Ladies and OfScers of tlje United Mates irmy; 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE ARMY 
 
 BY 
 
 DUANE MERRITT GREENE, 
 
 LATE LIEUT. U. S. ARMY. 
 
 Some things good, and some things ill, do seem, 
 And neutral some * * *. — Davies. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 CENTRAL PUBLISHING COMPx\NY. 
 
 1 
 
Copyright, 1880, 
 By DUANE MERRITT GREENE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE present volume comprises a 
 brief survey of the social life of 
 the United States Army, and is designed 
 to controvert and correct the erroneous 
 views prevalent respecting its character, 
 and to give a glimpse of a world into 
 which the eye of the civilian seldom pen- 
 etrates. The Army is a little domain of 
 its own, independent and isolated by its 
 peculiar customs and discipline ; an aris- 
 tocracy by selection and the halo of tra- 
 dition. Its interior is an unexplored re- 
 gion to the mass of the people, and it is 
 not the Dorado of morality, honor and 
 chivalry that many believe ; the heart of 
 a Sidney does not invariably beat under 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the Army "blue." Grand men, whom no 
 age nor country has surpassed, are to be 
 found on its roll ; and charming women, 
 who would grace the court of royalty, 
 adorn its social circles ; but manly virtues 
 and high moral worth are no oftener 
 found in the Army than in civil life. The 
 degree of excellence which citizens gener- 
 ally ascribe to the ladies and officers of 
 the Army is not always justified by inves- 
 tigation. The exterior tends to mislead 
 the superficial observer ; but, under the 
 eye of criticism, the illusion passes away, 
 until that alone remains which is founded 
 on truth. Human nature never fails to 
 disclose itself and to gain the ascendancy 
 over any mode of cover which may be 
 adopted. 
 
 The author's Army experience is hal- 
 lowed by pleasant associations, and it 
 presents a panorama of friendships 
 staunch and true — of comrades sharing 
 the fatigue of the march, the danger of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 5 
 
 battle, the pride of victory, and the terror 
 of retreat, too vivid to be forgotten ; and 
 he trusts that the animadversions made 
 in the following pages may not be attrib- 
 uted to aught but a desire to give a 
 correct sketch of Army life as it came 
 under his observation ; also, that the 
 reader will not infer that the examples 
 given under the various topics are iso- 
 lated cases. It was not deemed necessary 
 to cite more than enough to illustrate the 
 subject. D. M. G. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/ladiesofficersofOOgree 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ladies in the United States Army to 
 THE Prejudice of Good Order and 
 Military Discipline . . -13 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Caste — Staff and Line . . . • 3* 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Degeneracy of Army Society — Possibili- 
 ties OF American Civilization . , 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Marrying for Position . . . .45 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Where the Public Money Goes „ • 51 
 
 CPIAPTER VI. 
 The Power Behind the Throne . . 61 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 Intemperance . . . . . . 65 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 Freedom of Manners . . . . .75 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Amusements — Dress . . . » • S3 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 How much of the Unpleasantness of 
 Army Life might be Obviated . . 95 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 9 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Arrogance . . .... loi 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Deference to Wealth — Servile Adula- 
 tion 127 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 PaI-rician Prejudices 133 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A Ludicrous Phase of Frontier Service 159 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Intemperance — Profits of Post Trader- 
 ships ...... .185 
 
PART FIRST. 
 
 LADIES OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 LADIES IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY TO 
 THE PREJUDICE OF GOOD ORDER AND 
 MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "War's a care for men." 
 
 — Mrs. Browning. 
 
 IT is claimed by a prominent faction of 
 the day that the influence of woman 
 would be beneficent in the affairs of gov- 
 ernment — would purify politics and ele- 
 vate the standard of public morals — were 
 she allowed to freely exercise her power. 
 The potency of her influence in public 
 matters is already sufficiently well estab- 
 lished to warrant us in ignoring entirely 
 
 the question of her equality with man. 
 13 
 
14 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Cleopatra led Mark Antony a willing 
 slave from the presence of Caesar's gath- 
 ering hosts, which he might have con- 
 quered and gained a throne. Madame 
 de Maintenon controlled the splendid 
 monarchy of Louis XIV, and immortal- 
 ized her name by cruelty and oppression. 
 Through this brilliant king she ruled 
 France and made the monarchs of Eu- 
 rope tremble in their capitals. To her 
 was attributed the appointment of un- 
 skillful generals and weak-minded min- 
 isters, and the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, which had secured religious free- 
 dom to the Protestants. 
 
 Woman's agency in civilizing and refin- 
 ing society is too patent to admit of dis- 
 cussion — a more graceful culture and 
 purer morals spring up, like natural flow- 
 ers, wherever her feet have trod. Illus- 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. 1 5 
 
 trious examples prove her ability to fill 
 exalted positions of trust, and to cope 
 with great events ; and that keenness of 
 perception and intuitive sense of the fit- 
 ness of things, which are peculiarly char- 
 acteristic of woman, eminently qualify her 
 for the office of adviser and friend. The 
 frivolous conduct of the Egyptian queen 
 is offset by the prudence and learning of 
 the stately Elizabeth, whose able rule 
 marks the golden age of England's his- 
 tory — hers the glory to cheer on her 
 subjects to victory over an Invincible 
 Armada ! " On the proud throne of 
 France the Man of Destiny found his 
 star in the ascendant so long as the good 
 and wise Josephine was admitted to his 
 councils. 
 
 And yet, with such renowned prece- 
 dents before him — with all deference to 
 
1 6 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 her capability as civilizer, ruler and 
 counselor — the writer is constrained to 
 hope that, should the time come when 
 women have the ballot and all their so- 
 called " rights," their power may be lim- 
 ited in one branch of the public service, 
 namely, the Army. Observation and ex- 
 perience have demonstrated to him that 
 the presence of ladies in the Army is 
 prejudicial to good order and military 
 discipline. This statement may seem 
 ungallant and too comprehensive, but the 
 picture he proposes to give of Army life 
 he thinks will sustain him in the asser- 
 tion, and show that this already dominant 
 power should not be increased, but rather 
 limited and restrained. 
 
 In the armies of Europe there are re- 
 strictions upon the marriage of the offi- 
 cers, and the most rigid regulations are 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. I J 
 
 prescribed for the government of their 
 famiHes when residing at Military Posts, 
 as the presence of ladies is regarded as 
 inimical to the interests of the service ; 
 and they are oftener found there as 
 guests than as members of the garrison. 
 The Avife of an officer is verv rarelv de- 
 pendent upon her husband for a home, 
 nor would she sacrifice her wonted social 
 position for a permanent residence in the 
 Army. Durino; the immobility of the 
 armies, a large proportion of the married 
 officers are allowed to spend much of the 
 time with their families. 
 
 In our Army the enlisted men are re- 
 strained, but the officers marry at their 
 option. However agreeable may be the 
 presence of ladies, it is a noticeable fact 
 that the lack of discipline is most con- 
 spicuous at stations where the number of 
 
l8 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 ladies is greatest. They monopolize the 
 time of the bachelors as well as the time 
 of their husbands, and, consequently, those 
 little attentions which are indispensable 
 to the welfare and comfort of the enlisted 
 men are neglected. The married officer is 
 more prone to shirk duty than the unmar- 
 ried. The former, when detailed for ser- 
 vice that involves personal danger, is sur- 
 rounded by a weeping family — children 
 begging their father to remain with them, 
 and an affectionate wife appealing to the 
 love of her husband, insisting upon his 
 feigning sickness, or resorting to some 
 other subterfuge to evade the order ; — 
 
 "O thou, who art my sweetest spouse beside 
 Come now and take me into pity ! Stay 
 I' the town here with us ! Do not make thy child 
 An orphan, nor a widow thy poor wife ! " — 
 
 and the husband does not always reply as 
 did great Hector: 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. I9 
 
 " Lady, for these things 
 It is my part to care. And / fear most 
 My Trojans, and their daughters, and their wives, 
 Who through their long veils would glance scorn at 
 me, 
 
 If, coward-like, I shunned the open war. 
 
 Nor doth my own soul prompt me to that end ! " 
 
 Bachelors are free to act according to 
 their sense of professional honor. To 
 them, danger is an incentive to heroic 
 deeds, as promotion sometimes follows, 
 if they escape death. The married offi- 
 cer often fails even to visit the guard 
 after midnight, when " Officer of the Day," 
 especially if the weather is stormy. His 
 wife says, " Let the guard go to-night, 
 dear"; and, through deference to her 
 wishes, he remains in bed. 
 
 At Fort Hays, Kansas, the author 
 heard a lady complain bitterly because 
 her husband was detailed for duty that 
 
20 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 would take him away from his station, 
 and probably detain him several weeks. 
 She remarked to some friends, I think 
 it's too bad ! the Major is ordered to 
 Santa Fe on court-martial duty, and may 
 be gone till next spring, and I shall have 
 to remain here alone ! We have just 
 completed the arrangement of our house, 
 and adopted a programme for our win- 
 ter's entertainment. I think they might 
 send an tminai^ried officer ! " Turning 
 to her husband, she continued, Dear, 
 why don't you say you are sick and un- 
 able to go ; the Doctor is a kind man, 
 and I'm sure he will give you a certificate 
 of disability /'// talk to him ! " 
 
 There is usually a harmonious feeling 
 among the officers of Posts where there 
 are no ladies. They exchange cordial 
 greetings, indulge in little pleasantries of 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. 21 
 
 conversation, and always part with a de- 
 sire to meet aeain. Their social status 
 is based upon intrinsic merit instead of 
 the caprice of a giddy woman. If Con- 
 gress w^ere to enact a law requiring the 
 examination of ladies who propose to 
 make a home in the Army, as to their 
 intellectual qualifications and general fit- 
 ness, and defining their position and obli- 
 gations when residing within the military 
 jurisdiction, the same happy condition 
 might prevail throughout the Army. In 
 the absence of such a measure, an ap- 
 proximate degree of unanimity in social 
 matters might obtain, if the married and 
 the unmarried of^cers were not permitted 
 to serve togrether when the former have 
 their wives w^ith them. This would save 
 the bachelors from persecution, equalize 
 duty, and promote the interests of those 
 
22 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 who desire to study something besides 
 flirtations. However desirable such an 
 innovation might be, it is impracticable. 
 
 A remarkable case of breach of disci- 
 pline, through the influence of a woman, 
 occurred in the Department of the Pacific. 
 The ofiicer was a surgeon, stationed in 
 San Francisco, California, where his fam- 
 ily had the entre to the best society. In 
 the course of events, the Indians became 
 troublesome in the northern part of that 
 State. Anticipating a protracted cam- 
 paign, the Department Commander re- 
 inforced the troops in the hostile district 
 with men from the Presidio of San Fran- 
 cisco, and it fell to the lot of the surgeon 
 to go with them. Upon receipt of the 
 order, he hastened to inform his wife. 
 
 What an outrage ! " she exclaimed to 
 some visitors. " Think of it ! The Doc- 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. 
 
 23 
 
 tor has been ordered to the North Coast 
 to fight Indians ! I really believe it is 
 done to persecute me, and he shall not 
 go one step ! " 
 
 Actuated by a sense of duty, the Doc- 
 tor endeavored to reconcile himself to his 
 fate, and informed the indignant lady that 
 the order was imperative and could not 
 be evaded, to which she made the follow- 
 ing reply : 
 
 " That proposition is an admission of 
 weakness, and shows a lack of manliness. 
 Indomitable will and pluck to back it 
 are qualities I admire in a man. Show 
 the General that you have rights as well 
 as he, and that he cannot make a con- 
 venience of you every time troops are 
 sent after Indians. A surgeon is needed 
 here, and why don't he allow yo2c to re- 
 main Why don't he send Doctor ; 
 
24 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 he has no family and no citizen practice, 
 and wouldn't be missed ? Let the steamer 
 sail without you." 
 
 " But, my dear, I'll get into trouble," 
 replied the vacillating Doctor. 
 
 Never mind," responded the inde- 
 fatigable wife, " even if you are tried for 
 it, you will get off with a slight reprimand, 
 and in the meantime you can have the 
 comforts of home and the pleasures of 
 society, and probably the war will be 
 ended before your trial takes place." 
 
 He acted in accordance with her ad- 
 vice, and the steamer sailed without him ; 
 and, there being but two steamers per 
 month from San Francisco to the North 
 Coast, another opportunity for transpor- 
 tation could not be had in less than two 
 weeks. When it was discovered at De- 
 partment Headquarters that the Doctor 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. 25 
 
 had not complied with his order, and, fail- 
 ing to give a satisfactory explanation, he 
 was put in arrest. When " steamer day" 
 came again he was released and directed 
 to proceed to Fort Humboldt and report 
 to the District Commander for assign- 
 ment to duty, and the Provost Marshal 
 was instructed to see that he was on 
 board the ship when she was ready to 
 saili About an hour before the time 
 fixed for the vessel's departure the Mar- 
 shal, called to ascertain whether he in- 
 tended to go. Not knowing that this 
 officer was addressing him officially, the 
 Doctor said he shouTd not obey the 
 order. The Marshal then informed him 
 of his instructions, but he refused posi- 
 tively to go, saying, " I'll resign first." 
 
 During this interview the Doctor was 
 stimulated by the unwise counsel of his 
 
26 . AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 wife, who repeatedly assured him that 
 nothing serious would come of the mat- 
 ter. The Marshal withdrew from the 
 scene, and in a short time afterward a 
 guard, consisting of a lieutenant, a ser- 
 geant and four privates, confronted the 
 mutinous Doctor. After he had reiter- 
 ated his determination not to go, the 
 men were directed to seize and conduct 
 him to the steamer, which they did, re- 
 gardless of the protestations of his infu- 
 riated wife. Seeing the utter hopelessness 
 of her case, she accepted the situation 
 and hastened to prepare herself for the 
 voyage with her husband, meanwhile con- 
 soling him with the suggestion tiat she 
 would endeavor to get him assigned to 
 duty at District Headquarters, vhich, by 
 her subtle influence, she accomplished. 
 She afterward boasted of it, and said 
 
LADIES IN THE U. S. ARMY. 27 
 
 that any other officer would have^ been 
 tried for " disobedience of orders," but 
 that s/ie could keep /ler husband out of 
 trouble, and that so long as she had 
 that power, she would not permit him 
 to be used as a target for a band of 
 marauding savages. ^ 
 
 This case is related in detail to dem- 
 onstrate the fact that the ladies of the 
 Army do not regard military duty as 
 paramount to domestic felicity. 
 
 The morale of the Army is seriously 
 depreciated by the influence of women. 
 A lady of fine social qualities, whose 
 husband may be an irredeemable drunk- 
 ard, a disgrace to the Army, and a fraud 
 on mankind, insures his commission by 
 the adroit manipulation of her admirers. 
 If he stands condemned before a court- 
 martial, she may be the means of his 
 
28 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 salvation. Her artfully-planned suppli- 
 cations seldom fail to excite sympathy 
 for herself, and to restore her profligate 
 lord to all the dignity of his former rank 
 and position. Thus the Nation, as well 
 as the Army, feels her power. 
 
 Junior officers frequently suffer injus- 
 tice from the whimsical arbitration of 
 their superiors, and to this is sometimes 
 added persecution by a vindictive woman. 
 An instance may be cited of an officer 
 stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, who 
 had received an order from the Post 
 Commander, granting him seven days' 
 leave of absence, with permission to apply 
 at Department Headquarters for an ex- 
 tension of twenty days. The leave had 
 been solicited by the officer, and the 
 order granting it specified no conditions, 
 but was made in the usual form. He 
 
l'adies in the u. s. army. 29 
 
 expressed his intention to spend the 
 leave in St. Louis, and of applying from 
 that point for the extension. The night 
 before his intended departure he called 
 on several officers to bid them " good- 
 bye," and meeting agreeable people, time 
 passed unnoted until it W3.s too late to 
 call on the Commanding Officer and the 
 Adjutant. Before guard-mount the fol- 
 lowing morning these two gentlemen had 
 been informed that the Lieutenant had 
 spent the previous evening in paying his 
 parting respects to people of the garri- 
 son. The wufe of the Adjutant was furi- 
 ous in her denunciation of the officer, 
 saying that his conduct was a palpable 
 insuk to her, — that he had ignored those 
 upon whom he should call first, — and 
 directed her husband to ask the Com- 
 manding Officer to revoke the order giv- 
 
30 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY.' 
 
 ing the leave. He obeyed the mandate, 
 and the Commandant dispatched his " or- 
 derly " to the railway station, with an 
 order for the Lieutenant to report at his 
 office immediately. When the latter pre- 
 sented himself, the offended dignitary as- 
 sumed a very pompous manner and inso- 
 lently directed him to make application 
 for the extension of his leave from that 
 Post, and to remain there until a reply 
 was received. Before reaching his quar- 
 ters the Lieutenant met a party of gen- 
 tlemen, of whom he had taken leave the 
 night before, who inquired the cause of 
 delay. He could not tell them; but the 
 Adjutant, happening along just then, 
 stated that, had the Lieutenant called 
 upon the Commanding Officer and the 
 Adjutant, he might have gone when he 
 desired." 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CASTE — STAFF AND LINE. 
 
 "Order is Heaven's first law; and this confessed, 
 Some are, and must be, greater than the rest." 
 
 HERE is more caste distinction 
 
 JL among the ladies of the Army than 
 among its officers. At Posts where there 
 are many ladies, the garrison is invariably 
 divided into caste and ''affinity" cliques. 
 It is a common thing for a lady to carry 
 the rank of her husband into the social 
 circle, barely recognizing, in the most 
 formal way, the wife of an officer of lower 
 rank. At Department Headquarters 
 Posts, the parallels of distinction are 
 
 — Pope. 
 
32 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 more plainly marked — Staff ladies not 
 fraternizing generally with the ladies of 
 the Line. At all times General A meets 
 Captain B in an affable and cordial man- 
 ner, regardless of rank. But when Mrs. 
 General A meets Mrs. Captain B, she 
 assumes an air of superiority which is in- 
 compatible with her intellectual accom- 
 plishments. Mrs. Captain B realizes that 
 Mrs. General A is her inferior in every- 
 thing that distinguishes a lady, but is too 
 polite to show that she notices her pom- 
 posity, and charitably covers it with the 
 veil of submission. If an officer happens 
 to call upon a lady below the rank of Mrs. 
 General A before he has called upon her, 
 he can never heal the breach. General 
 A is directed to place the offender on dis- 
 agreeable duty, and thus she is avenged. 
 When people are exalted in their own 
 
CASTE STAFF AND LINE. 33 
 
 estimation by descent from an illustrious 
 ancestry, and maintain their heritage by 
 nobility of character, we are willing to 
 admit that there is a reasonableness in 
 their pride, and they are elevated in our 
 eyes by the conditions which give them 
 eminence in their own ; but when people 
 who come from the lowly walks of life, 
 without even the prestige of distinguished 
 ancestry — whose blood is so intricately 
 amalgamated with the various nations of 
 the earth that it would be difficult to 
 trace it — and by a mysterious freak of 
 fortune attain to a position among cult- 
 ured people, it would be commendable in 
 them to cultivate a modest reserve, rather 
 than to attempt to codify rules for the 
 social government of their superiors. 
 The most discordant garrisons are 
 
 those comprising the greatest number of 
 3 
 
34 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 ladies. Jealousies and imaginary slights 
 produce much of the unpleasantness. 
 For instance, a lady from a distant Post 
 was visiting an officer's family at Fort 
 Riley, Kansas, and a lady of the garrison, 
 desiring to extend her hospitality to the 
 fair visitor, gave a dinner party, inviting 
 the stranger and a few of her most inti- 
 mate friends. Having packed away part 
 of her dishes, preparatory to a change of 
 station, she called on a neighbor lady to 
 borrow some for the occasion. She ex- 
 plained the circumstances and expressed 
 regret that limited facilities prevented 
 the invitation of her and others, but the 
 neighbor considered herself grossly 
 slighted, and has ever since relentlessly 
 persecuted the innocent offender. 
 
