The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-08

WILD Has WOfheu over the QeSertel
 question for many years It's not the
 treatment they receive, or lack of privi-
 leges, or anything else we can alter
 It's just pure cussedness that's my
 conclusion after years of experience
 There's the rowing spirit in man, and
 in some men this amounts to a passion.
 Well, they gather no moss tAese rovers
 and many of them try on the army
 blue. They have been accustomed to
 taking on bosses, trying them awhile,
 then discharging them.
 Now, Uncle Sam is not that style of
 a boss; he won't be discharged. And
 when man puts on his uniform he had
 better make up his mind to stay five
 years. Yes, the number of deserters is
 increasing, but not the number of suc-
 cessful ones. It is not that the act of
 getting away is so difficult; it's the
 trouble in staying away. Those who
 desert are either incurabe rovers or
 else they have something to draw them
 to one spot, usually their homes. Now,
 II they go home they are surely caught.
 ''The fact of their assertion will be
 known to the local officials about their
 homes before the man himself gets there, and these officials have big lettered sign offering thirty dollars re-
 ward for the deserter in the minds eye to help keep their other eye peeled.
 Now, if they are rovers-and here is a fact that illustrates my argument that the cause or deserting our sercice lies not in any fault of the service, but in the contrariness of the mems natures. 1 The men often try to enlist again.
 Some fifteen years ago, when Twas at d station in the west I had to consi- der the case of deserter of what was known then as the chronic deserter' type He was youug man. strong and rather handsome and distinguishedlook ing, When he denied having been in service at some fort in Kansas, where they wanted a man much like him, we sent his description around. Well, it turned out that he had deserted no less than seven times in three years. There must have been gipsy blood in his veins, and the good term he spent in Leavenworth prison must have been | bitter.
 Before that time the government had realized that the army was being used by men of this stripe as a convenience to bridge over a time of trouble. And it was chiefly to thWart the chronic de- eerter' that an elaborate system of cards was worked up.
 These cards, now brought to a state of something near perfection, have &C., complished their purpose, No man who has once deserted can enlist again. After he has passed all other examina- tions, he must pass that of not being on our catalogue of runaways. Thou sands and thousands of cards are filed here at the surgeon generals office. On each we have enough of mans distinguishing marks set down to in- sure his Identification if he is again ex- amined No, it is not a Bertillon sys- tenn though something like that. There are only the measurements taken in the physical examination. Besides these are noted any scar or birthmark or other peculiarity that will perma- nently help in identifying the man.
 When Smith enlists iniCalifornia his description card is sent on here. As he is six feet tall the clerks do not have to go over the cards of shorter men. Soon the comparisons with Smiths card dwindle down to a very few. A scar on his left shoulder shuts out all possibili- ties but two. A mole belonging to one of these deserters and not to Smith leaves but one, and that one may possi- ply be Smith--or, if you like, Smith may be that one.
 Further investigation is made, and in many cases it turns out that Smith is a deserter, trying to get back in the service without serving time for his off, fense. The punishment in time of peace is not severe but often when we see that a man is of the same old chronic deserter type, he is given a term in prison, with dishonorable dis charge at the end of it."
 "The card system now in use is very effective in putting stop to the prac- tice of enlisting again after deserting at a distant post remarked another off cer through whose hands the cases of every deserter from the army goes, but that doesn't end deserting. And ! it is not those cards that we count an to bring the men back. There are no | sleuths employed to hunt them down, | and it is not difficult for them to get l away, at least. while in this country. | It's the thirty dollars reward that | brings them.
 Now, look at this''--he turned to paper and read the story of a soldier who had deserted and at once donned the costume of a policeman. The man had walked the streets of the garrison town in this disguise for days. He had even met and talked to a sergeant of his company and went unrecognized. Then he left, and month later was brought back captive.
 Same old story,'' said the officer. Went home and there were three local officials on the lookout for him and thirty dollars. But what gets me is this, why did the fellow put on dis yuise? He could have walked away in plain clothes just as easily and outside hat garrison town he would have been safer. It is not hard to desert, all sto- 'ies to the contrary notwithstanding. But it's terribly hard to escape the pun- shment.
 "Now that story reminds me of anoth- r man who used enough imagination md romantic ability in effecting an es- ape to supply half dozen novels. And that escape might have been ac easily in the simple manner i