The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-29

posal may serve their own purposes. The
barracks themselves are more fit for a
menagerie than for a dwelling place Of
human beings, and thus 1t has become
proVerb In Russia, 1T smells as in a
barrack.'
The work of the soldier begins at 4
o'clock in the morning and continues I'M
til night and woe to him if he does
not accomplish the work assigned to him
His superiors. beginning with the cor
poral, have absolute power over him, and
he is entirely the victim of their whims
The slightest complaint of a corporal
against a private is enough to condemn
him to confinement or even to bodily
punishment. Here it may be remarked
that, though the 'knout has been dis
carded in Russia, it still plays an int
portant part in military discipline, and
the soldier is sure to receive lashes for
any disobedience or misbehavior
His instruction in drilling is accompa-
pied by heavy blows and cruel tortures,
and it Is not an unusual case that o. SOL
der dies of the blows he has received
from his teachers
1 Shall never forget an incident Of this
Kind which 1 witnessed when still a
little boy. A captain was drilling his
battalion, and all their movements SEEM
ed to have satisfied him. The officer call
ed to them for an acknowledgment, upon
which the whole battalion raised their
arms in front of them and burst into
rear of thanks. One soldier, however
who failed to raise his gun quickly enough
did not escape the keen eye of the cap
tain. He Immediately approached the I'M
fortunate soldier, took his gun from him
and belabored him with the same so cru
ely that the soldier fell bleeding to the
ground. In spite of this not single
grean came from the beaten soldier. He
only kept on saying: Guilty your hon
Or; am guilty"
The Jewish soldiers have a still rougher
time of It. They do their work as well
as any of the Russian soldiers; and yet
In most cases they are exposed to mon
strouS brutalitieS and insults They are
beaten and tortured numerically, even
by the privates. The Russian has a ira
ditional hatred of the Jew, and since the
officers do not care to set their faces
against outbursts of such hatred. there
| is much deviltry against the Jew in the
| army. The common soldier finds it de-
! lightful to get even with the man whom
| he looks upon as the author of all his
Ills.
| 1t is no wonder, then, that no young
Russian is very anxious to serve in the
army, and that he employs every means
| at his command to be exempt from mill
| tary service. And here comes the most
interesting part of the matter Money is
the all-powerful agent for the attain
ment of this end. Those who have mon
| ey enough to bride each and all of 'the
committee for raising recruits are sure
! to be declared unfit for the army even
! if they possess herculean strength. 1t is
/ not strange, therefore, that Russian
young men save from their earnings with
the avarice of the miser for this rainy
! day However, only a few are able to
| bride the whole committee; the majority
| has sufficient money to bride only the
| medical examiners, and they must there
| fore infiict on themselves transient bod
| lily defect which the physician points out
to the committee although he knows that
| the defect is a mere fake. Again such
| recruits as are utterly poor have recourse
| to a most desperate means, at the men,
| ton of which every civilized man must
| blush. Many of the poor creatures, who
prefer the worst to the soldiers life.
simply mutilate themselves, and 1t is not
infrequent that many die in consequence
! of such mutilations.
| It is now evident that from the 10000
who are supposed to appear on the day
| of enlistment only a third of that number
are actually examined according to the
| prescribed rules. The choice is now very
| limited and consequently those who are
! enlisted and dispatched to the army
| are, in large number poor, manned and
| ignorant.
1t is plain why the Russian army,
| though superior to any army in the world
| as to numbers, is much inferior in ability.
The Russian soldier has great power Of
| endurance but is unable to accomplish
| much on the day of battle. He will throw
| himself into flames, plunge into violent
waves at the command of a corporal but
| he never considers why he does so. In
| the German or American army, for in
cOIdiar fc faIJohf m r.
! telligently on outpost service and in
scouting operations, and this is not too
! much to require in country where ev-
| cry soldier reads and writes, can readily
| understand map and compass and en-
| joys excellent physical health.
| In Russia, however, where three-fifth of
| the people cannot read or write, and have
! lost the faculty of thinking consecutively,
| the army cannot teach the soldier much
more than to move as a machine. To
give a fair illustration both of the blind
obedience and of the stupidity of the
Russian soldier, a very reliable author
| gives the following episode: 1.-THE
| Russian army attaches very great impor-
| lance to creeping up close to the enemy
| and watching his movements. For prac-
| tice in this respect every officer frequent
| ly calls together his men and divides
! them into two sides He then points out
! on the map a position which one side is
| to watch, to slip behind the lines of
| the other and steal it's flags, which
| have been posted at a certain distance
| in the rear of the line that is to Ce pro-
| tected. Now it happened on such a quasi
| maneuver that six men of one side detail
| ed for the work were discovered when
| close to the picket line. They were fired
| upon and pursued to stream 80 feet