 An unmarried officer, domestic in his 
 habits, who seldom calls on the ladies, 
 
CASTE STAFF AND LINE. 35 
 
 and spends much time in his quarters, is 
 generally treated with marked indiffer- 
 ence. If he should be so unfortunate as 
 to find but one congenial lady at his Post, 
 and show more attention to her than to 
 the others, they manifest their displeas- 
 ure by omitting to invite him to partici- 
 pate in their social entertainments. The 
 gentleman, unconscious of giving offense, 
 makes inquiry of his brother officers, and 
 is informed that Mrs. A says he never 
 called upon her but once, and then not 
 until after he had visited all the others. 
 Another lady states that he has not yet 
 called upon her, and that if he did so at 
 this late day she should consider it a cold 
 compliance with custom rather than a 
 desire to cultivate her acquaintance, and 
 therefore not feel honored. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DEGEXERACY OF ARMY SOCIETY POSSI- 
 BILITIES OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 "Where are the !Marys, and Anns, and Elizas. 
 Loving and lovely of yore ? " 
 
 "America ! Freedom's blest abode ! 
 Where nothing in the civil code 
 
 Prescribes a qualification I 
 Jehu for a sword his v,-hip may resign — 
 Bridget may hold stock in a silver mine; 
 Jehus and Bridgets in splendor may shine 
 In the highest station ! ^ 
 
 i GREAT number of ladies have mar- 
 
 ried into the Army since the Rebell- 
 ion who do not belong to that well-bred 
 class whose education and polish elevated 
 and rehned its society prior to that event. 
 
 ■Oliver Wexdell Holmes. 
 
 37 
 
38 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Many of the modern Army ladies were 
 simple, artless girls before they sought 
 homes in the tented field," but the sud- 
 den transition from a sphere wherein 
 they met the stern realities of life with 
 brain and muscle, to one where life seems 
 naught but sunny years, has completely 
 changed their disposition. They left be- 
 hind 
 
 "The hopes and fears of girlhood years." 
 
 The metamorphosis is probably attribu- 
 table to the prospect of the life-long situ- 
 ation of their husbands. They are in- 
 flated^ with aristocratic ideas, to which 
 they had previously been utter strangers. 
 Their thoughts do not range beyond the 
 shores of to-day, nor do they manifest a 
 desire for anything but ''brass buttons," 
 costly dresses, fine dinners, and flirtations 
 
DEGENERACY OF ARMY SOCIETY. 39 
 
 with bachelors. There are those among 
 them who make themselves conspicuous 
 on all occasions by their glibness of 
 tongue, without regard to the rules of 
 grammar or the laws of acoustics. 
 Wealth and position do not excuse the 
 lack of culture, but only tend to make it 
 a reproach. Neither can tinsel, nor the 
 ''pride, pomp, and circumstance of glori- 
 ous war," supply the place of intellectual 
 attainments and refined manners. 
 
 Unprecedented examples of the ab- 
 sence of maternal affection are common 
 in the Army. There are affluent mothers 
 of lar^e families who are so imbued with 
 a love of frivolous gayeties that they de- 
 prive themselves and their children of the 
 advantages of civilization, and eke out an 
 uncertain and miserable existence at re- 
 mote and isolated Posts on the frontier, 
 
40 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 without society, wasting away life in 
 prison-like solitude, too selfish to leave 
 the Army long enough to superintend 
 the primary instruction of their children, 
 or to have them properly matriculated in 
 an educational institution. 
 
 Army ladies, as a rule, do not consider 
 themselves adapted for the world which 
 others inhabit, and hold it to be a com- 
 mon right to military people to live only 
 within the circle of the Army. It is no 
 doubt due in a great measure to this 
 spirit that Army society is so exclusive 
 with respect to civilians. 
 
 A bright lady correspondent of an Illi- 
 nois journal, commenting upon the possi- 
 bilities of American civilization — which 
 permit one's own servant to become too 
 grand a lady to recognize her former mis- 
 tress — cites a case that came under her 
 
DEGENERACY OF ARMY SOCIETY. 4I 
 
 personal observation on the occasion of 
 General Grants reception in Chicago. 
 Desirous of obtaining a good view of the 
 hero, she took a position near the ele- 
 vator in the hotel where he was quar- 
 tered, that her curiosity might be grati- 
 fied. She was soon rewarded by the 
 passage, within a foot or two of her, of 
 the honored guest of the evening, with his 
 family, draped richly but plainly in even- 
 ing costumes, on their way to the recep- 
 tion. She says : 
 
 " Following immediately in their wake came a be- 
 ing, two beings, in fact, so resplendent that wearied 
 eyes protested against so much dazzle, and shut 
 perforce as when gazing on the sun at noontide. 
 Who can these be — these birds of plumage gay? 
 Stragglers, doubtless, from that flock of birds of 
 paradise w4iich had just taken flight. But no, the 
 Grants, in all their glory, were not attired like one 
 of these. The poet's w^ords came to my mind, 
 ' Gay, guiltless pair, what seek ye from the fields of 
 
42 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 heaven? ' but, musing thus, a light dawned on me — 
 the light of other days. This gorgeous creature 
 was once a plain, domestic fowl, scratching for daily 
 bread in the de mesne of the writer hereof. The 
 queenly being, whose robes of velvet brushed so 
 closely the plain cashmere of her former mistress, is 
 now the wife of a Captain in the Army, her cavalier 
 on the present occasion." 
 
 But let us away from Chicago and its 
 gayeties, and peep into a ball-room at a 
 Military Post in Kansas. Who is that 
 majestic lady, richly clad, and decked with 
 costly jewels, sweeping through the mazy 
 dance, her sparkling eyes and glossy hair 
 blending harmoniously with the dazzling 
 brightness of the chandelier, and her face 
 beaming with a winsome smile ? She ap- 
 proaches, and her rich Irish brogue 
 greets our ears as we recognize a former 
 laundress and now a Captain's wife ! For 
 the sake of romance, what a pity she 
 
DEGENERACY OF ARMY SOCIETY. 43 
 
 could not leave the evidence of her na- 
 tionality in the wash-tub when she last 
 performed the duties of her office ! Per- 
 haps no one regrets this more than she, 
 for sometimes she drowns the memory of 
 her origin in a ''wee dhrap of the cra- 
 thur!" 
 
 Now, to a Post still farther west. A 
 lady and a gentleman are crossing the 
 parade ground, evidently a newly married 
 couple in the first stage of their honey- 
 moon. Notwithstanding it is noonday, 
 she holds one of his hands, swinging it 
 to and fro, as they slowly advance, and 
 many faces are peering from barrack 
 windows and doors with an eagerness 
 which suggests that they are reminded 
 of the girl they left behind them. But, 
 hold ! We are mistaken ! It is only a 
 little flirtation ! The lady is the wife of 
 
44 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the Post Commander, and the officer is 
 a bachelor ! Her rudeness is no doubt 
 due to a lack of early training and 
 ignorance of the usages of polite society, 
 rather than to conscious impropriety. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MARRYING FOR POSITION. 
 
 "Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by gUre." 
 
 — Byron. 
 
 " Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
 While I thy amiable cheeks do coy. 
 And stick musk-roses in thy sleek, smooth head, 
 And kiss thy fair, large ears, my gentle joy/' 
 — Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 THE Army seems to have a peculiar 
 fascination for women. Gaudy uni- 
 forms excite the admiration of many to 
 such a blinding degree that they are in- 
 competent to analyze the character of 
 the persons who animate them. We re- 
 call the story of the German Professor 
 who paced Monmouth street, London, 
 
 45 
 
46 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 worshiping the old clothes in the Jews' 
 shops, thinking that as they were purified 
 from the grossness, the sin and the 
 hypocrisy they contained when worn by 
 men, he could now indulge in his devo- 
 tions without fear of deceiving himself 
 or others. If the sentiment of the ladies 
 were as highly ideal as that of the Pro- 
 fessor, and their reverence, like his, con- 
 fined to the "shells or outer husks of the 
 body," their future happiness, in many 
 cases, vv^ould be greatly enhanced. The 
 luster of the buttons has a charming 
 influence, like the light of a serpent's eye. 
 Highly educated and refined young ladies 
 marry officers with whom, as civilians, 
 they would never come in contact. 
 There may be something noble and 
 patriotic in a fair lady giving herself to 
 a brave and chivalrous man, when all 
 
MARRYING FOR POSITION. 
 
 47 
 
 things are equal ; but it is painfully 
 degrading for ladies of refinement, amply 
 endowed with the treasures of this world, 
 to become the wives of foreigners of no 
 culture — men who enlisted as private 
 soldiers for occupation, and in the na- 
 tion's emergency were commissioned, but 
 who still reek with the odor of the ranks, 
 and some of them addicted to excesses 
 seldom met with in the darkest shades 
 of a great city — revels vile enough to 
 make midnight blush and hell ashamed ; 
 foreigners who, even now, speak poor, 
 broken English, and in civil life would be 
 classed with the section hands of a rail- 
 road. 
 
 " To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 Timorous." 
 
 Such officers spend their days in the 
 most narrow and limited situation of life, 
 
48 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 and have no immediate influence except 
 on a small circle of conorenial friends. 
 Every one of this class is not so fortu- 
 nate as to have a wife so eminently his 
 superior. Some marry within their own 
 sphere and get women who may have 
 done your washing or scrubbed your 
 floors in days gone by, but who look 
 down with pitying eyes upon you now. 
 Rank is their controlling social power, 
 as well as the standard of their social 
 position. They take no pleasure in 
 books, needlework, or anything that 
 would divert them from schemes of riot- 
 ous living ; but it must not be inferred 
 from this that they are Epicurean in their 
 tastes. However, there are not a suffi- 
 cient number of this class to materially 
 affect the common status. 
 
 The frequent great disparity in age 
 
MARRYING FOR POSITION. 49 
 
 leads one to suspect that position, rather 
 than affection, was the controlHng motive 
 on the part of the ladies in these ill- 
 sorted unions. "Cupid's flower" could 
 hardly make " poor females " so mad as 
 these outside of a play,. When we see 
 a fair young wife carefully investing her 
 aged and uncongenial husband's monthly 
 stipend, vv^ith a view to accumulation, is it 
 altogether base in us to suspect that she 
 is looking forward to a day when 
 
 " No sound can awake him to glory again,'' 
 
 and she will be free to make a selection 
 more compatible with her tastes, or, 
 perhaps, marry the lover of her youth ? 
 
 4 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHERE THE PUBLIC MONEY GOES. 
 Where lies the power, there let the blame lie, too." 
 
 HE pressure of social requirements 
 
 -L causes much of the money appro- 
 priated by Congress for the support of 
 the Army to be squandered for levees 
 and entertainments, and other purposes 
 not anticipated in the estimates. The 
 demands of the ladies, to keep the social 
 machinery in motion, take precedence of 
 all others. 
 
 A party and " hop," given at a Post on 
 the frontier, was attended by officers 
 whose stations were hundreds of miles 
 
52 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 distant. They were summoned osten- 
 sibly on official business, so that their 
 transportation and hotel bills, both zvays, 
 should be paid by the United States. 
 This was done at the instigation of the 
 
 <z> 
 
 Department Commander's wife, seconded 
 by other ladies of the garrison, in order 
 to insure the attendance of a large num- 
 ber of gentlemen. Their efforts brought 
 together thirty-five officers and twenty- 
 three ladies. This, too, at a time when 
 the appropriations for the Army were 
 deficient several hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars, and when the public animals 
 serving in that Territory were worked 
 hard in the field on a starvation allow- 
 ance of forage, viz : foui^ pOM7ids of graiii 
 per day for cavalry horses, and three 
 pounds for mules. The following extract, 
 corroborating this statement, is taken 
 
WHERE THE PUBLIC MONEY GOES. 53 
 
 from an official letter addressed to the 
 Chief Quartermaster of the Department 
 by a Post Quartermaster, asking for an 
 increase of forage for the public animals 
 at his station : 
 
 "According to existing orders, scouting must be 
 done by the troops of this Command, and, to enable 
 them to do it, the animals ought to receive at least 
 two-thirds of the quantity of hay allowed by law, 
 and three-fourths of the allowance of grain. Four 
 pounds of grain per day for horses so poor and 
 jaded, and worked hard, are insufficient." 
 
 Large sums of money are expended 
 for constructing and altering buildings 
 to make them conform to the ideas of 
 affectedly-fastidious ladies. This source 
 of expenditure is of greater magnitude 
 than may be inferred from the mere 
 mention of the fact. It sometimes com- 
 prises the changing of plans and specifi- 
 cations for new buildings after they have 
 
54 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 been approved by the Secretary of War. 
 All the quarters at Fort Hays, Kansas, 
 were not constructed accordine to the 
 ''approved" plans. An officer was once 
 detailed to furnish the Quartermaster- 
 General drawings showing the ground- 
 plan, front elevation, and a vertical sec- 
 tion of the buildings of that Post, and 
 when the first one was completed the 
 Commanding Officer examined it and 
 said, ''You must not make such pretty 
 pictures ! The Quartermaster-General 
 will think our houses are too fine for the 
 Plains, and will blow us up for extrava- 
 gance ! " The drawings were accurate 
 likenesses, having been made from actual 
 measurement drawn to scale, and the 
 Commandant need not have feared in- 
 spection if he had not allowed the modi- 
 fications and alterations which were sug- 
 
WHERE THE PUBLIC MONEY GOES. 55 
 
 gested by the ladies who expected to 
 occupy the houses. 
 
 The beauty and chivalry of that Post, 
 like the fraternity elsewhere, were desir- 
 ous of having a suitable place to meet 
 
 To chase the glowing hours with flying feet; " 
 
 but as the Terpsichorean art was not 
 prescribed by the Army Regulations, no 
 appropriation could be properly solicited 
 or made for the construction of a dance- 
 hall. Lack of funds, however, was no 
 obstacle to the combined ingenuity of 
 that garrison. A bright lady present al- 
 luded to the fact that that Post had a 
 Chaplain, but no chapel, and that Fort 
 Marker, Kansas, had been abandoned, 
 and suggested that application be made 
 to the War Department for permission to 
 remove a house from the latter Post to 
 
56 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Fort Hays for a chapel. The officers 
 adopted this philanthropic lady's plan, 
 and immediately made application in ac- 
 cordance therewith. The Hon. Secretary 
 of War was much pleased with the chris- 
 tian spirit manifested by the people of 
 Fort Hays in thus desiring to do some- 
 thing for the redemption of man from his 
 lamentable and fallen condition. They 
 could not reach his heart so readily with 
 any other appeal. Feeling that he, too, 
 might aid in ameliorating the condition 
 of human souls and promote Christianity, 
 by furnishing the means through which 
 the gospel might reach the ears of thou- 
 sands of weary pilgrims, he was extremely 
 happy to grant their request, believing 
 that, 
 
 "With some regard to what is just and right 
 They'll lead their lives." 
 
WHERE THE PUBLIC MONEY GOES. 57 
 
 After his approval was obtained, work- 
 men were sent to Fort Harker to take 
 down a barrack building one hundred 
 and five feet in length, which was shipped 
 to Fort Hays, at great expense, where it 
 was reconstructed on a new plan. Twen- 
 ty-five feet were partitioned off for the 
 worship of the Lord, and the remaining 
 eighty feet constituted a room for danc- 
 inof, theatrical and other amusements. 
 The Post Council of Administration then 
 appropriated money from the Post Fund 
 to furnish the Chapel ; and, as the entire 
 building was known and designated as 
 "The Chapel," it was not considered a 
 misapplication of funds to furnish both 
 rooms, nothwithstanding the Post Fund 
 is made from the proceeds of the sale of 
 fiour withheld from the soldiers' rations. 
 A few cheap, unpainted benches, such as 
 
58 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 are used in country school-houses, and a 
 pulpit about the size and shape of a bee- 
 hive, comprised the furniture of the room 
 set apart for divine worship. The other 
 room was more elaborately furnished. 
 On the end adjoining the Chapel was a 
 stage that would have done credit to 
 a first-class minstrel hall, having foot- 
 lights, drop-curtain, wings, scenery, and 
 all the appliances necessary for its pur- 
 pose. Pretty chandeliers lighted this 
 room, and flags, guidons and mottoes 
 decorated its ceiline and walls. A door 
 opened onto the stage, which made the 
 Chapel convenient for a green-room on 
 occasions of theatrical entertainments, 
 and for a cloak-room when " hops " were 
 given ; and it is thought that the ladies 
 had this in view when they suggested 
 the plan of construction. 
 
WHERE THE PUBLIC MONEY GOES. 59 
 
 The only official protest the author 
 ever heard expressed against the use of 
 the Post Fund for anything the ladies 
 desired was that of a grouty old cavalry- 
 man, whose wrinkled front grim-visaged 
 war" had not smoothed. He was a 
 member of a Council of Administration 
 when a colleague proposed to make an 
 appropriation for the purchase of an 
 organ for the above Chapel. When this 
 proposition was made, the angry Captain 
 sprang to his feet and said: 
 
 I protest against the expenditure of 
 the Post Fund for any such nonsense. 
 My men are now half starved to support 
 a band they seldom hear, and I will not 
 consent to the purchase of an organ for 
 the Sunday entertainment of the non- 
 combatants. I demand more bread and 
 less music for my men ! " 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE. 
 
 " Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield." 
 
 — Dryden. 
 
 THE ladies do not only manipulate 
 the social affairs of the Army, but 
 they are the power behind the throne 
 which directs the administration of much 
 of the official business. There is always 
 an Egeria to dictate, but, not being of 
 celestial origin, her oracles are not infalli- 
 ble. The garrison of Headquarters Posts 
 is selected by the wife of the Command- 
 ing Officer, when the number of troops 
 required is less than a regiment. She 
 designates the companies whose officers 
 
 6i 
 
62 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 are the most agreeable to her. Gentlemen 
 who are so unfortunate as to incur her 
 displeasure are put upon detached service 
 that will take them away from the Post ; 
 or, their company is exchanged for one 
 whose officers are more congenial to her, 
 and who are willing to bend the supple 
 knee that thrift may follow fawning." 
 If the commander be a widower or bache- 
 lor, the selection is made by the lady 
 whose favorite he is for the time being, as 
 gallantry forbids that he should choose a 
 garrison objectionable in any degree to 
 one who is so preeminently correct in her 
 estimate of intellectual power and refine- 
 ment, and so capable of selecting a society 
 adapted to all the ends of elegant inter- 
 course. He is simply her executive, and 
 through him she persecutes with an excess 
 of onerous and unpleasant duties all offi- 
 
THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE. 63 
 
 cers who are unwilling to " bow and sue 
 for grace." 
 
