The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-24
AUSTRIAN OFFICER
STARTS A SCANDAL
Officer of Franz Joseph's Army Pub
fishes a Work Similar to an
Little Garrison Town."

From a Staff Correspondent.
LONDON, April 13.-Contained in the
last newspapers to hand from Vienna are
lengthy extracts from a new work writ
ten by an Austrian officer on the lines of
In Little Garrison Town." which might
have attracted almost as much attention
as BilSe's book, had not the German lieu
tenant been first in the field. The later
work. which processes to expose the ex-
istence of wholesale corruption in the
army of the dual monarchy, Is called I'm
K. and X. Diensten." and has the sub
title, Pictures of Military Morals From
Austrian GarrisOns." It's author. however
has avoided a punishment similar to that
suffered by BilSe-and incidentally fore
gone the pecuniary rewards of such mar
tyrdom-for, before publishing his vol
ume. he threw up his commission He
writes anonymously but is said to be
prominent figure in the Austrian sport
ing world. At any rate, his criticisms on
what he alleges is the present state of
the Austrian army are drastic, and it is
thought in Vienna that the book cannot
be ignored by the powers that be. The
scene Of I'm K. and K. Diensten" is laid
in the garrison towns of p (Prague). X.
(Kracow) and Pre-. (Prezemyol), the latter
of which is described as the most corrupt
or all. The writer says that the regiment
IN which he served was commanded by a
Col. Srechwitzer, nicknamed "stunid Do
wtdl, who, he declares, mounted his
horse no more than ten times In a wear
This officers lectures are described bv
the author as helpless stammerings." and
ne declares that HIS rank of general was
obtained entirely by trucking and lick
splitting. The lieutenant colonel of the
regiment Is said to be the possessor of
several orders, but absolutely incomne
tent. For years, says the author, he used
his position to embezZle moneys intrusted
to him, being abetted in this easy means
of earning living by his adjutant, Lieut..
Maltcek, who, however, himself head over
heels In debt, finally began robbing his
superior officer. AT last the lieutenant
colonel revenged himself by reporting the
adjutant who was sentenced to five years
imprisonment and degradation.
The lectures delivered by the major of
the regiment We're, says the writer, such
monuments of incapacity that he finally
had to ask the captain not to correct him
before the younger officers. Enraged at
this humiliation, however he vented hic
spite by ordering horseback exercises TO
be held in the open air-instead of in
the riding school-the thermometer at
the time registering below zero, and by
ordering the regimental doctor to reject
all cases Of sickness in connection with
the riding school, until not a man of
them was left" The book is filled also
with accusations Of cruelty on the part
of the officers toward the men under them
Concerning the work, the Vienna Arbei-
ter Zeitung says: I'm how far these oc-
currences. admitting their accuracy, can
be regarded as typical Of the whole army.
we would not like to decide II the CORPS
of officers were to have but a 10 per
cent solution of this putrid pus In its
venerable body we should have to de-
scribe it as completely diseased and NOR
ally poisoned. Will Herr ". Pitreich
twar minister) be able to refute the sus-
picion of disease?"
Although the . United Services col
lege at Westward Eo! has grad
uated over 1900 pupils since it's
establishment in 1874, public in
terest in the place has been keenest-since
its doom as school was sounded recently
-as Rudyard Kiplings alma mater. The
college was, Of course, the scene Of