The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-27
CAUSEOfDESERTI0NS
VETERAN SERGEANT EXPLAINS
 HOW IT HAPPENS.
Epidemics of Desertion Occur at Times and are Caused by Bad Treatment Sometimes, and by Trivial
 Incidents at others.
St. Paul Globe .

St. Paul Globe.
 An old sergeant of the regular army who fought the Sioux under Crook and Custer, helped to chase tine 'Pacne kld and did his trick in the Philippines at the beginning of the row, recently de- livered himself of some of his own ob- servations on the desertion question. He has soidiered in more than fifty posts and has known battalions of deserters.
 There are plenty of reasons. besides those given by the boss soldiers in their reports behind assertions from the army said the old sergeant. T am not speakoing of present conditions, but of assertions in normal years.
 Tn the first place, desertions become epidemic in certain posts, ana when one of these deserting epidemics sets in nothing can stop 1t short of switch !. ing the whole outfit to another post. Some years ago one of these deserting epiden1ics began at Fort Sheridan, near Chicago, and inside of less than three months nothing but the skeleton of the command was left. They quit In squads and sets of fours, good men as well as rough and no-accounts.
 That epidemic was started by lay out of bad and unpopular officers One donineering and unjust officer in a post can cause more assertions than pad rations or crucifying fatigue duty. once knew little runt of -shavetail just out from West Point to cause thirty-two men from one cavalry troop, stationed in Arizona, to jump the out fit within two months after he'd joined.
 '"rhe deserting epideniies are started by causes that would seem mighty tri- vial to outsiders who do not know what an emotional. not D say absolute Iy SC influential, lot soldiers in garrison are The minds Of soldiers ln garri- son are easily played and preyed upon, and when a few Sf them happen to go up in the air at the same time the thing becomes infectious, like getting religion at a camp meeting. For ex- ample, there are always more assertions from the army around the holiday sea- son than at any other time.
 There used to be very widespread, but hopclessly erroneous idea among American army officers that the pres ence of a band in post contributed to the contentment of the men and made the wabbly ones less liable to desert. That ideas been punctured. It is well known now that the military band, in- stead of keeping the men trom desert ing, actually causes many of them to desert.
 ''1he music gets at the hearts of the impressionable fellows and 1t tells a-plenty of them that they are making hashes If their lives by sticking to the uniforms of the buck army private. Next time you get a chance just watch the what's the-use expression on the races of the soldiers listening to an evening band concert, and you'll get better of what l mean.
 Soldiers in barracks are, in fact, oueerly affected by music, particularly music of the moving and tender sort. For instance, we had a trig outfit of contented and fairly healthy men in the little Luzon settlement in the Philippines where we were guar tered until fellow with zither Join- ed the company.
 He was a windjammfng-t g-trumpeter, that is to say-from French Canada; and when he transferred to our outht he brought his zither, big concert grand instrument from Austria along with him. The things that that French Canadian boy could do to and on that big zither were certainly sinful, not 10 say deVilisn, and even us old rehcs or the bucking- and Sagging days had 10 either duck out of the sound of the kids music or find ourselves gulping and coughing a lot.
 He'd spread the thing out on his bunk O nights, between supper and tat too. and he'd no sooner make the nrst swipe at the strings and work in the tremolo stuff than the boys 'ud knock off gassing and begin to look serious and thoughtful. Every once in while, while that zither music was going on. you'd see some fellow. a burly ru1nan as like as not, sinking out sos not to make a show of himself before the outfit.
 Less than two weeks after that boy with the zither began those nightly per formances we had twelve men In the hospital, down with nothing else in the world but nostalgia. which means And if you've ever nickad up the notion that nostalgia, as it's called, is merely harmless ana boobyish disease, III mention that two of those twelve men diod Of 1t. The boy with the zither put 1t away then and never played on 1t again untll we were on our way home on the transport and then it didn't matter; the boys were coming home.
 "Tha we'll educated men who drift 1n- to the American army causs oesertlohs Nine out of ten of these well eoucateo men are failures in civil life, in spite of their education, and in nine cases out of ten they are perfectly useless as soldiers. Almost without exception they are grouchy grump kicKers anu Knockers. ~
 when they find themselves in the army with little show of getting out again without deserting, the majority of them choose that alternative. Those that stick through their enlistments develop into barrack room chaw bacons and make the other chaps dlscohtehteo and then the assertions begin.
 "The reappearance in a post of for mer member of the outfit, diked out in happy mufti rags and exhibiting other n- the banjo. let them contribute sonle-