The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-27
HARD WORK OF SOLDIERS.

| How They study Chemistry and Tel
esraphing and Steel Making-O1h-
Great Channel Cutters.
Uncle Sans soldiers have to do a
great many things beside fighting. In
deed, many good soldiers in his army
never fought once until the war with
| Spain began, and there are some in
the army who have not fought even in
that.
But even those who did fight have
had many long years during which
they did the very dullest kind of work
that is, the kind of work that boys
are apt to consider dull, although no
work is dull if it is done with earnest
ness and energy. But boys think of
soldiers work as being all brilliant and
romantic, full of the dazzle of uni
forms and bright with the glitter of
parade and weapons. Now, as mat
ter of fact, the man who wants to
make his way in Uncle Sans army
cannot afford to Sit still and wait until
some war gives him the chance to
show heroism, and so win fame and
glory. The man who were to do that,
though he might be truly brave and
ready to sacrifice his life for his coun-
try, probably would not yet the chance
to do it, for Uncle Sam, like your Ia
Their or any other employer, picks out
his men according to what they have
done, and not according to what they
might do if they got the chance.
And what Uncle Sans soldiers had
to do in time of peace to show what
they might be worth in time of war,
nd
Just like any boy who goes into bust
ness to make his way
There are some of them who had to
study chemistry, like young man
who wanted to become a chemist. They
had to pore over dry textbooks and at
tend lectures and prepare papers. This
was to fit them for work in the ord
| nance department, where men must
| know, among other things, exactly how
| all the thousands of kinds of gunpow-
| der are made. They had to analyze
| it and compound it, just as the drug
clerk in your street has to do with
! pills and medicine.
! When Uncle Sam wants to know
| something about ammunition he
doesn't expect his soldiers to take
match and light it to see if it will ex-
| plode. What he wants to know is just
| how many thouSandthS part of a sec
| ond it takes for all the grains in
! given quantity to burn up. He wants
! to know just how much pressure the
explosion causes. He wants to know
| just how quickly that pressure is ex-
erted. For no kind of gunpowder is
| like another. Some kinds burn a little
more slowly or faster than others. No
body could see the difference with his
! eye. 1t has to be worked out with
| figures. Many a young ordnance OIL
Ger has had to fill a dozen pages of
! paper with figures before he can give
| Uncle Sam the answer that that
| fatherly, but strict, employer wanted.
Sitting in a little hot office some
where in a deserted place-which is
where. Uncle Sam generally carries on
| his experiments-is not glory, is it?
| Neither is it glorious work in a. fam
| ing hot forge and foundry among mott
| en- masses of steel. That is what other
officers have to do day after day. They
report for their work just the way the
| workmen of the factory do and they
stop only when the other laborers stop
! and often not then. Frequently they
| have to strip to the waist because of
the heat from the blast furnaces; if
| you were to see them you would never
| dream that they are your Uncle Sans
| officers, for they are just as grimy and
! black as the hundreds of workers all
| around them.
These officers are the ones who are
assigned to duty in the great steel
works where Uncle Sans cannon are
made. They are responsible for see
ing that they are designed and cast
| and finished just right When the gov
! eminent gives a private concern orders
| for ammunition or weapons, the con-
| tract nearly always specifies that army
officers shall superintend the manufac-
! ture to see that all the materials and
workmanship are what they should be.
Hundreds of Uncle Sans officers
have worked their way through all the
| processes of making steel. Others
have made a study of photogra ply.
Still others are studying telegra ply
and working over it day by day fully
as hard as any telegraph employees,
with no more romance" to it than
there is in the daily life of any wage
Garner. Indeed, the wage-earners
have some advantage, because they
can go home when their days work is
done, while often Uncle Sans officers
have garrison DUTY or something like
that to keep them virtual prisoners in
reservations or forts.
The men that study all these and
many other things do not study them
merely enough to be able to stand
over other men and order them to
do the real work. The officers
ing could earn wages at any
time in blast furnaces or roll
ing mills or FORCES. The officers who
study telegraphing would be appreciat-
ed as extra good telegraphers in any
office in the country.
There is saying that Uncle Sans
officers never ask their men to go any
where they are afraid to go themselves.
That is true. But there is something
deeper in it. They do not ask their
men to do anything that they could
not do themselves. So, when an officer
is in charge of gunners, he is expected
to know more about the gun than they
do. If anything is wrong with it, he
throws off his coat and gets at it like
a mechanic. He knows just what to
do.
You might go over the United States
year after year and never be able TO
distinguish these officers from any other
toilers For Uncle Sans officers do
not wear their uniforms except when
they are engaged in active military
operations or on special occasions of
great ceremony. They do not wear
their uniforms for show, and young
officers learn that even before they are
graduated from West Point
Among the hardest workers are the