 At a station in one of the Territories, 
 the Commandant, in the presence of his 
 wife, directed his Adjutant to detail an 
 officer and twenty men for service in the 
 field, and, after receiving a synopsis of 
 the duties required of the party, the 
 Adjutant started for his office to issue 
 the necessary order, when the lady said 
 
 to him, Put Lieut. on that detail 
 
 — I want to get him away from the Post ; 
 and if he don't get killed, perhaps he 
 will be more respectful when he returns." 
 Soon afterward, the Adjutant ascertained 
 that this was a measure for revenge ; that 
 a day or two previous she was outwitted 
 by the Lieutenant in vulgar repartee. 
 
 Even a laundress has been known to 
 have sufficient influence to retain a com- 
 
64 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 pany at its station nearly all of one sum- 
 mer, though the Post Commander had 
 orders from Department Headquarters to 
 alternate it with another company in the 
 performance of a specific duty. She had 
 formerly been a trusted servant in his 
 family, thus obtaining a prestige that in- 
 sured any favor she might solicit. Her 
 influence was used in this instance to 
 keep her husband, who was First Sergeant 
 of the troop, out of the field. When the 
 Captain of the favored company was asked 
 how he managed to remain in camp, he 
 replied, with a knowing wink, Every 
 Captain hasn't a laundress at Headquar- 
 ters." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 Hey down derry, 
 
 We'll drink and be merry, 
 
 In spite of Mahomet's law." 
 
 IT is incomprehensibly strange that so 
 many ladies yield to the demoralizing 
 influences of the Army without any ap- 
 parent compunctions, and really seem to 
 covet the attention of profligate sons of 
 Mars, who, in civil life, would be pro- 
 nounced fit subjects for an inebriate 
 asylum. They frequently bestov/ their 
 smiles and approving glances upon the 
 debauches who show the least regard for 
 the proprieties of refined society, and 
 
 5 65 
 
66 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 even participate in the Bacchanalian 
 revels so common at Military Posts, lend- 
 ing their voices to swell the chorus of 
 "Benny Havens, oh!" Plaudit and ap- 
 probation from so exalted a source have an 
 irresistible influence upon the young offi- 
 cer fresh from the Academy, and he soon 
 abandons those habits of morality which 
 were acquired by years of rigid disci- 
 pline. 
 
 It is customary for Army ladies to use 
 stimulants, but excesses are exceptional. 
 When one of them does cross the Rubi- 
 con, it is for a good time generally. Some 
 of these convivialities are enjoyed by gen- 
 tlemen and ladies together, in a quiet way, 
 as an episode to a dinner, or as a sort of 
 interlude to a card party. There are also 
 informal occasions, which are often bois- 
 terous, as when a member of a garrison 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 67 
 
 is about to depart on a protracted " leave," 
 or for permanent absence. For instance, 
 we recall the leave-taking of a Post Com- 
 mander stationed in one of the Territories. 
 The ladies and officers of the Post assem- 
 bled at his quarters to pay their parting 
 respects to him and his wife. It was the 
 unanimous desire to give them a good 
 send-off, and in order to make it more 
 enthusiastic, the host himself provided a 
 liberal supply of wine and other bever- 
 ages. After several songs had been sung, 
 and toasts given and responded to, the 
 guests joined in an aboriginal /'^i" de deux, 
 called " War Dance," which would have 
 done credit to an Apache tiswin party. 
 They kept time to their hideous chant 
 by spasmodic jerks of their bodies, as 
 they hopped around the room in a circle, 
 alternating the foot every hop. The di- 
 
68 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 sheveled hair,flushed cheeks, drooping eye- 
 lids, and high-stepping of the ladies, were 
 the first visible effects of the wine. When 
 the celebration had reached its zenith, the 
 hostess, who had been over-zealous in her 
 efforts to make this a memorable event, 
 sank ungracefully into a shapeless mass 
 upon a lounge, her spinal column having 
 failed to perform its function. 
 
 " Her look exceeded her figure." 
 
 Though her physical anatomy had suc- 
 cumbed, she still had partial control of 
 her mental faculties, and being actuated 
 by the same spirit of hospitality she had 
 manifested throuo^hout the occasion, she 
 turned her head so as to bring the eye 
 which was the least oblivious to bear 
 upon the party, which she scanned to 
 ascertain if all were helped, as they were 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 69 
 
 about to drink ; and seeing that everyone 
 had a glass in hand except the Adjutant, 
 she directed her husband, who was almost 
 helplessly drunk, to wait upon that officer. 
 While the others were drinkino- she ob- 
 served that the Adjutant placed his glass 
 upon the mantel-piece without tasting its 
 contents. This she construed into an 
 act of disrespect, and, becoming exasper- 
 ated almost beyond control, her language 
 and manner would have intimidated a 
 man of less nerve. 
 
 In civilian circles there are sometimes 
 found ladies who drink to excess, but 
 prefer to be exclusive and indulge their 
 bibulous propensities without company. 
 The Army has no immunity from the 
 evils which afflict civilian society, and 
 therefore has its proportional share of 
 that class of inebriates. Two examples 
 
70 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 may be mentioned of ladies who aim to 
 be very exclusive on the occasions of 
 their dissipation, but sometimes lose con- 
 trol of themselves and gain notorious 
 publicity. One, a cultivated lady of high 
 social standing, is preeminently dignified 
 and fastidious when under the influence 
 of liquor, and the peculiarity which marks 
 her case is a mania for visiting restau- 
 rants, where she can have her brandy 
 and food served too;ether. The other 
 is a woman of no culture, and her case 
 may be given more in detail, as showing 
 the effect of intoxicants on a sanguine 
 temperament. She once became intoxi- 
 cated and visited several persons with 
 whom she was displeased, threatened 
 them with annihilation, and used profane 
 and blasphemous language on the parade 
 ground, where she was seen and heard 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 71 
 
 by the officers and the enlisted men of 
 the entire command. She has since 
 broken the monotony of several Posts 
 by similar crusades. Alcohol has stifled 
 her sense of shame, and, as the ocean 
 wave washes away idle tracings in the 
 sands of the shore, so intemperance has 
 obliterated all characteristics of true 
 womanhood. 
 
 It has been a common thing for the 
 ladies of a Post in Kansas to accom- 
 pany their husbands to the trader's store 
 to play billiards and imbibe wine and 
 beer. This, too, in a room separated 
 only by a thin partition from the one 
 provided for the enlisted men. The par- 
 tition does not extend to the ceiling, 
 and over the top of it comes the vilest 
 billingsgate from the mouths of drunken 
 men of the lowest type. Frequenting 
 
72 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 this saloon has been considered, until 
 recently, a privilege of the officers only. 
 The ladies claim that the}/ made the in- 
 novation in self-defense, as their hus- 
 bands spent most of their time there ; 
 and that, as the Constitution of the 
 United States regards the pursuit of hap- 
 piness as much the prerogative of women 
 as of men, they will vindicate their rights 
 at the trader's bar rather than at the 
 "caudle." This practice also prevails at 
 some Posts in the Territories, but the 
 billiard-room is usually more remote from 
 the common bar-room. 
 
 In the higher walks of civilian society, 
 do ladies accompany their husbands to 
 billiard and liquor saloons? Such an act 
 would entail reproach upon them indi- 
 vidually ; but a particular society, like 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 73 
 
 the Army, is affected collectively by the 
 questionable practices of a few. 
 
 The ladies of the Army have a wide 
 field for the exercise of beneficent influ- 
 ence, and if those whose husbands rank 
 high would eschew wine on all occasions, 
 and ignore all persons addicted to its 
 use, their example would be followed by 
 the wives of subordinates as a matter of 
 policy, and the evil of intemperance would 
 soon disappear from the Army. The true 
 excellence and importance of ladies who 
 display themselves morally and intellect- 
 ually may be seen in the great influence 
 wdiich they exert on the character of the 
 immediate circle in which they move. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FREEDOM OF MANNERS. 
 
 Free thought that scorns control/' 
 
 — Trumbull. 
 
 THERE is a freedom of manners 
 among the ladies of the Army that 
 does not obtain in the best civiHan so- 
 ciety. This may be attributed to their ex- 
 clusive mode of life, and to the common 
 belief that the officers are all Chevalier 
 Bayards. This is, in some respects, a pleas- 
 ant feature of Army life. Married ladies 
 may accept costly presents and receive 
 little attentions and visits from ao^reeable 
 bachelors without provoking the jealousy 
 of their husbands or offending^ the oren- 
 
 75 
 
76 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY, 
 
 eral sense of propriety. It is a recog- 
 nized privilege of an A.rmy lady to call 
 upon any officer for a favor in the ab- 
 sence of her husband. The wife of an 
 officer of highest rank, accompanied by 
 a lady friend, stops her carriage in front 
 of his Headquarters, and, perceiving that 
 the sidewalks are icy and slippery, asks a 
 gentleman, who has just emerged from 
 the doorway, to assist them in alighting. 
 She being rather portly, and the gentle- 
 man small, and an invalid at the time, the 
 undertaking involved more than ordinary 
 courage. They went slipping and sliding 
 at the imminent peril of both, and, not- 
 withstanding the preponderance of rank, 
 and the smiling faces at the windows 
 above them, he performed the service to 
 the satisfaction of all concerned. The 
 gentleman was unknown at the time to 
 
FREEDOM OF MANNERS. 
 
 77 
 
 the distinguished lady who made the re- 
 quest, but, when thanking him for the 
 service he had rendered, she said that, 
 seeing he was an officer of the Army, she 
 felt at liberty to call itpon him. 
 
 This Hcense is often abused, the free- 
 dom of conduct evincing a lack of that 
 thought which characterizes propriety, 
 and which is never met with among 
 cultivated civilians. Whatever may be 
 the merit of Army ladies in other re- 
 spects, there is often a painful absence of 
 that delicate bloom of tenderness and 
 refinement which mark the true woman 
 in all the varied circumstances of life. 
 Perversion of manners from their wonted 
 simplicity stamps Army society with a 
 peculiarity seldom found among people 
 who assume to have reached the acme of 
 social attainment, Now and then some 
 
78 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 circumstance or other irresistibly recalls 
 our attention to this point, A very ac- 
 complished and highly connected lady, 
 with French ditties on her tongue and mu- 
 sic in her fingers, once visited a Military 
 Post in Kansas and made such a brilliant 
 display of her talents that she turned the 
 heads of half a dozen gentlemen, old and 
 young, who were simultaneously inspired 
 with a desire to possess this bird of sweet 
 song. A lively rivalry ensued, which she 
 terminated by giving her hand to the one 
 whose position would afford her the 
 greatest latitude to gratify a penchant 
 for parading her accomplishments. The 
 vicissitudes of Army life soon afterward 
 scattered the garrison to different parts 
 of the frontier, taking this lady to a re- 
 mote Post. About two years afterward 
 she returned to the scene of her conquest 
 
FREEDOM OF MANNERS. 
 
 79 
 
 on a visit, where she met one of her for- 
 mer admirers, who was again stationed 
 there. The accommodations of her host- 
 ess were somewhat limited, and, upon the 
 arrival of other guests, she feigned sick- 
 ness, and was tendered the hospitality of 
 the other ladies of the Post, but persist- 
 ently declined their offers and accepted a 
 room in the quarters of the admirer al- 
 luded to, who was still a bachelor. The 
 Post Surgeon, who was a gentleman of 
 the highest integrity, was then sent for, 
 and the lady's perfectly healthy condition 
 revealed to him the subterfuge, to which 
 he declined to become a party, and re- 
 fused to treat her. However, she did 
 not suffer for attention. Meals were sent 
 to her from the Officers' Mess, and the 
 bachelor in whose care she had placed 
 herself was employed night and day in 
 
8o 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the preparation of beef tea and tonic de- 
 coctions. Here she held her little court, 
 all the bachelors and some of the married 
 gentlemen nightly gathering at her bed- 
 side, smoking and drinking, and enter- 
 taining her with songs. Madame de Stael, 
 surrounded by the most distinguished 
 men of her time, discussing literature, 
 politics and philosophy, was not happier 
 than this woman, who exclaimed, on one 
 of these occasions, " I'm in my glory 
 now!" Her husband, hearing of her 
 " indisposition," came and took her back 
 to his station. As soon as she boarded 
 the train, early in the afternoon, she 
 asked to have her berth prepared, so that 
 she could lie down. There was a bach- 
 elor officer on the train, destined for the 
 same Post, who happened to occupy the 
 adjoining section. While reclining upon 
 
FREEDOM OF MANNERS. 
 
 8i 
 
 her bed, she called him to her and re- 
 quested him to remove her boot and 
 ascertain if there was not a sand-burr in 
 it, or sticking to her stocking, as some- 
 thing was pricking her foot. [The pa- 
 rade-ground of the Post she had just left 
 was covered with Qrrass which bore a 
 small burr, about which the ladies had 
 frequently complained because they ad- 
 hered to their skirts and stockings, and 
 sometimes even got into their boots.] 
 Two perfect specimens of the genus Old 
 Maid occupied the section opposite this 
 lady, and as her manners were quite new 
 and strange to them, they gazed at her 
 with inquisitive and undivided attention 
 from the moment she entered the car. 
 Their demure faces grew long and bore 
 an expression of horror when she asked 
 the officer to remove her boot and look 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 for the sand-burr. They looked on with 
 ''sad but curious view" until the report 
 of the search was rendered, when they 
 directed the porter to prepare their bed 
 immediately. When it was ready, they 
 disappeared behind the curtain as if mak- 
 ing their exit from impending danger. It 
 is needless to add that, after diligent 
 search, the offending burr was not found, 
 but the little foot and neatly turned ankle 
 were sufficiently admired to alleviate her 
 pain. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS. DRESS. 
 
 *'By sports like these are all their cares beguiled." 
 
 — Goldsmith. 
 
 "Is it not to clothes that most men do reverence?" 
 
 — Sartor Resartus. 
 
 THE contingencies of Army life — 
 parting agreeable acquaintances 
 and sundering the ties of friendship — 
 separating loved ones for a season, and 
 often forever — might lead the unin- 
 formed to think that it is enshrouded in 
 perpetual gloom ; that ladies, whose lives 
 are frequently imperiled by the raids of 
 savages while their husbands are engaged 
 
 in mortal combat on distant fields, would 
 
 83 
 
Sa AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 be sad, melancholy and prayerful. On 
 the contrary, they are peculiarly gay and 
 light-hearted, taking advantage of every 
 opportunity for enjoyment, regarding all 
 occasions and circumstances as favorable 
 for 
 
 " Sport that wrinkled care derides/' 
 
 They have a happy faculty for recon- 
 ciling the most chaotic mixture of ma- 
 ternal and domestic duties, and blending 
 them in perfect harmony with anything 
 that is frolicsome. Their creed is, 
 
 "A merry heart goes all the day, 
 Your sad tires in a mile-a." 
 
 The writer once arrived at a Post and 
 learned that the officers and ladies were 
 holding a picnic at a point about five 
 miles distant. He proceeded to the 
 place, and, finding the party engaged in 
 dancing, went into the shade of a friendly 
 
AMUSEMENTS 
 
 DRESS. 
 
 85 
 
 tree to rest and enjoy the happy scene 
 before him. Perceiving a small bundle, 
 apparently ladies' wraps, in a convenient 
 location, he was about to drop his weary 
 body upon it, when a lady rushed fran- 
 tically from the midst of a whirling circle 
 of dancers, and, with uplifted hands, 
 shouted at the top of her voice, Don't 
 sit on my baby, you'll kill it!" Aston- 
 ished, he suddenly straightened and 
 looked behind him, and sure enough, the 
 bundle was writhinor and twistinof as if 
 something within were endeavoring to 
 extricate itself. The lady laughed heart- 
 ily as she took from the roll a babe about 
 six weeks old ! 
 
 The same gentleman accompanied a 
 party of ladies and officers to a camp of 
 Indian scouts, one evening, to witness 
 a genuine war dance. The frightfully 
 
86 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 painted faces of the warriors, rendered 
 more hideous by the dim light of the fire 
 around which the dance began, and their 
 wild chant and cadenced step, presented 
 a picture of savage delight that was both 
 interesting and terrifying to those not 
 familiar with such scenes. When the 
 Indians became thoroughly warmed and 
 excited, the ladies and some of the gen- 
 tlemen left the group of spectators and 
 joined in the dance. The scouts re- 
 garded the participation of the " white 
 squaws " as an omen of success in the 
 next expedition against the hostiles. 
 The intermittent firing of their rifles 
 now became a deafening fusillade. They 
 danced faster and chanted louder than 
 before, and it was not long until the 
 entire party was hidden in a smudge that 
 recalled a dog-fight in a dusty road. 
 
AMUSEMENTS 
 
 DRESS. 
 
 87 
 
 The officers are constantly devising 
 ways and means for the diversion and 
 amusement of the ladies ; and they seem 
 to be actuated by the same spirit that 
 made gladiatorial human butchery neces- 
 sary for the perfection of a Roman holi- 
 day, as they do not hesitate to risk life 
 or limb to accomplish their object. And 
 our Government is so eenerous and P:al- 
 
 o o 
 
 lant that it places upon the " Retired 
 List" officers who become incapacitated 
 for active service by wounds or fractures 
 received in this way, construing such 
 noble self-sacrifice as comino- within the 
 "line of duty"; it makes no distinction 
 between the bullet-riddled veteran and 
 the young officer who cracks his patella 
 in attempting a summersault for the edi- 
 fication of the ladies. 
 
 In the matter of dress, the ladies of 
 
88 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the Army do not differ materially from 
 their sisters elsewhere. To wear clothes 
 wisely and well seems to be the chief aim 
 in life of many. No sacrifice is too great 
 for them, even to the extent of involvinor 
 their husbands in debt beyond the reach 
 of their salaries. Costly fabrics are not 
 always the principal item of expense, as 
 when a lady pays four dollars for mate- 
 rial, and sixteen dollars to a modiste for 
 makina it into a dress. Comfort and 
 health are regarded as bodily pleasures 
 too gross to be considered in the pres- 
 ence of such a subject. Many resolutely 
 brave the bitter cold of winter with half- 
 clad head and shoulders rather than lose 
 any effect of the toilet. The Hindoo 
 devotee, who remains in one position 
 until his joints are stiffened, is scarcely 
 more deprived of bodily freedom than 
 
AMUSEMENTS DRESS. 89 
 
 the well-trained Army belle, whose con- 
 ventional dress requires the abandon- 
 ment of every free and natural move- 
 ment. The human form divine is forced 
 into the most distorted shapes to accom- 
 modate it to garments sufficiently small 
 to be considered orthodox. The dusky 
 squaw, arrayed in her red blanket and 
 beads and bangles, exhibits no more 
 strongly her inherent love of decoration 
 than does her pale-faced sister who often 
 sacrifices her sense of good taste and 
 her love of the beautiful in obedience to 
 the mandates of fashion. We would not, 
 however, speak disparagingly of dress. 
 It not only embellishes those with whom 
 nature has dealt sparingly, but it imparts 
 additional charms to the handsome face 
 and form. Dress has advantages pos- 
 sessed by no other external feature — it 
 
90 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 secures favor and attention where poor 
 attire even begs for civility. An Army 
 Surgeon was once returning to Fort 
 Dodge, Kansas, from detached service, 
 via the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
 Railroad, and, after the train had passed 
 through the more thickly settled parts of 
 the country, there were no passengers 
 remaining on board except those des- 
 tined for remote points on the frontier. 
 Among them was a tall, finely dressed 
 woman, evidentlv traveling alone. Her 
 appearance attracted the attention of the 
 Surgeon, who thought such elegance so 
 far from civilization must necessarily 
 belong to the Army, and being delighted 
 with the prospect of terminating his 
 journey more pleasantly than it began, 
 he acted upon this presumption and 
 introduced himself. Upon learning her 
 
AMUSEMENTS 
 
 DRESS. 
 
