The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
MADB SAILORS HIS GUESTS.
ADMIRAL EVANS A DEFENDER OF
THE ENLISTED MAN.

Incident That Helped TO Make the Admiral
Popular COmmander-Bonaparte and
Tart Have Joined the Fight Against
Making American Uniform q Livery.
A little while ago a chief petty officer
Of the navy, on duty at the Norfolk Navy
Yard, applied for and obtained board at a
Norfolk boarding house. He was in mutt
when he made the arrangement as we'll as
when he moved in, but when he started for
the navy yard on the next morning he was,
Of course. in his chief petty officers uniform .
Now, a chief petty officer in the American
navy, or any navy, for the matter OF that,
is a good deal Of a man, and he has to put In
a good many years Of hard work and decenoy
and good conduct to get his uniform; but
he's an enlisted man, all the same.
When the man who ran the Norfolk board
ing house saw the new guest go out in the
morning in his chief petty officers uniform
he Immediately became swollen with wrath.
He hailed the chief petty officer. accused
him Of getting into the boarding house on
false pretences, and told him he'd have to
vaoate his room at once. Rather than
indulge in what lie known as q man-o'-war
chaw at the front gate about the matter,
the chief petty officer packed his goods
and moved elsewhere.
Mr.. Bonaparte, the Secretary Of the Navy;
heard about this thing-not from the chief
petty officer, but through another source.
In general orders he gave expression to
some remarks concerning the treatment
to which enlisted men are subjected by q
certain class In this country that read Just
as aoridly as they were meant TO read.
Mr.. Bonaparte all but said, in essence, that
he believed laws should be framed making
it a misdemeanor for anybody to bar sober
enlisted men from the privileges freely
granted to sober civilians.
Mr.. Taft, the Secretary OF War, followed
d while later with several paragraphs Of
exceedingly penetrating comment on an
incident in which a party Of entirely sober
soldiers had been barred from a theatre
solely because Of their uniforms. Mr.. Taft
expressed his personal conviction that,
while a drunk and dirty soldier and a dirty
and drunk civilian were alike impossible,
considered from any angle, a sober and
clearly soldier was. and ought to be oon-
sidered everywhere, Just as good q man
In and for any company as the soberest and
~cleanliest civilian.
The two Secretaries delivered themselves
OF these observations for the President Of
the United States as we'll as for themselves.
Since taking the Presidential chair Mr..
Roosevelt has been known to make some
decidedly scorohing u%tterances with respect
to persons who give enlisted men the worst
Of 1t on account of their uniforms.
Incidents OF the sort which called forth
the remarks Of the two Secretaries make
1t hard for the recruiting officers Of the two
services, land and sea. Young Americans
don't like to Join any outfit a connection
with which, az shown In these stories,
places them below the level of the most
ordinary civilians.
The great majority OF officers, both army
and navy, keenly resent the elights put
upon enlisted men of good behavior by
persons to whom the Uniform Ia the livery
Of degradation. No less 9 man than Ad-