Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-12
HIS PROMOTION


work for the restoration of the army can
teen" observed a man who enlisted In the
army quite a number of years ago for the
purpose of working his way up to COM
mission, but who didn't get the commission,
for reasons which he frankly gives. Gooo
thing! But / wish the agitation TOT the
canteen had been started, and had proved
successful, when l was on my way TO PAIR
OF shoulder straps. I'm doing pretty wen
in civil life, at that. but Ia nave neen q
captain and pretty we'll along .oMalu
majors papers by now IL lne 'a'eeA
hadn't been abolished ,+o
the army at the age of twenty-one wiz
the deliberate purpose 10 Try 70 Gan f;r
commission. I'd received pretty lai
education and knew something Oh .ne
animation of enlisted men who aspire 10
the shoulder straps. 1t didn't look nKe any
big job to pass that examination Wy n ~. ha
were pretty good. l understood now " pe
have l knew several other fellows VIM
had got their commissions In the regular
army from the ranks and there wash 1Ay
reason for me to believe that couiui
make it if they could ~ 80 tho
$50 I took on, went through all or tne ,
nbases of the raw rookie, kept sun
Tongue in my head, studied most OF tile
time was made lancejack ana tnen e1 u,
moral and then duty sergeant, anu nIa'iy
ton sergeant of my company, all INSIDE VI
TWO Years. and was. generally. In pretty
good l had signified to my supelloi W
ficers my intention to go up Ior eAsiiil 1,,
tion for commission, and they not oiliy
annroyed nv ambition, but helped me along
nv giving me all manner Of points and sug
gestions They helped me In my stuoies anu
treated me bully from every p0ilil ot VIZ
They wanted to see me win. lhey HS vi ~
It that l would win. And they mace ine
Ton sergeant of my outfit In order TO give
me p1enty of time to fit myself for my pre-
Liminary examination. .o,, ,,,.s
During those two years the canteen "aS
a-eoing I was never much OF canteel
nafron. although l occasionally dropped IN
for a few beers. l wasn't any tank Dloh
come of drinking family. But there were
times when 1 felt like few peers. anu
when I felt that way l went to the canteen
and had them and felt whole lot better
for having had them. ,,a
But a month or so before I was ordered
to another post to take my preliminary eA-
animation for a commission the oroeI
abolishing the canteen went into effect l
had a chance to see how this scheme WORK
ed out on the two pay days following lne
closing up of the canteen OF the post at
which I was stationed Practically the en-
tire enlisted force of the post embarked
on one massive drunk the first pay day
after the closing up of the canteen: lney
got their vile grog-hard liquor, IL nquorlN
could be called-at the horrible bun rae
tories that Immediately sprang up right
outside the post gates. They overstayeo
their leaves were slapped into the clinK IN
sets of tours as soon as they were orasseu
hack to the post. got summary court-mar-
tiaIs and the penalties thereto attached. and
the whole force was diSorganlZed IN gen
eral And, mind, it had been soper iol
of men before the abandonment or the can
teen There were rarely any men OF the
commend in the guardhouse for overmuch
drinking Often there We're no men IN the
guardhouse at all. The men went 10 tne
canteen as / did, for their few peers "hen
they felt berry and when they got enough
they came away ana went aooU' ' ~
tary business 80. .o,,a
nv preliminary examination, and found
the same conditions prevailing there Inc
command was in bow-knots about quar-
fer of the enlisted force in the mill dlsci-
pine gone to the bow-wows, dissatisfaction
everywhere, officers grouchy over the sta.e
of things, and particularly over lhe way aae
men had been driven to their excuses.
and the situation bad from every point OF
view. tn, .
..I took nv examination along with four
other young fellows from dlnereht pos.s'
Although the examination is said to be
pretty severe, it seemed pretty easy 10 me-
for l was young and in possession OF d
receptive mind, had been thoroughly coach,
ed and had been 'boning up on tne ,, SUN
night and day for months. In addition.
maybe | had plenty of luck. Anyhow,
passed the examination at the top OF the
bunch 1 didn't know that at the time l
finished taking the examination, nut i kne"
amining officers handled me that had got
"As soon as took the examination. l re-
turned to my own post to await word as 10
whether I'd got by or not and when, few
weeks later the notification drifted along, l
found that I'd passed with the quite I'M
usual percentage of ninety seven was
entitled to wear the gold stripe OF the can,
didate for a commission on my sleeve. and
all l had to do was to bone up a little
more and wait few months before going
to Fort Leavenworth to take my maj eX-
animation for that commission.
well felt pretty good with myself. l
was young and enthusiastic, and that kind
of a reward after my two years OF buck,
ing the soldiers game seemed pretty gooo
to me. 1 felt like few beers, Just 10 ceie-
brate. But there wasn't any beer to be
had in the post, since the abolishment OF
the canteen; nothing but pop, and pop isn't
very heating or joy-begetting.
so l Joined a bunch of non-coms who
We're going outside the post for few
hours leave of absence We went to
rum mill near the post gate, my Idea stlll
being to encircle few OF those peers tnat
had in mind. But when we got inside
the rum factory we found that there wasn't
any ice for the beer, and it was warm.
The groggery keeper said that he was walt
ing for ice, and all that-but the truth Is
that these gn-millists around army posts
don't care to sell beer at all. Their idea
is to sell rotten whisky, in which there Is
about - 900 per cent profit for them. Now.
I wasn't used to any kind of hard stuff.
But I figured that a glass or 80 wouldn't
hurt me- and L went to it with the other
non-coms. Then | wanted a few more. So
did they. They toasted me on my luck, and
toasted them for having been good pals
to me, and we went right on hitting up the
toast thing-until the blank came along for
me-
where do you suppose I awoke in the
with a head me bigger Than
an Indian ocean sea serpents? Why, in
the clnk of course. In the guard house.
I didn't remember a single thing of what
had come off since a certain hour at the
outside the post limits. But
lot had come off in which l was concerned,
all right Among other things. 1 had had
quite protracted fist fight with one of the
non-coms right in front of the command
ing officers quarters, as the bunch of US
were on our way to barracks. The other
non-com | was told had sort of put it
on me- and. to get back at him, had
picked I'D loose brick from the sidewalk in
front of the commanding officers quarters.
and had tossed it at him. He had ducked
the brick, of course, and the brick had
gone right through one of the windows of
the commanding officers parlor. The COM
officer had hustled out and sum-
moned the sergeant Of the guard, and there
was in the mill, awaiting trial by gen.
eral court martial.
Fine, wasn't it, for young fellow with
the candidates gold stripe his sleeve,
waiting around to take his final eXamina-