The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-06
UNCLE SA M WANTS
 ONLY GOOD MEN
No Lame, Halt and Blind for the Army, If He Can
 Help It.
MANY SUCH APPLY, THOUGH
What Happens to Would-be Soldier When He Makes Application in
 Local Office.

If all the lame, the halt and the blind who enter the portals of the recruiting office in the Insurance building were accepted as soldiers, the United States army would have a great aggregation of cripples Prob ably out of forty that apply about two are accepted, and the sergeant in charge Is never sure that some of them may not be sent back By the com mandant at Fort Slocum. Since the raise in the pay many would enter the armies whose feet are not lit to tread the weary pathway of the sol dier. Many persons try to bulldoze the recruiting sergeants into taking them in, though their Fact are not fit to carry them along any sort of a path at all and their toothless gums would make cheerless work with the regular army rations to say nothing of hard tack.
 The first thing the sergeant does is just what every good horse dealer does. He opens the critters mouth. There's no use for them if they can't chew" the sergeant always says, after glancing over the mans incisors and running his forcfinger back into the mans mouth to see how many grind CTS are missing The law says the recruit must have two opposing grinders on each side of the upper and lower jaw, and 1t $ surprising how many think they gan get along without teeth nowadays, Its all right to say this is an artificial age, says the sergeant, taking out his handkerchief and carefully drying his finger, but teeth arc teeth, and I've never seen the time in my twenty-five years service that they don't come handy in soldering" Most persons seem to have the idea that the United States is hard up for recruits and will take most anything. That's a mis- take, the government wants certain things just right and 1t isn't every man that can meet all the require ments.
 | When the law of May ?, raising th' salary of soldiers and non commission | ed officers was signed by the Presl' dent, 1t was thought then that there would be q big rush for the recruit ing stations and that strong, husky material would be available in shor time This does not appear to b' 1 the experience of the stations in thli state Material Is slow in comlns and what ls offered Is of all sorts ant kinds. There are men who are blnC in one eye. partially deaf lame an' physically disproportionod who wan to enter the army and wear the blu uniform They can't. because the gov ernment doesn't want them, and be sides, the enlistment blank Is as full of provlsos and specifications as tn, articles of a Philadelphia ground lease 1 Several weeks ago big burly Swed stuck his head through the door an, wanted to be hired man for th ] United states.
 John Johnson was fine lookini specimen. but he couldn't talk Amerl can and he couldn't write. There ar numerous other fore gnets who waude into the office The Italians strang to say, arc seeking enlistment, an, another factor ia the appearance O the Russian Hebrew It's only re gently that the Hebrews have enllste at all but the Russian Hebrew seem to be the most pugllstlc of the rae and seeks the army where the other would seek a pushcart,
 Despite considerable volume O business that flows into the office, mos of it nowadays seems to pass through IL is getting to be acknowledged tha the greater part of the army come from a few states in the middle west Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and on or two other states of the Mississlpr basin arc furnishing a large propor ton and the best material that zoe into the army The country lad of
 ten goes into the service to see th
 world and he can see good deal c
 this and other lands in h's first on listment All through the hard time the greater proportion of enlistment could be traced to the country dis
 tricts II Is also a fact that th same states are giving the best re
 cruts to the navy The farmer an
 river lads of the Mississippi vale
 are more numerous and more eileen
 than any other class