 91 
 
 name; and that she was going to Fort 
 Dodge to join her husband, then en 
 route to that Post with troops from Fort 
 Hays, he congratulated himself upon the 
 accuracy of his perception, and gallantly 
 placed himself at her service. He ex- 
 pressed himself delighted with the acqui- 
 sition of herself and husband to the 
 garrison, and assured her that the ladies 
 and gentlemen would feel highly honored 
 in extending to them a cordial welcome. 
 Not beinor accustomed to little attentions 
 and courtesies from so exalted a source, 
 she looked upon the chivalrous Surgeon 
 with suspicion, and assumed a dignified 
 reticence, which only added vigor to his 
 efforts to get better acquainted. Mis- 
 taking reserve and diffidence for fatigue, 
 he pulled off his overcoat, folded it into 
 a convenient shape for a pillow, and 
 
92 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 offered it to her, but she modestly de- 
 clined it. The indefatigable Surgeon 
 was at last highly gratified when she 
 condescended to accept a glass of water. 
 His success in finally getting into her 
 eood orraces so mixed his zeal and enthu- 
 siasm that, in the attempt to procure the 
 water, he stumbled over several lunch 
 baskets and satchels, and whatever else 
 came in his way, much to the annoyance 
 of his fellow-passengers. She maintained 
 the same demeanor throughout the jour- 
 ney, which only strengthened his first 
 impressions and increased the ardor of 
 his attentions. When they arrived at 
 Dodge City, supposing the lady was 
 going directly to the Fort, which was five 
 miles from the railway station, he offered 
 her the hospitality of his house, which 
 she refused, and insisted upon going to a 
 
AMUSEMENTS DRESS. 
 
 93 
 
 hotel to await the arrival of her husband. 
 The somewhat nonplused Surgeon had 
 to content himself with bearino^ her "biof 
 box, little box, bandbox and bundles" to 
 the hotel. After assuring the lady that 
 he would inform her husband of her 
 arrival, he departed for the Fort. When 
 he arrived there he learned, to his in- 
 tense astonishment, that this eleofant 
 piece of femininity to whom he had 
 shov/n such distinguished attention was 
 not the wife of a captain, as he supposed, 
 but of a sergeant of the same name. 
 She was a bride, and had come to assume 
 the duties of laundress of the company 
 to which her husband belonged. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOW MUCH OF THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF 
 ARMY LIFE MIGHT BE OBVIATED. 
 
 THOUGH some of the practices re- 
 ferred to in the foregoing chapters 
 may be considered objectionable, yet the 
 tenderness of womanly feeling should not 
 be excluded from exerting its due influ- 
 ence on the Army. That noble sense of 
 delicacy which is peculiar to the sex 
 should be ranked among the means for 
 purifying and refining its social character. 
 And even under the present order of 
 things, much unpleasantness might be 
 obviated if the officers would inform their 
 wives, First — That military duties are 
 
 95 
 
96 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 paramount to all others. Second — That 
 they should not feel slighted if the gentle- 
 men do not make frequent calls, but at- 
 tribute it to circumstances which may 
 prevent, rather than to a disregard of 
 social duties. TJm^d — Impress upon their 
 minds the fact that the government makes 
 no provision for ladies in the allotment of 
 quarters, etc. ; that they can claim nothing 
 as a right ; that they are merely the re- 
 cipients of its courtesy. 
 
 Those officers of the General Staff who 
 have been stationed in eastern cities until 
 they have lost their identity as soldiers 
 will be no less surprised at some of the 
 statements herein than citizens at large, 
 as they see but little of Army society 
 proper. A brief experience in the " Line," 
 however, would convince them that the 
 facts have not been exaofo^erated. And 
 
MILITARY DUTIES. 97 
 
 to those with whose sense of propriety 
 Army usages are not inconsistent, the 
 writer would here state that there are 
 ladies and gentlemen who have success- 
 fully resisted their corrupting influences, 
 like those who have lived in a crowded 
 city during a plague w^ithout infection. 
 Nature is not more constant in her benefi- 
 cent purposes than they have been to the 
 noblest attributes of human character, 
 and the valor with which they have sup- 
 ported their love of principle and justice 
 
 must ever elicit honor and reverence. 
 7 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 
 SOCIALLY AND OFFICIALLY. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ARROGANCE. 
 
 " Upon what meat does this our Csesar feed, 
 That he is grown so great ? " 
 
 — Shakspeare. 
 
 IT is worthy of remark that the chiv- 
 alrous spirit which had attained its full 
 perfection in the Army before the Great 
 Rebellion of 1861 is nearly extinct. It 
 is only necessary to run over a few in- 
 stances in order to see how infinitely less 
 prevalent this inspiration, with its moral 
 and intellectual influences, is now, than 
 it was among the officers of the Old 
 Army. If a mighty change could take 
 place in the quarter where it is most 
 
I02 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 needed, the Army, although forming a 
 body virtually cut off from the rest of 
 the world, would constitute a society of 
 the higher order. The present organi- 
 zation lacks that ambition — that esp^^it 
 de corps — which characterized the Army 
 prior to the war. Some of the senior 
 officers still maintain among them a rem- 
 nant, though feeble and mutilated, of the 
 essence of the " good old time." And 
 yet, if they were to attempt to inaugurate 
 a system of regeneration, without the aid 
 of legislation, there could be no hope 
 that their efforts would be crowned by 
 consequences of universal utility to the 
 Army. Degeneracy has been increased 
 by the appointment of men who have 
 not received a military education. Add 
 to these the " graduates " whom a super- 
 abundance of black bile has rendered 
 
ARROGANCE. lO^, 
 
 unsusceptible of refinement beyond the 
 limited demands of civility, and the sum 
 comprises so much of the unit that the 
 remainder is a negative power. The 
 homogeneity that should characterize the 
 military establishment has been destroyed 
 by the mingling of incongruous elements. 
 The contact of the truly meritorious pro- 
 fessionals with non-professionals has given 
 rise to arrogance, and has almost anni- 
 hilated the spirit of chivalry, 
 
 "Such as it had in the days gone by." 
 
 There are many officers in whom the 
 haughty assumption of superiority is con- 
 spicuous on all occasions. Rank is the 
 shield behind which they stand to heap 
 tyranny upon insult and wrong. They 
 do not regard inferiors as having rights 
 which they should respect, and by the 
 
I04 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 tyrannical exercise of authority, they ex 
 tort a slavish obedience from those ovei 
 whom they are placed. They look upon 
 a private soldier as a machine — animate, 
 yet without sense of justice or wrong ; 
 exacting of him the offices of a menial — 
 a serf — deo^radinor him even in his own 
 
 o o 
 
 estimation. If he dare protest enlistment 
 for boot-black or servant, he is subjected 
 to a course of systematic persecution. 
 His military duties are doubled, so com- 
 pletely crushing him, mentally and phys- 
 ically, that he is driven either to submis- 
 sion or desertion. It sometimes happens 
 that the soldier is superior to the officer 
 by birth and education, as in a case that 
 came under the observation of the writer 
 a short time ago. A young Prussian of 
 good famiily, highly educated, and of fine 
 personal appearance, ran away from col- 
 
ARROGANCE. 
 
 lege, came to the United States and 
 enlisted in the Army as a musician for 
 occupation until he could acquire a knowl- 
 edge of the Encrlish lanoruao-e. He was 
 assigned as trumpeter to a troop of cav- 
 alry commanded by a rough old Captain, 
 who took especial delight in persecuting 
 any member of his company who be- 
 trayed a degree of culture to which he 
 himself was a stranger ; consequently 
 this young soldier suffered to the utmost 
 extent of the Captain's ingenuity. An 
 example of this may be briefly cited : 
 During a campaign of the troop, the 
 trumpeter was detailed to take care of the 
 Surgeon's horse. On one occasion it 
 was dark when the company went into 
 camp, after a long and hard day's march, 
 and the soldiers were directed to merely 
 rub their horses' legs, and defer thorough 
 
I06 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 grooming till next morning. When they 
 ceased grooming, however, the Captain, 
 taking a lantern, inspected as usual, and 
 found some mud on the hoofs of the Sur- 
 geon's horse. He thereupon ordered the 
 musician to groom the animal one hour 
 longer before taking his supper, which 
 was already prepared. Such treatment 
 was constantly repeated until, disheart- 
 ened and worn out, he deserted. 
 
 Officers of this class are invariably de- 
 ficient in soldierly instincts. They never 
 assume responsibility for the mistakes in 
 which a lack of military knowledge con- 
 stantly involves them, but audaciously 
 charge it to their subalterns, or their 
 men, as when a campaign results disas- 
 trously, or when the execution of their 
 plans betrays erroneous conception — 
 even expecting the officers under them 
 
ARROGANCE. IO7 
 
 to anticipate their wishes, when some- 
 thing quite to the contrary is indicated 
 by their orders. The old Captain above 
 alluded to, one day when in the field 
 with his company, halted on the margin 
 of a river for the purpose of camping. 
 Not being quite satisfied with the situa- 
 tion, he left an officer in charge and then 
 proceeded up the valley about three-quar- 
 ters of a mile farther and found a more 
 suitable place due west of the point 
 where he left the troops. Unable to dis- 
 cover himself to the officer with the com- 
 pany from the new location, he rode to a 
 hill a quarter of a mile north and beck- 
 oned for him to come. The ascent from 
 the position of the troops to the spot 
 where the Captain stood was so gradual 
 as to be inappreciable. When the col- 
 umn was fairly in motion, the Captain 
 
I08 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 returned to the valley and picketed his 
 horse near the spot selected for his own 
 tent. When the Lieutenant arrived with 
 the company at the point from which the 
 commanding officer signaled, supposing it 
 to be the camp-ground, he dismounted 
 the men, and was about to unsaddle 
 when he was discovered by the Captain, 
 who mounted his horse and dashed off at 
 full speed for the hill, swearing and fum.- 
 ing all the way. He abused the Lieuten- 
 ant in the presence of the company for 
 going to the hill, instead of continuing 
 the march along the river! 
 
 The writer does not wish to be under- 
 stood as condemning all officers who 
 have not received a military education ; 
 there are many bright lights among them, 
 though they cannot boast of having ac- 
 quired their brilliancy in the ranks. But 
 
ARROGANCE. IO9 
 
 to support a military school for the edu- 
 cation of men in the art and science of 
 war, and to commission men from the 
 peaceful walks of rural life, who do not 
 know a Gatling gun from a coffee-mill, 
 and expect them to perform the same 
 duties, seems to be as great an inconsis- 
 tency as to ignore the medical profession 
 and call in a blacksmith to diagnose a 
 case of cerebrospinal meningitis. Is it 
 not also inconsistent on the part of the 
 Government to require military cadets, 
 who are appointed as such in considera- 
 tion of their superior intellectual attain- 
 ments (determined by competitive exam- 
 ination), to apply themselves assiduously 
 four years to the study of abstruse sci- 
 ences, and finally subject them to a highly 
 critical examination, which they must pass 
 creditably, before they can be commis- 
 
no 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 sioned to the Army, and commission, 
 equally, men from the ranks, whose mili- 
 tary knowledge may comprehend no 
 more than the manual of arms, the fac- 
 ings and the marchings, which a monkey 
 might be taught to perform ? And it is 
 this mixture of profession and trade that 
 generates arrogance and produces social 
 distinctions that assumed amiability fre- 
 quently fails to cover. 
 
 It has been proven in the Army that a 
 man cannot learn theory from practice — 
 that officers who have not received a mili- 
 tary education cannot acquire a knowl- 
 edge of the science of war by simply 
 commanding and drilling men in tactical 
 evolutions. Within the last four or five 
 years many valuable lives and more than 
 a million of dollars have been sacrificed 
 in the endeavor to make a brigadier-gen- 
 
ARROGANCE. 
 
 I I I 
 
 eral out of a colonel of this class. He 
 took the field under the most favorable 
 auspices. His command was well ap- 
 pointed in everything pertaining to the 
 purpose of war, and was composed of 
 cavalry, artillery and infantry. It consti- 
 tuted the expedition which was sent into 
 the Indian Territory and Texas against 
 the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche In- 
 dians, which tribes had united in hostility 
 to the whites. The major portion of his 
 troops was cavalry, of which one regiment 
 had the finest mount in the Army, and 
 nearly all the horses he started with were 
 veteran and inured to the rigors of cam- 
 paign. He was an infantryman, and, not 
 having a military education, was not fa- 
 miliar with the other arms of the service, 
 and therefore the cavalry and artillery 
 divisions of his little army soon became a 
 
112 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 source of trouble to him. In less than 
 two months the bones of many of his 
 horses were bleaching on the plain. The 
 average cavalry sergeant would have 
 done better. He frequently halted his 
 column on barren rocky ground for three 
 or four hours, within two hundred yards 
 of grass and water ; or on grass-covered 
 ground for a like time without removing 
 a bit or loosening a girth. When these 
 halts were made it w^as not known be- 
 yond himself whether they were for five 
 minutes or five hours, thus causing the 
 cavalrymen to become solicitous about 
 their horses. Assuming to know every- 
 thing pertaining to campaigning, he 
 would not condescend to ask his officers 
 what their customs were in the field. Im- 
 periousness prevented him from obtain- 
 ing much useful knowledge. It was hu- 
 
ARROGANCE. 
 
 miliatino^ to those officers who had Qrained 
 
 o o 
 
 a reputation as Indian fighters to be led 
 over the country by a man who had never 
 yet seen a hostile redskin, and knew 
 nothing of his mode of warfare, as was 
 shown in the first battle of the campaign. 
 The troops were advancing from the east, 
 and, when within a mile and a half of the 
 enemy's position, were formed into line 
 of battle, and required to move with as 
 much precision as in a review. To a civ- 
 ilized foe this manoeuver might have 
 evinced a readiness for fight, but here it 
 served only to amuse and embolden the 
 Indians, who regarded it as evidence of 
 inexperience and alarm. With artillery 
 in the center supported by infantry, and 
 cavalry on the right and left, he moved 
 into rifle range and halted. He opened 
 fire from the artillery, which he person- 
 
 • 8 
 
114 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 ally superintended, and neglected to give 
 any instructions to his cavalry officers, 
 whose battalions were sitting quietly in 
 their saddles under a heavy fire awaiting 
 orders. 'Twas then that the commander 
 of the First Cavalry Battalion, exasper- 
 ated at seeing his men shot from their 
 horses without the satisfaction of return- 
 ing the fire, in breach of discipline took 
 his cap in hand and gave that memorable 
 order, *' Now, theiiy sweep the Ji-i-l-l-s ! " 
 The trumpeters sounded the charge, 
 and the battalion left the line of battle 
 and dashed at full speed up the rugged 
 slope, while the shells from a Parrott gun 
 in the rear went screaming through the 
 air above their heads. After clearing the 
 hills of Indians the cavalry halted, and 
 the Commander-in-chief came to them, 
 and was so pleased with the gallant dash 
 
ARROGANCE. II5 
 
 that he never alluded to the transcending 
 authority that directed it, but said to the 
 officers, Well done, gentlemen, well 
 done!" 
 
 Having failed to move forward his base 
 of supplies in time to be available when 
 the stores he took with him were ex- 
 hausted, his men and horses were now in a 
 starving condition. The Indians became 
 aware of this fact, outgeneraled him and 
 got into his rear, intercepted his supply 
 train and compelled him to retreat one 
 hundred and forty miles, in which retro- 
 grade movement he lost one hundred and 
 ten horses by hunger and fatigue. His 
 estimates for supplies, both of subsistence 
 and ammunition, were inadequate for such 
 a campaign as he had mapped out. Lack 
 of military knowledge was the cause of 
 his neorlecting: the details so essential for 
 
Il6 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the preservation of an army. His horses 
 were worn out, and most of his cavalry 
 had to be remounted before he could re- 
 sume offensive operations. He took the 
 band horses of a cavalry regiment and 
 used them for artillery teams, when he 
 might have taken mules for that purpose 
 from his train, by reducing the number 
 which were hauling empty wagons. In 
 crossing a wide river-bed, vvdiere there 
 was but little water, a gun-carriage sank so 
 deep into the sand that it was a physical 
 impossibility for the horses to move it. 
 The driver belabored the poor brutes 
 with a " blacksnake " whip until they could 
 hardly stand. Mule harness was used on 
 the horses, and their necks were squeezed 
 into the small collars so tightly that the 
 skin parted and was forced back against 
 their shoulders. Notwithstanding the 
 
ARROGANCE. I I J 
 
 blood streamed down their fore legs from 
 their bare, raw necks, the driver contin- 
 ued to lash them. The regiment to 
 Avhich these horses belono'ed hied throucrh 
 
 o o 
 
 the river, near the ^un, and it was touch- 
 ing to see war-worn A'eterans, who had 
 witnessed the carnage of manv a hard- 
 fought held, drop a tear as they beheld 
 their pets thus inhumanly treated ; and 
 one old captain rode up to the driver, 
 and, raising his saber high, said, " If you 
 strike those horses another blow, I'll cut 
 you dovv'n I " 
 
 The aspiring Commander of this expe- 
 dition would not move his column with- 
 out a company of scouts in advance 
 followed by a skirmish line, and hankers 
 on the rio;ht and left, and a stroncr rear 
 guard ; but he would send an officer with 
 ten men to make a reconnoissance sev- 
 
Il8 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 eral miles in every direction from his 
 camp ; and once, just after a battle, he 
 required an officer to go twelve miles 
 along the line of the enemy's retreat 
 with an escort of five men mounted on 
 horses which had already marched thirty 
 miles that day. His utter disregard of 
 the measures which are indispensable for 
 the safety and protection of men and 
 animals when bivouacking, or making a 
 temporary halt, is in striking contrast 
 with his precaution to prevent surprise 
 on the march. The day before a certain 
 battle he was on the trail of, and near, 
 a large force of Indians, and had a strong 
 skirmish line coverino^ the head of his 
 column, which was moving along a plain 
 toward a range of high, rugged hills. At 
 the foot of the hills was a creek run- 
 ning through a narrow valley, and here 
 
ARROGANCE. II9 
 
 he halted to rest and graze the horses 
 preparatory to the approaching fight. 
 The officer in charge of the skirmish Hne 
 hastened to establish vedettes upon the 
 hills to cover the column, which was dis- 
 mounted and the horses unsaddled and 
 grazing. Having received no orders in 
 regard to the disposition of his men dur- 
 ing the halt, he did that which seemed to 
 him the most important under the circum- 
 stances, supposing that the line would be 
 relieved by a fresh one in due time. The 
 General regarded his action as an as- 
 sumption of authority, and placed him in 
 arrest for not allowing the skirmishers to 
 remain in the valley to water and graze 
 their horses. The trail crossed the stream 
 and passed up the bluff near the point 
 where the column halted, and the Com- 
 manding Officer had no means of know- 
 
I20 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 ing that the Indians were not posted in 
 the ravines and among the rocks ready 
 to dehver a volley that would stampede 
 his horses. 
 
