, though he had been ,
good preacher before securing his com
mission and had stood well in. tn
church. 1t was another example of tn.
effect Of army life. Finally it was de
cided to hold court Of inquiry to lool
into the chaplain's record. and the re
suit was that he was the only Officer
in the regiment who received . dis
charge reading service not honest and
faithful"
One of the best fellows in the worli
was a chaplain who was here for awhile
He had q lot of friends in Savannah
but they did not zee what he was Z
chaplain for. They called it practica
religion, but the designation nailed the
general run of practical religion a
intensely impractical. for it was as diff
ferent from that shown by the chaplain
as it could well have been. The chap
lain had never shown any great fond.
ness for holding services even In thia
country, and when his command
reached Cuba their frequency was NOT
Increased. His plea, when his brother
officers joked him about It. was that
he had no place to hold services. I'll
call that bluff," . young captain de
cided, and he got lot of his men to.
Rether and built tabernacle" The
bluff was called and the chaplain
event to the deck. k."-Savannah News