Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-06-19

~lS%sN VIZ of them impressed me
MANN 0kr0 more favorably than
N%MT&l our own or that they
~ W looked like men from
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 artillerymen had called Dough
boys" The great majority reminded
me Of the corner loungers in city and
town. | said as much to ClOyne, who
replied:
''For very good reason too. That's
Just the class from which they were
recruited"
1t was pleasing to think that we
should see something different when
we reached our camp. which was only
about day distant 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
ments to the train when il stopped at
q station. Nobody sang patriotic songs
in the cars or passed. jokes from seat
10 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 tried 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 Ninety-ninth had taken the field,
had developed a new and highly pop
ular induStry-that of enlisting, receiy-
ing bounties, deserting, re-enlisting 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-
ance, 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 Il man through. He said
also that n number of hard characters
had enlisted only for the purpose Of
robbing their comrades and that those
of US who had much money would do
well to hide it securely before drop
ping asleep.
None of these revelations promised
we'll 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 priyates,
like several fools with whom l am
acquainted"
''But they can't all become officers"
I argued. There are too many Of
them"
'NOne Of them will become private
soldier until there is n cOnscription,"
said Cloyne, 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 1, with
rising American pride. "Our better
classes know they have more to be
thankful for than the people Of other
nations, so they have more patriotism"
"They do, eli? From the appearance
of this car and such others on this
train have gone through. must say
their patriotism is not hurrying them
into the military service"
! Then | had to change the subject Of
conversation.
! Before reaching camp we became ac-
| qualnted with some Of the recruits for
our own regiment and found enough
varieties of human nature to interest
us and to justify Cloynes remark that
| 1t takes a net or an army to catch all
| sorts Of queer fish. Hamilton, who
had a head for statistics, took the
! trouble to ask each recruit for the
Thirty-eighth what was his business
| before he enlisted. There were only
| 81 recruits, but 40 different trades and
professions were named. Indeed, there
was but one business or calling which
! more than one man designated. 1t was
/ Soldier" Hamilton, Cloyne and
were three Of the five who made this
statement. The others were two stall
wart Englishmen, almost middle aged.
| engaged these successfully In con-
yersatiOn and was almost paralyZed
at learning that they were survivors
of the famous "Six Hundred who
! formed the Light Brigade" that
charged at Balaklaya and was immor-
taIized by Tennyson In a poem which
| and every other boy In our school
had declamcd on speech day"
1t was long before | could tear my
self away from these fine fellows and
tell Hamilton and Cloyne what an ac-
| duisition our regiment had made.
J Hamilton was as much surprised and