 He v/as sullen and morose whenever 
 his mistakes were made visible to him. 
 When he became aware that his cavalry 
 was breaking down, he issued an order 
 requiring the officers to report to him 
 the condition of their horses. One bat- 
 talion commander, having reported all of 
 his unserviceable, v/as inform.ed, in very 
 harsh terms, that his men should walk. 
 Thus, this pseudo-General punished his 
 soldiers for a disaster that resulted from 
 his own igrnorance of the manas^ement of 
 cavalry in the field. He endeavored to 
 save himself from the odium of failure by 
 charging the cavalry officers with a lack 
 of zeal and harmony, but his weak inven- 
 
ARROGANCE. 
 
 121 
 
 tion did not sustain him. Like a poor 
 mechanic, he quarreled with his tools. 
 
 The cavalry officers of the expedition, 
 havinp" lost their men and horses through 
 his incompetency, felt that they would be 
 recreant to the trust reposed in them by 
 the Government if they did not adopt 
 some measure for its protection, and, 
 accordingly, they prepared charges and 
 specifications setting forth his criminal 
 ignorance, intending to prefer them 
 against him at the close of the campaign. 
 When that time came, and the troops 
 v/ere returned to their stations, it was 
 thought better to bear the ills we 
 have than fly to those we know naught 
 of," lest they might be so unfortunate as 
 to fall into his hands at some future time 
 and suffer under the code lex talionis. 
 
 It is an injustice to the experienced 
 
122 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 *' professionals " of the Army to push for- 
 ward such an incapable man, intrusting 
 him with important commands in the vain 
 hope of placing a star on his shoulder. 
 No officer ever had a better opportunity 
 for distinction than this campaign pre- 
 sented, but he lacked the essential qual- 
 ity — military knowledge — to attain it. 
 And the public will never know what the 
 experiment cost in men and money with- 
 out referring to the records of the War 
 Office. 
 
 Some of the junior officers of his com- 
 mand obtained pleasant details for writ- 
 ing him up in the newspapers and giving 
 glowing accounts of battles never fought, 
 and exaggerated descriptions of those 
 that were. 
 
 Notwithstanding the glaring evidence 
 of his inability that the signal failure of 
 
ARROGANCE. 
 
 123 
 
 this expedition furnished, he was after- 
 ward given a command in Sitting Bull's 
 range, where he criminally sacrificed offi- 
 cers and men who were superior to him- 
 self in every respect. The survivors of 
 his campaigns might justly exclaim — 
 
 "When wert thou known in ambushed fights to dare, 
 Or nobly face the horrid front of war ? 
 'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try; 
 Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die ! " 
 
 It is a good thing for the Navy that 
 the influence of connections cannot ele- 
 vate a charlatan to the command of a 
 ship of war. There is a standard of pro- 
 fessional merit established for each grade 
 in that branch of the service, and pro- 
 motions, even in the regular line, cannot 
 be made until the fitness of the candidate 
 for the position is shown by a critical 
 examination. 
 
124 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 It may not be considered too great a 
 departure from the subject in hand to say 
 something more about the lack of con- 
 sistency in the War Department, so far 
 as it affects the tout ensemble of the 
 Army and concerns its social and official 
 character. One of its most noticeable 
 inconsistencies relates to the employment 
 of Contract Surgeons. These employes 
 are constantly applying for admission to 
 the Medical Corps, but the standard of 
 qualification is so high that few, if any, 
 ever attain the coveted position. Is it 
 not a gross injustice to the Army to re- 
 new and continue the contracts of doc- 
 tors after the Examining Board has pro- 
 nounced them incompetent to hold a 
 commission ? Men who have tried, time 
 after time, to pass the examination and 
 failed have been placed in charge of 
 
ARROGANCE. I 25 
 
 hospitals, and all the responsibility of 
 Post Surgeons conferred upon them. If 
 they are ineligible to commission by 
 reason of their incompetency, is it not 
 palpably wrong to intrust them, in the 
 capacity of fully commissioned surgeons, 
 with the lives of men, women and chil- 
 dren ? Many precious lives and limbs 
 might be saved to the Army, and much 
 pension money to the public treasury, if 
 this matter were properly adjusted. 
 
 As to Chaplains, the War Department 
 shows a more profound interest. That it 
 regards the souls of men as being of 
 greater importance than their bodies is 
 evident from the fact that the duties of 
 salvation are not performed by laymeri 
 tinder contract, but by regularly ordained 
 ministers, and under the dignity of a com- 
 mission. And it may be inferred from 
 
126 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the distribution of chaplains that their 
 presence is deemed more essential at 
 Headquarters Posts, as they are never 
 assigned to any other. But whether this 
 order of things is really to supply a moral 
 necessity, or simply to add sacerdotal 
 dignity to the Staff of the Commanding 
 Officer, is a tabooed question. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DEFERENCE TO WEALTH SERVILE 
 
 ADULATION. 
 
 " Mammon's a god of rigid decrees, 
 Who grants entre at fashion's levees 
 When appeal is made with golden fees 
 
 Or servile adulation. 
 And many are they who toady to gold 
 To obtain caste, or least a good hold, 
 
 In social organization." 
 
 DEFERENCE to wealth is a weak- 
 ness common to human nature, but 
 nowhere is it more conspicuous than in 
 the United States Army. An officer who 
 can sport a liveried coachman need not 
 '* face the horrid front of war." Wealth 
 
 is the requisite qualification to insure him 
 127 
 
128 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 a position in the Staff Corps, or a detail to 
 Europe to observe the movements of con- 
 tending armies and study their plans of 
 attack and defense — which is usually 
 done at the Army Glub Rooms in the 
 cities of Paris and London. 
 
 In the affairs of civil life ''Offense's 
 gilded hand " buys out the law ; but in 
 the transactions of the Army it forestalls 
 justice. It frequently happens that 
 drunken, worthless officers are cashiered 
 by sentence of a court-martial, but 
 through deference to wealth, represented 
 in the accused or his friends, the review- 
 ing authority " takes pleasure in remit- 
 ting the sentence," or commuting it to 
 ''suspension from rank and command" 
 for six months or a year, and thus justice 
 is baffled, and the delinquent, lost to all 
 sense of pride and manhood, resumes his 
 
DEFERENCE TO WEALTM. I 29 
 
 former official position. Many examples 
 of immunity from punishment through 
 the influence of money might be cited, but 
 suffice it to give one, showing how a Com- 
 manding Officer was persuaded by a rich 
 member of his Staff to use his power ar- 
 bitrarily. During the march of a bat- 
 talion of cavalry from the States to its 
 station in one of the Territories a diffi- 
 culty occurred between a company com- 
 mander and the Quartermaster of the 
 battalion in regard to the loading of a 
 wagon. The latter officer, not being fa- 
 miliar with the various duties of his new 
 office, had transcended his authority in 
 the matter mentioned. The company 
 officer put his grievance in writing, in ac- 
 cordance with law and regulations, and 
 forwarded it to the Commanding Officer, 
 
 who knew the complaint was correct and 
 9 
 
130 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 just but would not admit it because the ^ 
 Ouartermaster held his note for a lar^e 
 sum of money. He referred the paper 
 to the latter officer for remarks, and it 
 was returned with an indorsement that 
 covered three sheets of letter-paper, in 
 which he (the Quartermaster) made the 
 most vindictive and unscrupulous accusa- 
 tions against the plaintiff, justifying him- 
 self in all that he had done. He deliv- 
 ered the document in person to the 
 Commanding Officer and requested him 
 to put an indorsement on it sustaining 
 him (the Ouartermaster) and transmit it 
 to the company commander. In compli- 
 ance with the request it was indorsed 
 as follows : 
 
 " Respectfully returned to the Commanding Offi- 
 cer of Company — , who is hereby informed that 
 the indorsement of the Quartermaster hereon is 
 
DEFERENCE TO WEALTH. 131^ 
 
 conclusive, and that no more correspondence upon 
 this subject will be received at these Headquarters." 
 
 Chapters might be written upon the 
 subject of persecution and injustice in the 
 United States Army through the instru- 
 mentality of wealth, of which the forego- 
 ing citation is a mild type and of every- 
 day occurrence. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 
 
 ^' Can place or lessen us or aggrandize ? 
 
 Pygmies are pygmies still, though perch'd on Alps ; 
 
 And pyramids are pyramids in vales." 
 
 —Young. 
 
 THERE is no feature of American 
 society so anomalous and inconsis- 
 tent with the principles of our govern- 
 ment as the airs of nobility which many 
 of our*Army officers assume. There are 
 no people on the face of the earth who 
 have arrived at that proud eminence of 
 civilization which recognizes the propri- 
 ety of wearing clothes that the aping of 
 aristocracy so ill becomes as Americans. 
 
134 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Public sentiment is against it, and in this 
 country, where all men are born free and 
 equal, public sentiment is the final arbiter 
 of custom, and no faction can successfully 
 oppose it. It has been aptly said, 
 
 " Of all the notable things on earth, 
 The queerest one is pride of birth. 
 
 Among our ' fierce democracy ! ' 
 A bridge across a hundred years. 
 Without a prop to save it from sneers. 
 Not even a couple of rotten pecrs^ — ^ 
 A thing for laughter, fleers, and jeers, 
 
 Is American Aristocracy ! 
 
 " English and Irish, French and Spanish, 
 Germans, Italians, Dutch and Danish, 
 Crossing their veins until they vanish ^ 
 
 In one conglomeration ! 
 So subtle a tangle of blood, indeed, 
 No Heraldry Harvey will ever succeed 
 
 In finding the circulation. 
 
 " Depend upon it, my snobbish friend, 
 Your family thread you can't ascend. 
 
PATRICIAN prejudices; 
 
 Without good reason to apprehend 
 
 You may find it ivaxed, at the farther end, 
 
 By some plebeian vocation ! 
 Or, worse than that, your boasted line 
 May end in a loop of stronger twine, 
 
 That plagued some worthy relation ! " 
 
 Wealth and position do not make a 
 gentleman. He may be found in tatters 
 or in broadcloth, in. the workshop or in 
 the Senate, in the wilds of the border or 
 in the fields of ao-riculture — find him 
 where we may, he is recognized only by 
 the attributes of noble manhood. 
 
 " 'Tis soul, and heart, and a' that. 
 That makes the king a gentleman, 
 And not his crown, and a' that; 
 ' And man with man, if rich or poor, 
 The best is he, for a' that. 
 Who stands erect in self-respect. 
 And acts the man, for a' that." 
 
 The gilded pageantry of our Army files 
 by us in review, and here and there we 
 
136 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 see the champions of nobility, mounted 
 on gaily caparisoned chargers, blandly 
 smiling as they pass a group of ladies 
 who flaunt their kerchiefs to the breeze 
 in recognition and salutation. Lo, these 
 knights are summoned to council ! What 
 means the haste? Is war upon us? No, 
 no ! They are not called to deliberate 
 upon affaires militaire, but upon an 
 affaire dtt c(£7ir. It has just been an- 
 nounced that an officer is about to marry 
 a young lady of low estate — the daugh- 
 ter of the caterer of the Officers' Mess ! 
 The council has convened to protest 
 against the marriage. After condemningr 
 the proposed alliance, they inform the 
 officer that his marriage with a girl of 
 plebeian birth will not only compromise 
 the regiment, but that he will be ostra- 
 cised by his comrades, and that the lady 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 
 
 can never be admitted to social equality 
 in the Army. She had been educated in 
 a convent, and was lovely, accomplished, 
 amiable, and in every respect a desirable 
 woman, but her lowly origin debarred her 
 from the circle of the haut to7i of that 
 regiment. 
 
 " I see not that flesh is holier than flesh, 
 Or blood than blood more choicely qualified, 
 That scorn should dwell between them." 
 
 The lover, " sighing like furnace," and 
 ''full of strange oaths," gallantly faced 
 the storm of indignation, married the 
 girl and returned to the station of his 
 company on the frontier, taking his bride 
 with him. The garrison of the Post to 
 which she went, knowing nothing of her 
 previous history, gave her a cordial wel- 
 come. The amiability and graceful bear- 
 ing of the new-comer soon endeared her 
 
138 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 to them, and she became the most hon- 
 ored lady of the Post. During her so- 
 journ there many troops came and went, 
 and all who had the pleasure of meeting 
 her, and partaking of the unbounded 
 hospitality which she always extended to 
 strangers, still praise her genial manner 
 and admirable qualities. After a lapse 
 of two or three years, she returned to 
 spend the Christmas holidays with her 
 mother, who occupied the quarters in 
 which the Officers' Mess was conducted. 
 The old lady, being aware of the social 
 prejudices of the Army, and expecting 
 her daughter to receive the usual court- 
 esies extended to an officer's wife, very 
 considerately relinquished her parlors for 
 the entertainment of any who might call, 
 and prepared to keep herself and family 
 in the extreme distance. There were 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 1 39 
 
 seven ladies and sixteen officers present. 
 One of the latter was a member of 
 the garrison which occuoied the Post 
 at the tim.e of the young lady's marriage, 
 and was of the same regiment as her 
 husband, but not of the opposing fac- 
 tion. The visitor arrived two days before 
 Christmas, and no one, except the officer 
 alluded to, called upon her until New 
 Year's Day, and then under the following 
 circumstances : In the morning the offi- 
 cers, in full dress, assembled at the 
 Adjutant's office preparatory to making 
 the customary call upon the Command- 
 ing Officer. After the usual ceremony 
 of wine and cigars with that dignitary at 
 his quarters, they called upon every lady 
 of the garrison, and then marched into 
 a bachelor's quarters to take a parting 
 glass of egg-nogg. When the officer of 
 
140 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the regiment to which the lady belonged 
 discovered that the party had performed 
 their programme and were about to dis- 
 perse, he made the following statement : 
 
 " Gentlemen, the presence at this Post 
 of a lady of the regiment to which I be- 
 long has been so conspicuously ignored 
 by the officers and ladies of the garrison 
 that it becomes my duty to report the 
 fact to my comrades, whose indignation 
 will certainly be put into a tangible form. 
 If this party disbands without calling 
 upon her, I shall consider it an insult to 
 the regiment, and shall make it a per- 
 sonal matter." 
 
 The Commanding Officer, who had 
 joined the party, replied that he was glad 
 the matter had been mentioned, and at 
 his suggestion they called upon her. 
 They were so elegantly entertained that 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. I4I 
 
 the same officer afterward remarked that 
 he would rather have lost his commis- 
 sion than to have failed to make the call. 
 Hers was the finest reception at the 
 Post that day, and the ease and ability 
 with which she entertained her guests 
 commanded their unbounded admiration. 
 Her apt quotations and ready wit were 
 an intellectual feast which so far excelled 
 anything of the kind given by the ladies 
 of pedigree, who had not condescended 
 to notice her, that the gentlemen unani- 
 mously proclaimed her " Queen of the 
 Banquet." The surprised, delighted, and 
 somewhat conscience-stricken orentlemen 
 returned to their homes to sing her 
 praises, in which they were doubtless 
 more assiduous when they recalled the 
 fact that a few days previous she was 
 compelled to walk five miles (the dis- 
 
142 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 tance to the nearest town) and back, to 
 do some shopping, having been refused 
 an ambulance. 
 
 Some time after she had returned to 
 the station of her husband, the most 
 active member of the council before 
 mentioned happened along sick. He 
 was attached to a laree command that 
 halted for a few days near the Post. 
 This magnanimous lady, accompanied by 
 her husband, went to the camp and ten- 
 dered to the invalid the hospitality of 
 her home, which was accepted, and he 
 dined with her that day. When depart- 
 ing from her house, he remarked to one 
 who knew of his former opposition, " I'm 
 sorry I ever said anything disparaging 
 
 of Mrs. , and objected to her coming 
 
 into the regiment. She is a bright, gen- 
 erous lady." 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES, 1 43 
 
 This may seem to be an extraordinary 
 case, but simnlar ones are by no means 
 rare. Miss Trafton has ably pictured, in 
 her story entitled " His Inheritance," the 
 persecutions that an officer's wife may be 
 compelled to endure from those who claim 
 superiority by the accident of birth or 
 position. Poor little Blossom Elyot, 
 beautiful, amiable and refined, is utterly 
 io^nored hy the ladies of the garrison ; 
 and, even in view of the supposed death 
 of her oallant husband, refused those ex- 
 pressions of sympathy and regard that a 
 feeling of humanity alone would dictate; 
 and all this because her old father, who 
 is dead, had been the Post Trader. 
 
 Those officers who arrogate superiority 
 are imperious, and consequently tyran- 
 nical to their men. In reproving a de- 
 linquent soldier, they use the most vio- 
 
144 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 lent and abusive epithets that our copious 
 English language is capable of express- 
 ing, and sometimes accompany them with 
 blows. They are uncharitable not only 
 to those under their command, but to any 
 impecunious citizen whom adversity may 
 have driven to them for succor. It is a 
 common thinof on the frontier for men 
 who have been robbed by Indians or 
 highwaymen, or reduced to want by the 
 failure of a mining speculation, to apply 
 to the military authorities for food, or for 
 an escort through a hostile region to a 
 settlement where they can obtain relief. 
 When such applications are made to an 
 officer of this class, they are invariably 
 refused in rough and threatening terms. 
 The author was present at a remote Post 
 when a man came in on horseback with 
 the United States mail, which he had 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 
 
 brouc{ht fort^' miles, and which he de- 
 sired to carry to a point thirteen miles 
 beyond the Post. The Indians captured 
 the mail stage the day previous and 
 killed the passengers, driver and horses,, 
 and this man was employed to convey the 
 mail to a point on another stage line. He 
 mentioned to the Commanding Officer 
 the importance of getting the mails 
 through, and then asked him for an es- 
 cort, which was peremptorily refused. 
 The poor man, whose sunburned face was 
 covered with the sweat and dust of his 
 weary march, felt that he stood in the 
 august presence of an imperial magnate. 
 With hat in hand, and in the most respect- 
 ful manner, he solicited the loan of a 
 pistol or other firearm, promising to 
 return it the following dav, and added 
 
 that he was a stranger, and that there was 
 10- 
 
146 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 great risk involved in crossing the moun- 
 tains so near the stronghold of the 
 Indians without some means of defense. 
 The officer told him he would not lend 
 arms to citizens. The man's sense of 
 duty, however, induced him to attempt 
 the passage without a weapon of any 
 kind. Thus determined, he was about to 
 mount his horse, when the unfeelinof 
 officer had the presumption to ask him to 
 carry a note to a member of the guard at 
 the mail station whither he was bound. 
 He readily assented and waited until it 
 was prepared, then, placing the note in 
 his vest pocket, rode away on his perilous 
 undertakinor. In less than an hour after- 
 ward the man was slain and mutilated 
 upon the highway, by the savages, in 
 siorht of the Post. The brave Com- 
 mander, surrounded by a strong guard of 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. I47 
 
 soldiers, ventured to the spot where the 
 defenseless man lay murdered. He ex- 
 amined the pockets of the victim with a 
 view to identification, and took therefrom 
 his own note, which had been pierced by 
 a ball that entered the man's side, and was 
 saturated with blood. The officer pre- 
 served the note as a relic of Indian bar- 
 barity ! This was the sixth or seventh 
 case of almost immediate death of unpro- 
 tected men who had applied at that Post 
 for arms or escort. In two cases the 
 applicants were driven away hungry. 
 
 If in the ''vast solitudes of eternal 
 space there throbs the being of an awful 
 God" who avenges and punishes the 
 wrongs of this world, then let such im- 
 perious officers take heed lest the blood 
 that cries from the mountain fastnesses 
 
148 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 and the desolate plain give answer to the 
 old question, "Where is thy brother?" 
 
