Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-07-31

whom the Southern Confederacy had
much to fear. Certainly they could
not bear comparison with the average
of our old militia regiment, at whom
the cavalry had sneered and whom the
regular artlllerymen had called Dough,
boys" The great majority reminded
me Of the corner loungers in city anu
town. / said as much to Cloyne, who
replied:
''For very good reason TOO. That's
Just the class from which they We're
recruited"
1t was pleasing to think that we
should Gee something different when
we reached our camp which was only
about day distau; from New York.
Our quartet wished We might soon
reach there, too, for the trip persisted
in recalling by contrast that Of the
Ninety-ninth. and the contrast made us
gloomy. No natives wished US god.
speed or brought fruit and refresh.
lnents to the train when 1t stopped al
station. Nobody sang patriotic songs
in the cars or passed jokes from seat
to seat. On the contrary, there were
much vile language and drunkenness,
with some fighting, for men who had
received large bounties and were not
accustomed to having much money had
apparently tvicd to invest all their cash
in whisky. Some tried to desert by
jumping from the car platforms as we
passed slowly through the larger
towns, and apparently we all were
suspected by the officers in charge of
the various squads of being possible
bounty Jumpers"
1t was not until this trip that we
came to realize, recruiting officers
though we had been, that the payment
of bountieS, which had not begun until
the Nlncty-ninth had taken the field,
had developed a new and highly pop.
ular inlustry-that of enlistllg, receiv.
ing bountieS, deserving, re-enlistlng to
receive more bounties, and so on in
definitely until the bounty jumper was
detected or sent to the front too sud
denly and securely to escape. One
of the officers, with whom Ham.
ilton and Cloyne scraped acquaint-
nnce, said we were lucky not to
be sent down In locked cars, with
windows SO arranged on the out
side that they could not be opened
enough to let man through. He said
also that number of hard characters
had enlisted only for the purpose Of
robbng their comrades and that those
n hoH Il
well to hide it securely before drop
ping asleep.
None Of these revelations promised
well for the Union cause, and asked
Hamilton why it was that the army
did not get better class of volunteers.
Because" said Hamilton between
his teeth, most members Of the better
classes are trying to become officers,
instead Of first enlisting as privates,
like several fools with whom l am
acquainted"
"But they can't all become officers"
argued. There are too many Of
them"
"None Of them will become a private
soldier until there is a conscription,"
said ClotN". who stood by. Its the
only way that men Of the better classes
ever get into the armies OF other ma
tons"
"But we are different" said I, with
Using American pride. "Our better
classes know they have more to bt
thankful for than the people of Other
rs, so they Lave more patriotism.
"They do. Ell? From the appearance,
7 this ear and such others on thI
san | have gone through, must say
heir patriotism is not hurrying then
nto the military service"