The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-25
THE SOLDIER
Of THE CAR
CONTINUED from Page II

effects OF the awful heat, it Is not
recorded that a single Russian left the
line Russian foot soldiers have been
known to march thirty miles without
rest and then go directly into an en-
gagement The cOarsest food and pre-
cious little OF it will sustain the troops
when nothing better is to be had. Rus
sian troops are accomplishing. When
their boots are rotten, their great
coats made of shoddy, when they are
overmarched and under-fed, bitten by
cold or scorched by the sun, they mere
ly think regretfully that it is pity the
Great White Father does not know; II
he did he would put all right.
OFFICERS CAREFUL OF MEN.
That Russian troops will put Up with
privations does not imply that they are
needlessly subjected to them. On the
contrary those who saw them in China
record that the officers were in every
way careful OF their men. They chose
the cool Of the morning for beginning
marches, and encouraged the soldiers
to protect themselves from sunstroke
by stuf1ing their caps with green things,
and by hosting confscated Chinese
parasols. Their rations were not
sumptuous, but in one respect their
commissariat was better than that OF
other Allies. A kitchen-cart, a great
cauldron on wheels, followed the camp,
and whenever the men came to rest
it disgorged unlimited quantities OF
hot and savory stew. The cheerful
steaming OF the kitchen-carts added
a homelike touch to the lonesomest
Russian camp.
Severity is accounted the prime fac
tor of Russian military discipline. And
it is true that Russian officers are
severe. 1t is not unheard of for drill
master to strike a man in the ranks,
and corporal punishment has not gone,
by for persistent ill-doers. But some !
thing better than severity goes to make
soldiers of Russian peasants, and that i
something is a powerful spirit of :,
camaraderie. A high Russian officer ;,
does not hesitate to joke with his men !,
as if with his equals. When the COM
handing officer meets his troops for
the first time that day he calls out
cordially, Good morning" to which
the men reply with peculiar long
rafting shout, "Zdravie zhelaiem vass
imperatorsky vweesochestvoe!" Your
good health, your excellency" Is a
IL.
er's satisfaction, he shouts congratula-
tons to the men, and they respond all :;
together, I'VE are glad you liked it," or :,
words TO the same effect. A Russian
diers are like children; they need a
good deal of patting on the head. And
on that policy the whole army is man
aged.
1t is perhaps due to the genial rela-
tionS between officers and men that the
Russian army has so strong an esprit
de corps. Men of fifteen separate ma
tionalities fight side by side, and yet
so perfectly are they welded into one
that you see but single type-the
4
thorities know well the difference be-
tween the clever resourceful Polish
officer and his clumsy Russian breth-
rem, and make the most of Polish
brains. But among the rank and file
nationality is all but merged.
THE COSSACKS.
When the unity of the Russian army ;
is spoken of one thinks Immediately of
that least commonplace of Russian
soldiers-the Cossack. 1t is true that :
the Cossack preserves his identity E
through everything, and that even his {
uniform is distinguished by the woolly 4
black busby in lieu Of cap But the Il
Cossack can scarcely be counted t
among the foreign nationalities serv- a
ing i'll the cars army, for he is him {
self i'll origin the purest Russian Wild +
eyed, fierce, SCARED like the most pug c
nacious OF Heidelberg duelists, the c