If He Did Not Work He Would Not Get His Money - And
Perhaps Not If He Did.
Under these circumstances he has made his
fight with the world; but those circumstances have never taught him
that special deference to a superior, which is the first essential
of a soldier's duty.
But probably in no respect would that
difficulty be so severely felt as in all matters appertaining to
personal habits. Here at any rate the man would expect to be still
his own master, acting for himself and independent of all outer
control. Our English Hodge, when taken from the plow to the camp,
would, probably, submit without a murmur to soap and water and a
barber's shears; he would have received none of that education which
would prompt him to rebel against such ordinances; but the American
citizen, who for awhile expects to shake hands with his captain
whenever he sees him, and is astonished when he learns that he must
not offer him drinks, cannot at once be brought to understand that
he is to be treated like a child in the nursery; that he must change
his shirt so often, wash himself at such and such intervals, and go
through a certain process of cleansing his outward garments daily.
I met while traveling a sergeant of a regiment of the American
regulars, and he spoke of the want of discipline among the
volunteers as hopeless. But even he instanced it chiefly by their
want of cleanliness. "They wear their shirts till they drop off
their backs," said he; "and what can you expect from such men as
that?" I liked that sergeant for his zeal and intelligence, and
also for his courtesy when he found that I was an Englishman; for
previous to his so finding he had begun to abuse the English
roundly - but I did not quite agree with him about the volunteers.
It is very bad that soldiers should be dirty, bad also that they
should treat their captains with familiarity, and desire to exchange
drinks with the majors.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 226 of 531
Words from 60279 to 60623
of 142339