 Man's weaknesses are about the same 
 everywhere. The desire for applause is 
 inherent and common to all. It incites 
 men to action, and inspires them with the 
 hope of achieving glory and greatness. 
 This feature of human character is as 
 frequently seen in civil life as in the 
 Army; but in the former, the aspirant 
 cannot demand plaudit before he attains 
 the goal of his ambition — he has no 
 command, no power till then ; in the 
 latter, however, men are clothed with 
 authority, and many of them assume an 
 air of importance superior to their posi- 
 tion, and demand from those who come 
 within their jurisdiction the homage which 
 is paid to nobility. When men thus place 
 themselves upon a pedestal, and claim to 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. I49 
 
 be the par excellence of the human race, 
 they are the subjects of scrutiny and criti- 
 cism, and their quality is determined by 
 their own standard. Even the private 
 soldier forms an opinion of his officers, 
 but he dare not give utterance to the ver- 
 dict of his judgment until he is released 
 from the bonds of enlistment and re- 
 turned to the freedom of his peers ; 
 then, looking from the standpoint of a 
 citizen, he recounts the insults he has 
 endured, the degrading offices he has 
 been compelled to perform, and all the 
 vvTongs that a supercilious officer could 
 inflict. 
 
 This class of officers often have the 
 extremely bad taste to carry their haztteur 
 into the social circle. If a lady, through 
 ignorance or mistake, addresses one of 
 them with a title below^ his rank, or gives 
 
150 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the full rank instead of the brevet, he 
 swells with emotion, and, with insolent 
 brevity, corrects her. 
 
 A. Post Commander once made himself 
 so disagreeable in this way that the wife 
 of the Surgeon, aided and abetted by the 
 other ladies of the garrison, persuaded 
 her husband to give him a half-year's sick 
 leave. It was only necessary to suggest 
 that he looked bad, and that a sea voyage 
 would do him good, to induce him to 
 seize the bait, and in less than two weeks 
 he was a passenger on an ocean steamer. 
 Let us follow him a little way on his 
 journey and see how his mightiness con- 
 ducts himself ''off duty." He occupied a 
 state-room with a junior officer who was 
 traveling on duty. There were three 
 berths in the room, one above another. 
 The middle one being the best situated 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. I5I 
 
 for the uses of greatness, as there would 
 be no compromise of dignity by climbing, 
 and no uncertainty of making a lodg- 
 ment when the ship was rolling, the grave 
 and potent senior unceremoniously took 
 possession of it. The junior stifled his 
 feelings of envy with the idea of promo- 
 tion, and submissively ascended to the 
 upper bunk, where he reclined and delib- 
 erated upon the possibilities of man. The 
 "sick" man was aware of the benefits to 
 be derived from early rising and the bath, 
 and consequently reveille found him at 
 the bar taking an " eye-opener," after 
 which he performed his ablution, using all 
 the water and towels which had been pro- 
 vided for both occupants. When the 
 scarcity of water and towels is an exi- 
 gency of a campaign, the matter can be 
 viewed philosophically; but when the 
 
152 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Government pays for these luxuries, to 
 go unwashed would be an unpardonable 
 remissness; so our junior, to maintain the 
 honor of his country, applied for an addi- 
 tional pitcher of water, and directed the 
 steward to put his towel into a satchel 
 which was left open for that purpose. 
 There were several ladies on board, who, 
 with their husbands and the two officers, 
 constituted a select party which occupied 
 seats at that end of the dining table pre- 
 sided over by the Captain of the ship. 
 To see the "invalid" eat afforded the 
 company a never-failing source of diver- 
 sion, though they were careful to observe 
 the warning, 
 
 "If much you note hirr, 
 You offend him ; feed and regard him not." 
 
 He perched his elbows upon the table, to 
 the right and left as far as he could span, 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. I 53 
 
 to prevent the encroachment of his neigh- 
 bors ; inclined his head over his plate and 
 devoured everything which was brought 
 to him with an avidity that alarmed the 
 beholders and disgusted the waiters ; 
 never raising his eyes except to follow 
 with greedy glare a dish that was being 
 removed beyond the range of his arms, 
 or when drinking coffee, which instantly 
 disappeared as water down a dark abyss. 
 When dessert came on, this Epicurean 
 philosopher sat behind a perfect barricade 
 
 "Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd; 
 With jellies soother than the creamy curd. 
 And lucent syrops tinct with cinnamon," 
 
 and heaped these delicates upon his plate 
 with an unsparing hand. Alas for the 
 waiter who had the temerity to attempt 
 to despoil him of a single dish ! A sten- 
 torian voice cried, " Bring that back ! " in 
 
154 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 tones which enforced a trembHng obedi- 
 ence. On one occasion, the Captain of 
 the ship was heard to remark that this 
 officer was the heartiest eater for a sick 
 man he ever saw, as he never missed a 
 meal nor decHned to take a drink. With 
 the same disregard of the rights of others 
 which he had manifested at the table, he 
 treated the passengers with his room- 
 mate's cigars, when he had plenty of his 
 own, and used without permission the 
 arms and ammunition which the junior 
 had in charge, knowing that the latter 
 had to account to the United States for 
 every cartridge. He seemed to think 
 that the world was created for one per- 
 son, and that he was that favored indi- 
 vidual. The ship touched at a foreign 
 port, and the ladies and gentlemen made 
 up a party to go ashore to spend a day in 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 
 
 shopping and sight-seeing, appointing the 
 Captain of the vessel purser and general 
 manager of the little expedition. The 
 ex Post Commander, ever ready to avail 
 himself of opportunities for amusement, 
 was a member of the party. The ladies, 
 by this time, had ceased to expect any 
 civilities from him, and were not sur- 
 prised, when their small boat arrived at 
 the dock, to see him stalk off without 
 offering to assist them in the difficult 
 ascent of the dilapidated stairway at the 
 landing ; nor when he took a carriage 
 and explored the city alone. They can- 
 not, therefore, be blamed for taking a 
 little quiet satisfaction in his discom- 
 fiture when, after viewing, with the know- 
 ing air of a connoisseur, the pictures 
 on the walls of the parlor of the hotel 
 where they breakfasted, he inquired the 
 
156 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 name of the artist who painted one which 
 he greatly admired, and was informed by 
 the clerk that the picture was a chromo! — 
 
 "His giantship is somewhat crestfallen, 
 Stalking with less unconscionable strides," 
 
 but soon recovers his wonted equanimity. 
 He evidently considered the whole affair 
 as gotten up for his especial entertain- 
 ment, as it never occurred to him to re- 
 imburse the Captain for his share of the 
 general expense incurred on the occasion. 
 But enough ! We will leave him to his 
 selfish devices. 
 
 Patrician blood does not flow in the 
 veins of every officer who plays the role 
 of a nobleman. That part is frequently 
 taken by those who cannot boast of even 
 the best plebeian origin. It often happens 
 that an overseer on public works, who 
 controls a large number of votes, is given 
 
PATRICIAN PREJUDICES. 1 57 
 
 a cadetship for his son, in consideration 
 of his influence in the election of a Con- 
 gressman, regardless of the young man's 
 score in a competitive examination. 
 Congressmen frequently exercise their 
 prerogative to their own political advan- 
 tage. The following report is taken from 
 the records of a commiission which met 
 in the State of California to examine 
 aspirants for a cadetship at West Point : 
 
 
 ^plicants. 
 
 :ading. 
 
 c 
 
 •elling. 
 
 S 
 
 rithmetic. 
 
 t 
 
 0 
 
 <v 
 
 i story. 
 
 ^'crage. 
 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 . cn 
 
 
 < 
 
 0 
 
 
 < 
 
 A 
 
 
 90 
 
 90 
 
 37 
 
 77 
 
 68 
 
 85 
 
 S5 
 
 85 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B. 
 
 
 70 
 
 50 
 
 27 
 
 35 
 
 44 
 
 52 
 
 52 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 
 90 
 
 75 
 
 44 
 
 84 
 
 79 
 
 86 
 
 86 
 
 85 
 
 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 90 
 
 90 
 
 33 
 
 90 
 
 90 
 
 91 
 
 91 
 
 91 
 
 
 E 
 
 
 65 
 
 40 
 
 22 
 
 30 
 
 35 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 44 
 
 
 
 
158 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 D had the highest average, but E 
 received the appointment — the Congress- 
 man thus ignoring the meritorious com- 
 petitor. This class of appointees gener- 
 ally makes officers who are better adapted 
 for holding the plow than wielding the 
 saber. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A LUDICROUS PHASE OF FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 "But wad ye see him in his glee — 
 For meikle glee and fun has he — 
 Then set him down, and twa or three 
 
 Gude fellows wi' him; 
 And port, O port! shine thou a wee, 
 
 O WHERE do we see more strik- 
 
 ^ ii^gly verified Shakspeare's words, 
 "One man in his time plays many parts," 
 than in the Army. To-day, comedy; to- 
 morrow, tragedy. An officers frontier 
 experience, however, partakes largely of 
 the serio-comic. When he first takes the 
 field he is full of zeal, and wonders why 
 
 And then ye'U see him! " 
 
 — Burns. 
 
l6o AMERICA?^ ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 the Indian question has not been settled 
 years ago. He feels confident in his own 
 ability to put to rest forever the turbulent 
 savage, but his conceit is somewhat damp- 
 ened when he is called upon to apply his 
 theory. He finds campaigning different 
 from the routine duties of garrison life. 
 Ultra refinement in diet, dress and com- 
 panionship is replaced by a more health- 
 ful state of feeling. A young officer, in- 
 flated with such ideas, joined an expedi- 
 tion on the border, and was so fastidious 
 that he could not breakfast without quail 
 on toast, or dine without a juicy roast of 
 beef, a great variety of vegetables, and 
 an elaborate dessert ; a thumb-daub on the 
 margin of a dish was sufficient to con- 
 demn the edible it contained ; a greasy or 
 coffee-stained table-cloth brought down 
 upon the cook the most scorching invec- 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 l6l 
 
 tives ; and soup with a fly in it, or a bis- 
 cuit containing the organic remains of a 
 cockroach, was ample provocation for a 
 change of boarding house. After this 
 squeamish gentleman took the field he 
 fell away rapidly, and was soon reduced 
 to a mere shadow of his former self. 
 Camp life, however, sharpened his appe- 
 tite and toned his stomach so that he 
 could devour pork and hard-tack with 
 wonderful avidity, relish a cup of coffee 
 in which half a dozen grasshoppers had 
 met their death, and smile exultingly at 
 the unfortunate insects floating on the 
 surface of the seethino^ fluid. This whole- 
 some change was peculiarly gratifying to 
 his comrades, who had previously been 
 annoyed by his Epicurean instincts. One 
 of them, who was so unfortunate as to 
 
 have him for a messmate, hugely enjoyed 
 II 
 
l62 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 seeing him contend with a hungry dog 
 for a bone. The circumstances were 
 these : Disaster having befallen the expe- 
 dition and reduced it to the verge of 
 starvation, these two gentlemen, on one 
 occasion, investigated the condition of 
 their larder with a view to the possibility 
 of a meal. One found in his saddle-bags 
 a handful of cracker crumbs and a can of 
 tomatoes, and he of luxurious tastes tri- 
 umphantly produced a hip-bone- — a relic of 
 the last beef of the commissary, slaugh- 
 tered some days before. It had already 
 furnished several meals, and there vv^as 
 hardly enough meat left to make a re- 
 spectable plate of soup ; and sand, dust 
 and horse-hairs amply atoned for the 
 absence of condiments. With such ma- 
 terials at hand, they blithely proceeded 
 to the preparation of the feast, when a 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 hungry dog appeared on the scene. Evi- 
 dently thinking the dinner was over, he 
 looked at the bone with an expression of 
 disgust that said as plainly as canine 
 could, " How mean, to pick a bone so 
 close — a dog would hardly do it," and 
 waited patiently for something to be added 
 to this morsel. At last, concluding that 
 he might expect nothing more, he took 
 it and leisurely trotted off The owner 
 thereof, turning suddenly and seeing their 
 principal reliance thus surreptitiously dis- 
 appearing, seized a club and rushed fran- 
 tically to the rescue. The faithful scav- 
 enger, hearing fierce imprecations in the 
 rear, looked back with honest gaze to 
 ascertain the cause, when a vigorous blow 
 forced him to drop the bone and flee 
 from impending death. 
 
 The peculiar and extraordinary men 
 
164 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 found on the frontier present to the 
 officer new features of human character 
 which are fascinating as a study, but not 
 always commendable for imitation ; yet, 
 some gentlemen become so enraptured 
 with the study that the pursuit of knowl- 
 edge discovers an affinity for the man 
 himself It is interesting to see what 
 strange boon companions share the hos- 
 pitality, even to bed and board, of officers 
 who, prior to their frontier service, were so 
 fastidious that they would scarcely notice 
 a citizen in broadcloth, much less toler- 
 ate one whose clothes bore evidence of 
 honest toil. They find that society beyond 
 the confines of civilization does not justify 
 this distinction. There, the lawyer, doc- 
 tor, bandit and miner, as well as the 
 vaquero, settler, gambler, stage-driver and 
 hunter, are clad in the same inevitable 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 1 65 
 
 blue or gray woolen overshirt, not worn 
 as the Indians of Manila wear theirs, but 
 neatly tucked into the pants, which are 
 of all colors from primary to tertiary, and 
 made of fabrics varying from buckskin, 
 jeans and prison check to the immaculate 
 doeskin ; and often all these materials are 
 so ingeniously combined in the same pair 
 that it is impossible to determine the 
 original foundation. This o^arment is 
 supported by a leather belt from which 
 depend a six-shooter and a sheath-knife. 
 The head is usually covered with a black, 
 soft-felt hat. 
 
 Military Posts are the favorite resort 
 of the frontiersman. The Trader's store, 
 like the immortal Bascom's at the Con- 
 federate Cross Roads, is the chief attrac- 
 tion, and here is the best place to make 
 the acquaintance of the representative 
 
l66 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 characters of the border. Though they 
 are passionately fond of bar-room hfe and 
 whisky, one would hardly be justified in 
 the assertion that they are too lazy to 
 work, or too proud to beg, or that they 
 ever become incorrigible loafers and oro 
 into politics. However, they are par- 
 tially demoralized and in favor of an easy 
 sort of life. They believe in the universal 
 brotherhood of man, and that mutual 
 affection and mutual help should be the 
 rule of life. The Post Trader always has 
 a tap-room in his building, adjacent to 
 the bar-room, for the use of officers and 
 citizens, into which a private soldier is not 
 allowed even to look. In this rendezvous 
 of the select may be heard 
 
 " * * * the sound 
 
 Of riot, and. ill-managed merriment." 
 
 At almost any time of day or night there 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 167 
 
 may be seen, seated around a center-table, 
 a motley group of officers and border 
 characters playing Pedro, Seven Up, or 
 Poker, for money and the drinks." We 
 recall a scene : The usual card party at 
 the center-table playing Pedro ; at one 
 side of the room is a long table upon 
 which are the feet of an officer and those 
 of two men from the dark places in the 
 mountains, and whisky, lemons, sugar, 
 cigars and tumblers (side party are hav- 
 ing a confidential talk, exchanging com- 
 pliments in mutual admiration) ; a citizen, 
 with buckskin pants profusely ornamented 
 with patches of other skins, and an officer, 
 are lying in fond embrace upon a couch 
 almost hidden under a canopy of tobacco 
 smoke, sleeping off an excess of toddy. 
 
 An ex Indian Agent of local celebrity 
 was a frequenter of one of these resorts. 
 
i68 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 He was a genial fellow, could tell a good 
 joke, sing songs, was preeminently fond 
 of whisky, and had insidiously crept into 
 the favor of the ladies and officers of the 
 Post. He had formerly been a stage- 
 driver on the mountains, and had an ex- 
 tensive knowledge of the country and of 
 the habits of the Indians, and was always 
 on the alert for an opportunity to relate 
 his numerous hair-breadth escapes. His 
 birthday was quadrennial, and he never 
 failed to make it a memorable event. He 
 was at the Post on the return of one of 
 these happy occasions, and he invited the 
 officers to come to the Trader's store im- 
 mediately after guard-mount to aid in the 
 celebration of the day. The ex Agent 
 was about six feet two inches in height, 
 and he dressed his lone, lank figure in 
 holiday attire, without regard to modern 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 169 
 
 Styles or the opinion of others. He wore 
 a towering beaver whose pristine beauty 
 had been replaced by the polish of age 
 and hard usage ; his pants were of buck- 
 skin, and the rains of many seasons had 
 reduced them to the proportions of those 
 seen upon the conventional Brother Jon- 
 athan ; his coat was of the pattern known 
 as " Shanghai," with a pocket on either 
 side of the skirt; his feet were encased in 
 buckskin moccasins with soles of cowhide 
 upon which the hair still remained. 
 
 The gentlemen promptly responded to 
 the invitation ; cards, billiards, songs and 
 toasts were enlivened by the free flow of 
 champagne, and they loudly shouted 
 ''Vive r holer 
 
 The ex Agent, having an almost super- 
 stitious reo^ard for the favor of the fair 
 sex, felt that he could not be entirely 
 
I JO AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 happy, nor safely hope for " many returns," 
 unless they, too, rejoiced over the event 
 of his birth. When the enthusiasm of 
 the gentlemen was at its height, he qui- 
 etly withdrew from their circle and pre- 
 pared for a tilt with the ladies. Feeling 
 assured that it was only necessary to fur- 
 nish the means, he placed a bottle of wine 
 in either pocket of his coat, and, taking 
 three in each hand, started for their quar- 
 ters. With hat hanging on the back of 
 his head, and a lock of hair resembling a 
 bunch of tangled moss covering his eyes, 
 he tacked across the parade ground like 
 a ship sailing against a strong head-wind. 
 He was bound for the Commanding Offi- 
 cer's house, which he safely reached an4 
 seated himself on the doorstep to rest. 
 He was soon discovered by the wife of 
 that official, who thought the open air 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. I7I 
 
 was best for one in his condition, and 
 therefore did not invite him into the 
 house, but coquettishly asked if he 
 were sick. To which he repHed, I'm 
 celebratin' an event that has been a great 
 blessin' to that branch of the human fam- 
 ily which I represent." 
 
 " Pray to what event do you ahude.^" 
 inquired the lady. 
 
 " My advent into this world, madam ! 
 And I desire the ladies to rejoice with 
 me, and here's the stuff to do it v/ith ! 
 \ I'll leave you a couple of bottles now, and 
 ask you to excuse me until I go around 
 and supply the other ladies, so as to give 
 you all an even start," was the answer. 
 
 After distributing the wine, he made 
 another round to take a glass with them, 
 and to receive their blessings and good 
 wishes. It took a great quantity of liquor 
 
172 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 to get his entire giant frame under its 
 influence — the average man would go 
 down under a burden that served merely 
 as an appetizer for him — but his body 
 now began to wax limber, and one fair 
 reveler, fearing she would have a case 
 of helpless inebriation on her hands, re- 
 quested him to invite some of the gentle- 
 men to join them. In compliance with 
 her wishes, he returned to the Traders 
 store, where he found the officers pleas- 
 antly engaged in songs and games. He 
 asked them to unite with the ladies, but 
 they were unanimous in their opposition 
 to alliance with the female faction. And 
 
 " Ere night's midmost, stillest hour was past," 
 
 the revelry had ceased. 
 
