Evening star., 1914-10-25

xrTHEsE uhlans have figured very
prominently in the war news
l. from Europe, especially In
the advance through Belgium and the
early days of the turning movement
In northern France" said an army OF
ficer. Sometimes in the dispatches
they appear simply as uhlans. but Tor
some reason which I do not know, the
word. though a common noun apply
ing to a large part Of Germanys cav
airy, is frequently capitalized; that is.
uhlan is spelled with a capital u The
tendency of American newspapers, as
well as other newspapers, Is to re-
strict and diminish the use Of capital
letters, just as they have furthered the
process of omitting punctuation marks
except where they are required to show
the sense Of sentence. yet this word
uhlan, If repeated hundred times In
the course of column, frequently ap-
pears with a capital u 1t is prac-
tice made in Germany.
Far in the lead Of the main Ger
man armies in Belgium and northern
France has ridden Independent cav
ceding every main body has ridden
advance cavalry and the cavalry of
the advance guard. The hanking pa
trolls have also been cavalry, and be-
the corps d'elite of the German army
and is the best advertised part of the
German military establishment. 1t
happens that whenever anybody sees a
German trooper Or German cavalry
man he says, 'uhlan.'
I'm the struggling armies Of Europe
today are uhlans. hussars. dragons,
cuirassiers and lancers. but they are
all plain cavalry. armed with the same
weapons. In garrison. in time of
peace, they have distinctive uniforms
Those names, uhlan, hussar, dragon
and cuirassier memorialize In a way
distinctive features in cavalry which
have long ago passed away.
'In the infantry of Europe are gren-
adiers, fusilliers, carbineers and rifles,
but the grenadiers are not especially
assigned to throw grenades and the
gun carried by fusilliers; musketeers,
of course Is a rifle. When the larger
proportion OF troops were armed with
smoothbores. or muskets. the rifle
regiments were distinctive troops.
''In the United States Army there used
to be dragons, light dragons, heavy
dragons, rifles, light infantry and SO
forth, but today cavalry is cavalry and
Infantry Is infantry. The present
American organizations have not even
retained their old designations, but in
many cases in Europe they have.
THE United States military author
tiles have been revolutionary in stand
ardizing troops and equipment. 1t has
been figured out or reasoned out that
it promotes greater efficiency. This
spirit has been carried so far that no
regiment in the same branch of the
service has a single distinctive feature
in the uniform, except the regimental
number. No matter how historic the
regiment. and there are many. such
regiments in the United States Army,
it gains no distinctive name other than
1st Artillery. 7th Cavalry, 9th Infantry.
etc. Even territorial designations are
unknown. In the United States Army.
though propositions looking to that
end have been discussed, sometimes
with a good deal of favor. In the Brit
ish army are the Dorsets, the Somer-
sets. the Connaughts and the Innis-
killens. but nothing like this territorial
system of recruiting obtains in the
United States Army.
ITO como back to the matter Of uh-
1ans, there Is a great deal of mystery