Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-02-02
ARMY CRUELTIES.
PUNiSHMENTS FORMERLY IN
FLICTED ON SOLDIERS.
a Los--Trottins the BulIRins-
One Man Buried Up to His Neck in Sand
Some Other Inhuman Methods These Pun.

One NAN OurieO up 10 Ills NeCk IN 9dnu--
Some Other Inhuman Methods These Pun.
ishments Have However. Been Abandoned.
Twenty years ago cruel punish
ments indeed were meted out to re-
fractory soldiers OF the United States
army. In those days 20 or 30 day
trick in the guard house was not u
comparatively minor matter, As it is
now. The soldier who nowadays lands
in the guard-house for drunkenness,
insubordination, neglect of duty or
any other violation of regulations is
put to work at some job around the
post from fatigue call in the morning
till recall from fatigue late in the
afternoon. The work is never hard.
The only discomfort connected with
the work is that it is always performed
under the watchful eye of a sentry
with Il loaded gun. On the other
hand, the guard house prisoner gets
every night in that is, he is permit
ted to slumber peacefully on the com.
Portable bunk in his guard. house cell,
while his comrades who have not COM
mtted themselves have to take their
turns standing guard over him
through the watches of the night.
The soldier who worked himself
into the guard-house prior to 1879 did
not get any night in, from the day he
began his term until its end. He
walked his post, two hours on and
four off, from the beginning to the ter
mination OF his sentence. But he did
not carry gun while on post. He
an Embarked log, from six
to eight feet in length and weighing
from 70 to 100 pounds, and man in
his rear carried the rifle. The busi-
ness OF the soldier with the rifle was to
see that the soldier with the log kept
on the move, up. and down in front of
the guard-house, from the time he
went on post until relieved, at the end
of two hours, by another guard house
prisoner, to whose shoulder the log
would be transferred. 1t was also the
sentry's duty to see that the clog
bumper" did not drop his burden.
The prisoner could shift it from one
shoulder to the other, nr carry it
under his arm, or horizontally in front
OF him, or in any other way he chose !;
but he had to carry it, and he had to
keep moving, on pain of being indent-
ed with the point of bayonet. There
are hundreds of old soldiers still in
the United States army who did their
little tricks at "tree packing" in the
old days, and none of them speaks
with the slightest degree of enthusi-
asm of the job. The guird-house
prisoner Of large physique was out of
luck in those days. A 1O0-pound log
was invariably bestowed upon him.
The smaller logs were reserved for the
prisoners of less bulk.
One of the punishments meted out
to the cavalryman who got into the
guard-house under the old regime was
trotting the bull ring" The bull
ring is the circular track upon which
the horses are exercised when there is
not much doing around the post in
the way of drills on account of incle-
ment weather. Every cavalry post
has its bull ring. Upon the smooth
surface OF the bull ring the fractions
cavalryman of couple of decades ago
was required to chase the intangible
air at regular intervals, named in the
sentence, every day of his confine-
ment. His bull-ring work was no 60.
as you-please walking match, either.
He could go at any pace swifter than
a walk; but he was not allowed to
walk. Heel-and-toe business was
barred. If he chose to work 1t out in
cantering the sentry was agreeable /;
did he prefer the less graceful, but
also less irksome. trot, the sentry
hadn't a word to say, but if for sin.
gle instant he relapsed into common
everyday walk he would hear the
sentry's command, like the crack of a
circus ringmaster's whip, "Shake her
up there, Pete; what do you think
this is, practice march? G'lang"
and if the bull-ring FOUNDER knew his
gait he would leave off walking right
away. The bull-ring work was good
for wind and muscle, but it was hard
and CALLING. A soldier undergoing a
bull-iing sentence dropped dead from
heart disease at post in the South
west one day about seventeen years
ago, and then the bull-ring punish
ment was abandoned.
1t was reserved for the commanding
officer OF an Arizona post, a one-com-
pany outfit, to inflict so barbarous
punishment upon an offending soldier
that the whole scale of punishment in
the United States army was revised
and made hard and fast, This COM
manding officer was captain, and the
affair happened in 1879. He had in
his company a soldier who was a very
hard case, and put in most OF his
time in the guard-house. He com.
pleted a guard-house term in the au.
tumn of 1879, and Immediately re.
paired to the nearby town of whisky