 " There are no ears to hear, or eyes to see — 
 Drown'd all in Rhenish, and the sleepy mead! " 
 
 When one drops in to spend an hour 
 
■ FRONTIER SERVICE. I 73 
 
 or two with an officer, and finds him 
 entertaininof a man that looks like a de- 
 serter from Falstaff's army, he is at a 
 loss to know what his friend sees to ad- 
 mire, or that is in the least cono-enial. 
 
 o 
 
 He inquires, and is told that that man 
 is a mine of information ; that he knows 
 all the chiefs and men of importance of 
 every tribe of Indians in the country ; 
 that he is familiar with their haunts, and 
 is a good guide. As the intimacy does 
 not cease for several weeks, the most 
 charitable inference is that an inexhausti- 
 ble source of provincial history has been 
 discovered. 
 
 Owing to the transitory nature of fron- 
 tier life, these singular friendships, how- 
 ever profound at the time, are not gen- 
 erally of long duration, and it is not safe 
 to depend too much upon them. 
 
1 74 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 "There is no union here of hearts, 
 That finds not here an end." 
 
 An officer who had taken to his bosom 
 
 a man of this type, in whom he placed 
 
 the most implicit confidence and trust, 
 
 was separated from him by a change of 
 
 station. Not long afterward, a Court of 
 
 Inquiry was convened to investigate a 
 
 charge which had been made against the 
 
 officer prior to leaving his former Post. 
 
 He appeared before the court and asked 
 
 for a postponement of the case until he 
 
 could procure an important witness from 
 
 Kansas. The request was granted, a 
 
 summons was issued for his quondam 
 
 friend, and the court adjourned to meet 
 
 at the call of the Recorder. Forty days 
 
 afterward the subpoena was returned 
 
 bearing the following endorsement : 
 
 " Respectfully returned to Capt. , Recorder 
 
 of Court of Inquiry, with the information that the 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 ^75 
 
 within named witness was hanged by a party of citi- 
 zens, for horse-stealing, near Wichita, Kansas, on 
 the day of , 1876." 
 
 In speaking of the influence of border 
 associations, it may be truly said that 
 even the Chaplains partake of the gen- 
 eral spirit of recklessness. We recall the 
 ride of an old Chaplain that deserves to 
 be handed down to posterity with those 
 of John Gilpin and Tarn O'Shanter, though 
 his object for taking it vv^as quite different 
 from that of either of those famous gen- 
 tlemen. Two soldiers died at a cavalry 
 camp which was situated about two miles 
 from the Fort at which the Chaplain was 
 stationed, and he was requested to per- 
 form the burial service. As the funeral 
 procession had to pass the Post on its 
 way to the cemetery, which was half a 
 mile distant, he remained at his quarters 
 
Ij6 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 looking for it until the sun was nearly 
 down. Weary with w^atching, he fell 
 asleep in his chair. The cortege passed 
 quietly by unnoticed, and when the head 
 of the column had almost reached the 
 city of the dead, the band began to play 
 a dirge, and the mournful notes, wafted 
 by the evening breeze to the old man's 
 ears, waked him. He ran to the stable 
 to get his horse, which was already sad- 
 dled, and, mounting in hot haste, took 
 a direct line for the graveyard. Disre- 
 garding the order which prohibited riding 
 or drivinor faster than a walk alonor the 
 street in front of the officers' quarters, 
 
 "Away went " Chaplain — " who but he ? " 
 
 Down the street at top of speed, a cloud 
 of dust behind him, as when a storm 
 comes suddenly. The Post was inclosed 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 by a high, rustic fence, which turned the 
 street at a right angle at the end of the 
 row of quarters, and followed it about 
 two hundred yards to a gate. The out- 
 let, however, was not on his course, and, 
 plying the spurs to the horse's sides, he 
 guided for the fence. 
 
 "Away went " Chaplain, "neck or naught; 
 Away went hat and wig." 
 
 " The dogs did bark, the children screamed, 
 Up flew the windows all ; 
 And every soul cried out, 'Well done ! " 
 As loud as he could bawl." 
 
 Over the fence, and over the prairie, like 
 the wind he flew, and entered the ceme- 
 tery at the head of the procession, much 
 to the amusement of the soldiers, his bald 
 head shining in the last rays of the set- 
 ting sun like a gilded ball on a church 
 
178 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Spire. He performed the ceremony and 
 then went in search of his hat and wig. 
 
 There are officers who systematically 
 persecute their juniors and conduct them- 
 selves, socially and officially, in a capri- 
 cious and vacillatinor manner. The 
 junior is ever alert for some measure 
 of retribution, and if it comes in the 
 line of duty, as when he is assigned 
 to command on his brevet rank and 
 has control of his former commander, it 
 is generally as ample as was that of 
 Pitman's boy. This lad, it will be re- 
 membered, acquired the rudiments of his 
 education in a log school-house. At one 
 place the plaster was broken away be- 
 tween the logs, and through this aperture 
 the boy endeavored to escape, feet fore- 
 most, during school hours. Unfortunate- 
 ly, he stuck fast when half way through. 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 179 
 
 The attention of the teacher was directed 
 to the culprit, and he proceeded to the 
 exterior of the edifice and embraced the 
 opportunity afforded by the boy's position 
 to inflict punishment with a shingle. 
 Near the school-house there was a mill- 
 race, at the end of which was a sluice- 
 gate ; below the gate was a huge tank 
 fifteen feet deep, which carried water to 
 an undershot wheel ; the inside of the 
 tank was green and slimy, and when the 
 water was carefully draw^n out, a great 
 many fish could often be found lying on 
 the bottom. A few days after the flog- 
 ging the boy was passing the tank, and, 
 happening to look in, saw his teacher at 
 the bottom picking up fish and putting 
 them into a bag. The boy felt that the 
 hour of vengeance had struck. He 
 turned the handle of the sluice-gate, and 
 
l8o AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 in less than a minute that jolly old peda- 
 gogue was floundering in six feet of 
 water, trying in vain to clamber up the 
 slimy sides of the tank. When he saw 
 the boy, he shrieked to him for help. But 
 the lad, with fiendish coolness, said, No, 
 sir ; you've got to tread water until you 
 promise never to lick me again." 
 
 When satisfaction is given unwittingly, 
 and in the line of pleasure, it becomes a 
 reminiscence to laugh over at the camp- 
 fire or the mess-table until it is incorpo- 
 rated into the legends of the Arm}^ A 
 Department Commander once attended a 
 masquerade ball in costume, and the fre- 
 quent potations in which he indulged 
 finally betrayed him to some juniors, who 
 exulted in this opportunity to wipe out 
 old scores. When the exhilarating effects 
 of the wine became general, they got 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 
 
 l8l 
 
 around and pretended to recognize him 
 as one of their chums, and one of them 
 struck him vigorously on the back and 
 said, "You can't fool me, Jack, I know 
 you!" The old gentleman, delighted 
 with the thought that his disguise was 
 perfect, chuckled inwardly, and aided, to 
 the extent of his physical endurance, the 
 supposed deception. Another youngster 
 leaned heavily upon the General's shoul- 
 der and confidentially asked if he could 
 point out the Department Commander, 
 adding, " I want to see how the old fool 
 looks in costume." Another seized him 
 around the waist and said, "Come, Jack, 
 let's have a waltz," at the same time spin- 
 ning him around like a top. When they 
 had whirled into the middle of the room, 
 the junior purposely made a misstep and 
 threv/ the old fellow violently to the floor 
 
l82 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 and fell upon him. This seeming contre- 
 temps was a climax of fun for the others, 
 who had followed closely, watching for an 
 opportunity to trip him themselves. In 
 this manner he allowed himself to be 
 knocked about until he saw a eood chance 
 for escape, and then retired from the 
 room much exhausted but still pleased 
 with the idea of mistaken identity. 
 
 Apropos: To show the *'many parts" 
 an officer may play, even in one day, 
 we relate the occurrences of a certain 
 St. Patrick's Day in the Army. The Com- 
 mander proclaimed it a holiday, and gave 
 his men as much latitude as he allowed 
 them on the Fourth of July. He hon- 
 ored the occasion by drinking freely him- 
 self and forbidding the arrest of anyone 
 for drunkenness. When he had imbibed 
 a sufficient quantity of different beverages 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE. 183 
 
 to put him on unusually good terms with 
 himself and the rest of mankind, he be- 
 came exceedingly zealous in his efforts to 
 make the celebration successful. He ar- 
 ranged a programme for horse, mule, bag, 
 and wheelbarrow races, catchinor a greased 
 pig, climbing a soaped pole, and various 
 other sports. The exercises, except the 
 horse and mule races, took place on the 
 parade ground, and he acted as master of 
 ceremonies. He played the role of the 
 Soldiers' Friend, and, as an evidence of 
 his regard, changed his nationality as 
 occasion required. If a son of Erin 
 chanced to approach him, he made minute 
 inquiries respecting his ancestors, and 
 declared himself to be a native of the 
 Green Isle ; if a Dutchman, he saluted 
 him in Dutch, and said that he had not 
 been from the Vaterland long enough to 
 
184 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 quite forget his mother tongue ; if a 
 Frenchman, he claimed descent from 
 General Lafayette, and was loud in his 
 praises of La Belle France ; and so on 
 through the whole list of nationalities 
 represented. Before the day ended, this 
 man of multcB lingticE was unable to dis- 
 tinguish an Irishman from a moon-eyed 
 son of the Orient — which fact led many 
 to doubt the sincerity of his protestations 
 of brotherly love. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INTEMPERANCE PROFITS OF POST TRADER- 
 SHIPS. 
 
 "Alake! that e'er my Muse has reason 
 To wyte her countrymen wi' treason! 
 But monie daily weet their weason 
 Wi' liquors nice, 
 An' hardly, in a winter's season, 
 
 E'er spier her price." 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 "The gold that sinful occupation yields, 
 But gilds the way to regions of the damn'd." 
 
 FROM what quarter the Army de- 
 rived its popular and almost uni- 
 versal #istom of drinking intoxicating 
 liquors — whether it is a bequest of Alex- 
 ander the Great to the sons of Mars and 
 passed down through the ages in lineal 
 
 i8s 
 
i86 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 descent — its legends do not tell. Little 
 can be said of the social life of the Army 
 without introducing the fabled god of 
 wine. Observe the officers socially, and 
 we see more to condemn than to ^dmire ; 
 a mingling of noble attributes with the 
 lowest vices ; the intellect in some cases 
 brilliant and orrowinor brighter, and in 
 Others irretrievably lost in the depths of 
 infamy. Among them we meet with mag- 
 nanimity and gallantry, with sympathies 
 that enter into our feelings and supply all 
 our wants ; but we perceive that every- 
 thino- tends to an extreme ; vitiated taste 
 is continually seeking a change — gallantry 
 gives place to profligacy; no one is satis- 
 fied with his actual rank, but strives to 
 surpass or supplant his senior, and that, 
 too, by every device of which he is capa- 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 187 
 
 "None cared what way he gained, so gain were his" — 
 hence, there is deception, flattery and 
 fawning. 
 
 It is unnecessary to refer to those 
 open and avowed drunkards that, Hke 
 vermin on carrion, such a state of society 
 must inevitably propagate and nourish, 
 but we will give our attention to the 
 lank victims of hopelessness and despera- 
 tion — wrecked magnificence — blighted 
 prospects — official complications that fore- 
 shadow ruin — and numerous other miser- 
 ies which are born of intemperance. 
 We might here ask Dr. Good's pertinent 
 question, " Which of the two extremes of 
 society is pregnant with the greater share 
 of moral evils — that of gross barbarism, 
 or that of an exuberant and vitiated 
 polish 
 
 The officers still cling to that antiquated 
 
i88 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 idea that the hospitality of a gentleman 
 is not complete without liquor, and there- 
 fore keep it in their houses. They enter- 
 tain generously, and the guest who drinks 
 the greatest quantity of spirits without 
 losing control of his senses is generally 
 looked upon with much favor. Among 
 the junior officers there are those who 
 take especial pride in drinking whisky 
 without dilution, particularly if in the 
 presence of veterans whom a similar 
 bravado, in the days of their youth, has 
 made dyspeptic and unable to take it 
 without water. One quart of high-proof 
 whisky per day is drunk by some of the 
 young officers without producing visible 
 intoxication, but this is rare. 
 
 The blighting curse of intemperance 
 destroys ninety per cent more of the 
 Army than powder and ball. Its wither- 
 
IXTEMPERA^'CE. 1 89 
 
 ing effects may be seen upon officers who 
 have not yet reached the meridian of Hfe. 
 With shattered constitution, they tremble 
 on the brink of a drunkard's grave — men 
 who micrht have made themselves famous 
 as warriors, but preferred to expend their 
 genius in dissipation and revelry. Im- 
 becility has taken the place of the vigor- 
 ous manhood that characterized their 
 earlier years, and they are given com- 
 mands in the field to the prejudice of 
 the service and humanity. 
 
 An ofticer who was an habitual drunk- 
 ard was once sent with his company after 
 a band of Indians who were murderincr 
 settlers in Kansas, and was so drunk that 
 he could not read the order which detailed 
 him for the duty. He had been on the 
 trail but a few hours when his scouts 
 reported the Indians encamped within 
 
190 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 half a mile of him. Alcohol had so pros- 
 trated his nervous system that he had be- 
 come delirious and cowardly, — constantly 
 boding evil, — and the prospect of an 
 engagement so completely demoralized 
 him that he camped immediately to give 
 the Indians an opportunity to escape. 
 
 " * ^ * erect his hair, 
 Bristled his limbs, and with amaze he stood, 
 Mute and all motionless." 
 
 ^ ^ while horror chill 
 Ran through his veins, and all his joints relaxed." 
 
 Two companies of cavalry, which had 
 been sent out from another Post in pur- 
 suit of the same Indians, came upon him, 
 and as they were in charge of officers who 
 were his juniors, he assumed command by 
 virtue of his prerogative and required 
 them to remain with him. Such a golden 
 chance for distinction seldom falls to the 
 lot of a young officer, but this man's 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 191 
 
 pride and ambition had been drowned in 
 the infamy of dissipation. Once, after a 
 prolonged debauch, he was required by 
 his Post Commander to give a sworn 
 pledge that he would abstain from the 
 use of intoxicating liquors for six months. 
 He wrote and subscribed the promise, 
 and made oath by the Holy Evangelists 
 to keep it inviolate ; but as the term 
 "whisky" was commonly accepted to in- 
 clude all kinds of intoxicants, he studi- 
 ously used that word in the construction 
 of the obligation so that if he should yield 
 to his weakness, which he anticipated, 
 there would be a loop-hole for conscience 
 and a technical advantage in the light 
 of the law. 
 
 "The power of all things ceases; e'en sacred oaths 
 At tunes be broke, and the determined mind 
 Forego its steady purpose." 
 
192 AMERICAI^ ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 His fears were realized in a few days 
 after he gave the bond, but he avoided 
 whisky I His habit of remaining in bed 
 much of the time during his periods of 
 drunkenness gave the color of truth to 
 the Surgeon's report, which carried him 
 as sick in quarters." After exhausting 
 his supply of liquor in the field, he has 
 been known to drink Alcohol, Perry Davis' 
 Pain Killer, Extract of Ginger, and Mus- 
 tard, as substitutes. 
 
 "Such the thirst, the insatiable thirst, 
 By fond indulgence but inflamed the more." 
 
 He was dismissed the service for drunken- 
 ness, but the sentence was remitted in 
 accordance with a time-honored custom 
 in like cases. In the trial and conviction 
 of an officer for this offense the court- 
 martial simply performs a defined duty, 
 and. in cases which do not involve crimi- 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 1 93 
 
 nal conduct, the members of the court 
 attach an appeal for clemency to their 
 proceedings. The reviewing authority 
 goes through the form of confirming 
 the findings and sentence, and, through 
 respect for the petition of the court, 
 remits the sentence, the ostensible reason 
 for leniency being the stereotyped " In 
 view of this officer's gallant and meritori- 
 ous services in the field, I am pleased to 
 remit the sentence," etc. As an evidence 
 of the impunity of alcoholism in the 
 Army, it is only necessary to state that 
 this officer's social standinor is above the 
 averao^e. 
 
 o 
 
 Viewed as a unit in regard to the use 
 of stimulants, the i\rmy comprises one 
 vast festive fraternity. And are we not 
 justified in the assertion that the Govern- 
 ment sanctions and protects this vice, 
 13 
 
194 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 when we refer to the case of an officer 
 who was placed on the Retired List on 
 account of the dislocation of his hip, which 
 was caused by falling out of a buggy 
 when he was intoxicated ? If we exam- 
 ine the Retired List, and consider the 
 cause of disability in many cases, we are 
 led to infer that the Retiring Board con- 
 strues " line of duty " as including the 
 social acts of an officer. 
 
 Clannishness often renders it impossi- 
 ble to prove the most flagrant cases of 
 drunkenness. At Fort Hays, Kansas, 
 the troops, consisting of four companies 
 and a band, were paraded at " Retreat," 
 and a drunken officer staggered across 
 the parade-ground to his company and 
 fell flat on his face. The Post Com- 
 mander, who was one of the many wit- 
 nesses of the disgraceful scene, was asked 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 by a lady present, " General, did you see 
 that officer fall ? " 
 
 ''Yes," replied the General; ''but if I 
 were to prefer the charge of drunkenness 
 against him, I couldn't prove it!" 
 
 The following case fully warrants the 
 General's assertion : A captain of his 
 regiment was sent in pursuit of Indians 
 who were depredating in northern Kan- 
 sas. Instead of hunting for the redskins, 
 he marched along the railroad near which 
 his Post was situated, and always camped 
 at a station, so that he could obtain the 
 means to indulge his insatiable appetite 
 for whisky. A Contract Surgeon for 
 whom the Captain had conceived a bit- 
 ter dislike, and whom he essayed to 
 kill when in a fit of delirium tremens, 
 was on duty with the company. In a 
 second attempt upon the life of the 
 
196 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACYo 
 
 Surgeon the latter, assisted by the First 
 Sergeant and several privates, threw 
 the crazed officer to the o^round and 
 bound him securely with a rope. The 
 next day the Surgeon released him and 
 reported the facts to the General, who 
 immediately preferred charges against the 
 Captain for drunlcenness on duty. The 
 entire company were summoned as wit- 
 nesses for the prosecution, and every one 
 of them swore that he never saw the Cap- 
 tain intoxicated, nor even under the influ- 
 ence of liquor. The court-martial which 
 tried the Captain, knowing that inebria- 
 tion was his normal condition, set aside 
 the testimony of the perjured witnesses 
 and convicted the accused on the evidence 
 elicited from the Surgeon, and then made 
 the usual recommendation and petition 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 1 97 
 
 for mercy, which the reviewing authority 
 duly respected. 
 
 When the officers set the example, is it 
 remarkable that their men are eiven to 
 drunkenness .f^ It is a recoo^nized and in- 
 variable custom of the majority of soldiers 
 to give the meager pittance they receive 
 from the Government to the Post Trader 
 for intoxicants. Pay-day, which comes 
 every two months, bears the same relation 
 in a soldier's expectations that a feast-day 
 does in a Mexican's. It is a time for 
 revelry and gambling — a harvest for the 
 Post Trader and the devil. The former 
 prepares for it by increasing his clerical 
 force, but the latter always seems to be 
 ready for an exigence of business. For 
 the two weeks succeeding this event, very 
 little duty is expected of the men, as it 
 requires about that length of time for the 
 
198 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Sutler to gather in all their money. 
 While it lasts, fighting, desertion, murder, 
 and all the offenses in the catalogue of 
 crime are perpetrated. The guard-house 
 is filled with men charged with the com- 
 mission of deeds that will impose upon 
 some the burden of a ball and chain and 
 hard labor for a long period of years, and 
 upon others the forfeiture of life. One 
 would suppose that the disagreeable 
 duties which this heathenish custom en- 
 tails upon the officers would be sufficient 
 to induce them to forego its privileges 
 themselves, and endeavor to reclaim the 
 Army from this demoralizing practice. To 
 what extent they are propitiated by the 
 Post Trader's furnishing them liquor, 
 cigars and billiards without charge is 
 difficult to determine, but certain it is 
 that the liberality he shows to them and 
 
INTEMPERA^XE. 1 99 
 
 their families is considered an equivalent 
 for a compromise of honor that in civil 
 life would be pronounced criminal. 
 
 A Sutler or Trader is allowed by law 
 at every ^lilitary Post in the United 
 States. Their chief business is to sell 
 intoxicating liquors to the troops, and if 
 the}' were debarred this privilege there 
 would not be one in the Armv. Thev q-qi 
 rich in a short time. — rich bv destrovinor 
 the bodies and souls of human beings, — 
 and their occupation is dignihed by the 
 guarantee and protection of the Govern- 
 ment I The warrant under which a 
 Trader acts eives him the exclusive rio'ht 
 to traffic on the reservation to which it 
 relates. 
 
 It was once the writer's proA'ince. as 
 member of a Council of Administration,, 
 to investio^ate the business of the Trader 
 
200 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 of a two-company Post. Taking for the 
 basis of calculation the measure of the 
 small tumblers in which the Trader served 
 spirituous liquors, for which quantity the 
 soldier was charged twenty-hve cents, it 
 was ascertained that he received the enor- 
 mous sum of seven hundred and fifty-six 
 dollars for a forty-two gallon cask of 
 whisky. His books showed that the 
 aggregate sales of this kind of liquor 
 alone for one year amounted to twenty- 
 three barrels, making the gross receipts 
 seventeen thousand three hundred and 
 eighty-eight dollars. Allowing one hun- 
 dred dollars per barrel for cost and 
 freight, he realized fifteen thousand and 
 eighty-eight dollars profit. His profits 
 from the sales of other kinds of spirituous 
 and malt liquors and wines for the same 
 period amounted to three thousand dol- 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 20I 
 
 lars, making a grand total profit of eigh- 
 teen thousand and eighty-eight dollars 
 from the sale of intoxicants for one year. 
 
 After the examination of his accounts 
 was completed, a member of the Council 
 remarked to the Trader that if it were 
 not for the sale of liquor his business 
 would not be very profitable. To which 
 he replied, ''I would not be here — it 
 would not pay." 
 
 To confirm his declaration that it would 
 not pay, it is only necessary to state that 
 the Subsistence Department sells to the 
 soldier tobacco, canned and dried fruits, 
 preserves, canned vegetables, cheese, sar- 
 dines, oysters, raisins, prunes, and many 
 other articles not comprised in the rations, 
 at first cost. The Trader cannot do this. 
 He adds to the prime cost the transporta- 
 tion, which is very expensive on the 
 
202 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 frontier, and sells at a gain. It neces- 
 sarily follows that he must deal in some- 
 thing not supplied by the Army, and 
 consequently his sole reliance is intoxicat- 
 ing beverages ; and the Government au- 
 thorizes him to sell them. 
 
 The foregoing exhibit shows that a 
 Military Post Trader could well afford to 
 pay the bonus assessed upon him for his 
 position by the wife of a former Secretary 
 of War. The perquisites from this source, 
 however, have been cut off from the War 
 Office by changing the mode of appoint- 
 ing Traders. The candidate now applies 
 to a Post Council of Administration of 
 the Post he desires. Upon their recom- 
 mendation, approved by the Post Com- 
 mander, the Secretary of War issues the 
 necessary warrant, which guarantees to 
 the Trader the exclusive privilege to 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 203 
 
 traffic on the military reserve to which he 
 is appointed. It is due to this change 
 that the General of the Army returned to 
 VVashino^ton to live, beincr able, under the 
 present system, to compete VvUth the wives 
 of Cabinet officers in number and quality 
 of receptions and dinners: His salary of 
 thirteen thousand five hundred dollars 
 per annum was insufficient for this under 
 the old regime. 
 
 The Tradership at Fort Union, New 
 Mexico, is worth twenty-five thousand dol- 
 lars a year, but it is no better than many 
 others. Traders who have the necessary 
 influence to procure the transfer of troops 
 to their Post may increase their revenues. 
 
 Virtually, the Army is a school of dissi- 
 pation ; and it really seems as if the 
 establishment were kept up chiefly for the 
 benefit of the Post Traders. 
 
204 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 Young men not inclined to intemperate 
 habits before entering the service soon 
 acquire them after joining. There are 
 some who enHst through patriotic motives, 
 expecting soldier life to be one grand 
 gala day of bunting, bugles and ''shoulder 
 arms," but find the reality quite different 
 from their ideal. They are compelled to 
 associate with uncongenial people— their 
 equals only when measured by a physical 
 standard. They find themselves com- 
 panions of debauches of the lowest 
 order, and are greeted on every side with 
 prison slang and oaths. On pay-day, 
 they see that drunkenness is almost uni- 
 versal — seemingly an obligation — and, un- 
 willing to shirk anything that pertains to 
 duty, they join in the common revelry 
 Avith a vigor that soon begets the title of 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 205 
 
 "veteran." Such is the force of example 
 when it is constantly before a man's eyes. 
 
 Very few Americans enlist, and most of 
 those who do are mechanics who have be- 
 come inveterate drunkards, and, unable 
 to obtain employment at their trades, 
 join the Army for support. 
 
 Sometimes, when troops take the field 
 for a campaign, a Post Trader gets per- 
 mission from the Commanding Officer to 
 accompany the expedition with a supply 
 of liquor, which is carried along in wagons 
 adapted to the purpose. This privilege 
 is solicited only when it is known that the 
 soldiers will be paid in the field. A com- 
 mand once arrived at a point within forty 
 miles of a Post, where it was met by a 
 courier who bore a dispatch directing the 
 Commander to await there the arrival of 
 the Paymaster, who was then en route. 
 
2o6 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 The man of money, accompanied by the 
 Post Trader, who had the usual supply of 
 whisky and other liquors with him, arrived 
 in due time. No difficulty was experi- 
 enced by the latter in obtaining permission 
 to exchano^e his wares for the gfreenbacks. 
 In two hours from the time payment be- 
 gan the men were fighting, raving and 
 cursing, and it finally became necessary 
 to tie several mutinous fellows to the 
 company's wagons. That night three 
 men deserted, making good their escape 
 with their horses, arms and equipments. 
 On the second day after the payment an 
 officer asked the Commander when he 
 intended to resume the march, and re- 
 ceived the following reply : 
 
 " I shall rem.ain here a few days to give 
 the men time to have their spree out." 
 
 Several days afterward the Trader 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 207 
 
 called on the Commanding Officer to pre- 
 sent him with a box of choice cigars, and 
 to inform him of his intention to depart 
 the next day for the Post, when the old 
 gentleman asked, " Have you got about 
 all their money?" To which the Trader 
 replied, ''Yes, I think I have got the most 
 of it ; yesterday and to-day there was not 
 much taken in, and I don't think what is 
 still out is worth waitino^ for." 
 
 One of those hells on wheels accom- 
 panied a regiment of cavalry that was 
 changing station, and during a march of 
 five hundred miles nine soldiers and three 
 citizens were murdered in drunken broils ! 
 What an ignominious death ! Died 
 like dogs, — unwept, unknelled and un- 
 sung, — and their bodies deposited in a 
 shallow trench, to be fed upon by raven- 
 ous wolves ! Slain in battle with savao^es, 
 
208 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 and one's name spelt wrong in the news- 
 paper reports, would be far preferable. 
 Their burial-place should be marked by 
 an imperishable monument, upon which 
 should be emblazoned in glowing capitals 
 the name of their commander and the 
 cause of their death, to stand there as an 
 everlasting reproach to the Government 
 that authorizes the peddling of demoral- 
 ization and death among its people ! 
 
 When we hear of the death of a young 
 officer on the frontier, caused by accident 
 of drowning, horse falling, or by some 
 other contingency of the march over 
 mountains and through rivers, we know 
 that maternal hopes are blasted and pa- 
 ternal pride turned to despondency; that 
 grief is keenest when it is felt that the 
 bright promise of a life that has been 
 watched with increasing interest in its 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 209 
 
 development from infancy to manhood 
 can never be fulfilled ; but the parents' 
 sorrow is assuaged somewhat by the 
 thought that their son died in the per- 
 formance of his duty — died in the inter- 
 est of his country. Who so cruel, then, 
 as to deprive them of their consolation 
 when charity has hidden the true cause 
 of death } Perchance he was intoxicated 
 and attempted the passage of a deep, 
 rapid stream, and fell from his horse 
 when it charged the impetuous current; 
 or recklessly urged the animal down a 
 rocky steep and was precipitated into a 
 yawning chasm. 
 
 Apropos : A young officer, stationed 
 in the " far west," was sent to a neighbor- 
 ing fort on official business. He made 
 the trip on horseback, and was so drunk 
 
 when he arrived that he did not know 
 14 
 
2iO AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 what he came for, and the officer in com- 
 mand ordered him to leave the Post. 
 He started for the nearest town, which 
 was seven miles distant, and in less than 
 an hour his horse returned without its 
 rider. A party was dispatched to search 
 for the missing man, and after an hour's 
 hunt they found him about three miles 
 from the fort and a mile from the road, 
 lying on the ground helplessly drunk 
 and a pack of wolves barking at him. 
 
 It has frequently been necessary to 
 detail soldiers to remain in the rooms 
 with young officers who had 77ia7iia a potu, 
 to prevent their doing violence to them- 
 selves or others. 
 
 There is a class of officers who do not 
 drink constantly, but have the most dis- 
 gusting periodic debauches that ever dis- 
 graced the slums of iniquity. However 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 21 I 
 
 Others may view them, they rate them- 
 selves sa7is reproche. One of them once 
 preferred charges against a brother officer 
 for conduct 2inbecoming an officei^ and a 
 gentlemaii, and was soon afterward sent 
 to a distant city to deposit public funds 
 in a United States sub-treasury, — a detail 
 much sought on the frontier, as it takes 
 the officer into civilization. In less than 
 three hours after performing this duty he 
 was found, in full uniform, in a low 
 brothel, dead drunk. His conduct was 
 so offensive that the inmates of the den 
 employed two hoodlums to take him to 
 his hotel. He was carried throuo^h the 
 public streets, followed by a crowd of 
 idlers, one of Avhom carried his cap. 
 
 An old bachelor Captain, whose com- 
 pany formed a subdivision of a column 
 en route to one of the Territories, was 
 
212 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 also a toper of the above type. The 
 troops having halted near a city for a few 
 days, the Captain donned his best uni- 
 form, and, with cane and butter-colored 
 kids, meandered the streets, staring at 
 ladies and gazing into shop windows. He 
 suddenly disappeared. Two days after- 
 ward the column left, but had not gone 
 more than five miles when it was over- 
 taken by a messenger with the informa- 
 tion that the Captain had been found in 
 the classic precincts of the city, nearly 
 drowned in muddy water, in the gutter 
 in front of a dance-house where might 
 be heard the 
 
 " Midnight shout and revelry " 
 
 of the demi-monde and lazaroni. As he 
 was too drunk to sit upon a horse, an 
 ambulance was sent back for him. 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 213 
 
 About a year previous to this episode 
 in the Captain's career he spent a short 
 leave in the city of Leavenworth. After 
 making a round of formal calls upon the 
 military people there, he felt that the time 
 had come for him to lay aside the re- 
 straints of propriety and enjoy a little 
 relaxation. Accordingly, he got drunk 
 and fell from the sidewalk into the street, 
 cuttinor his head on the curbstone. An 
 officer of the Staff happened along and 
 saw him, half buried in mud, struggling 
 to regain the walk, and, actuated by 
 motives of professional pride rather than 
 feelings of friendly regard, he took the 
 besotted Captain to the railway station 
 and put him on a train with instructions 
 to return to his Post. It required two 
 days to make the journey — time enough 
 to get sober and brush his clothes. 
 
214 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 When he arrived, his garments still bore 
 evidence of the debauch, but that was 
 overlooked by his friends in their eager- 
 ness to ascertain how he received the cut 
 on his head. In reply to their inquiries, 
 he said : 
 
 " I would like to have some of the 
 street-car drivers of the city of Leaven- 
 worth in my company ! I'd make it hot 
 for them ! They have no regard for life 
 or limb ! If you want to get on a car 
 you must take a position beside the track 
 when the car is half a block distant, as it 
 is not stopped unless there are several to 
 get off or on. When you arrive at the 
 crossing where you wish to land, the dri- 
 ver brings the horses to a walk, but just 
 when you are in the act of stepping down 
 he whips up, and, if you are not expecting 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 21 5 
 
 such a movement, away you go upon your 
 head. Thafs the way I got that cut ! " 
 
 An officer who commanded a Post on 
 the Pacific Slope, and who was addicted 
 to intermitting inebriation, called upon 
 a member of the garrison who was having 
 a carousal in his quarters for the enter- 
 tainment of some friends, among whom 
 was the ex Indian Agent previously men- 
 tioned. After imbibing freely of several 
 kinds of beverages, the Commander be- 
 came very boisterous. The mixture 
 aroused a belligerent spirit in him, — over 
 which his wife had held a masterly sway 
 until that moment, — and revived the 
 fading memory of official troubles in 
 which he was involved with the ex Agent 
 when the latter was in charge of an Indian 
 Reservation. These recollections hav- 
 ing produced irrational excitement, he 
 
2l6 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 seized a German-student lamp and at- 
 tempted to wipe out old scores by ap- 
 plying it vigorously to the intrepid ex 
 Agent, who, holding a glass of wine in 
 one hand and guarding his head with the 
 other, slowly retreated with face to the 
 foe, singing a popular camp-meeting song, 
 and manifesting supreme delight in all 
 that was transpiring around him. Two 
 strong men seized the warlike Captain, 
 laid him on a couch, put a wet cloth on 
 his head, and then sat on him till it was 
 safe to let him go home. 
 
 The examples of intemperance in the 
 Army, that have been mentioned, belong 
 to the milder form. Thousands are daily 
 transpiring so terrible in their depravity 
 that to relate them would raise a ques- 
 tion of veracity in the minds of those not 
 familiar with the facts, and a doubt as to 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 the possibility of such excesses among 
 enlightened people. 
 
 Will those who are responsible for the 
 sale of intoxicating liquors on the military 
 reservations claim that it is a measure of 
 political economy ? Can they face the 
 indignation of nearly fifty millions of peo- 
 ple, who, as a nation, boast of their civil- 
 ization and progress, and satisfactorily 
 account to them for tempting men to 
 deeds of woe and death, — for adding 
 insult to robbery and fraud, — for sending 
 desolation and want in all forms of 
 terror to the firesides of the families, 
 parents or friends of those whose bodies 
 and souls have been bartered to enrich 
 Post Traders, who do not pay one 
 dollar into the public treasury } Every 
 American should blush for this lack of 
 national dignity, and weep for the burn- 
 
2l8 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 ing disgrace with which it stigmatizes 
 his country. A mighty nation sowing 
 the seeds of misery and death among 
 its own people ! By opportune action 
 Congress might save, this very year, 
 a thousand lives and years of want by 
 prohibiting the sale of intoxicants at 
 Military Posts. When this is done, 
 sutlerships will not be sought, and the 
 most fruitful source of dissolute habits 
 and crime in the United States will be 
 extirpated. Congress should do more 
 than this. The sale of liquor to a soldier 
 should be made a penal offense. The 
 Government punishes citizens for pur- 
 chasing a soldier's clothing, and why not 
 punish them for selling to him anything 
 that will impair his usefulness as a soldier.^ 
 Surely, a sober man without clothes would 
 be more serviceable than a drunken man 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 with clothes. The soldiers are the Na- 
 tions wards durine the term of their 
 enlistment, and should have the same 
 moral guards and protection that a parent 
 throws around his children. The Army 
 should be a reformatory rather than a 
 Bacchanal. Let those in power remem- 
 ber their accountability to society. They 
 should be true to their manhood and to 
 mankind — be faithful to their trust, and 
 set an example of courage in the perform- 
 ance of their duty. Only in this way can 
 they satisfy outraged humanity, violated 
 law, and an offended God. We see the 
 bitter consequences of impunity — they 
 challenge the vengeance of Divinity. 
 From the fact that temperance is a good 
 thing, every means is justifiable by which 
 the number of drunkards can be dimin- 
 ished. It behooves every parent, every 
 
2 20 
 
 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 citizen, every man who loves his country, 
 to do all in his power to overthrow 
 the mother of iniquity — intemperance. 
 Look at its appalling effects upon society 
 everywhere! Lawlessness abounds on 
 every side, and' in the most terrible 
 forms manifests its barbarous instincts. 
 The scenes of blood daily enacted in 
 every State send a thrill of horror through 
 the land, and make a page in the Nation s 
 record forever indelible. A people who 
 do not avail themselves of every means 
 for their own moral and physical pres- 
 ervation will, sooner or later, become 
 imbecile and incapable of self-government. 
 
 There will have to be a change in 
 our election system before the reforms 
 which society demands can be fully at- 
 tained. Under the present laws every 
 man has a vote, without regard to his 
 
INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 22 1 
 
 character, his conduct, his utility and in- 
 dustry as a citizen, or the amount he con- 
 tributes to the revenue of the State. The 
 brothel keeper, who subsists on the wages 
 of infamy, counts for just as much, polit- 
 ically, as the hard-working artisan who 
 invents some admirable piece of mechan- 
 ism by which labor quadruples its pro- 
 ductiveness. The drunkard can neutralize 
 the suffrage of the abstemious member of 
 society who is taxed for the support of 
 the drunkard's deserted children in an 
 orphan asylum, and the man who picks 
 your pocket to-day, and escapes detection, 
 can walk up to the polls a week afterward 
 and record his vote in favor, perhaps, of 
 a much greater thief than himself. 
 
 The Government should be the chief 
 mover in behalf of any measure that 
 will promote the welfare of its people. 
 
222 AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 It should inaugurate the needed reform 
 in the Army by prohibitory and compul- 
 sory laws. It has been said that the word 
 ''compulsory," as used in legislation for 
 the general weal, might well be erased 
 from American dictionaries ; that it is 
 alien to American ideas, hostile to the 
 spirit that underlies our institutions. We 
 do not concur in that opinion, for if there 
 is a country on the face of this planet that 
 needs compulsory laws, it is the United 
 States; and it is highly probable that un- 
 limited license has made more drunkards 
 in the Army than a prohibitory law would 
 have produced. A reasonable deduction 
 from this proposition demands that our 
 aristocracy be amenable to at least two 
 rules of government — the first bounding 
 their sphere of action, and the second 
 holding them to a clearly defined account.