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Show HISTORY OF THE DRUM. Drummers and their drums are to be eliminated from the French army by the reforming zeal of General Farre, and that the infantry soldier will not march better in consequence of this latest innovation may be safely predicted, for any attempt he may have made hitherto to keep step has been mainly due to the rataplan. Comparatively little importance, however is attached in France to [unreadable line] a regiment which makes any? show of it is invariably the most cheered at reviews, this being one of the inconsistencies prevalent there which it would be vain to attempt explaining. The Minister of War explained before the Budget Committee that his reason for adopting the change is because drummers are not combatants, so he proposes to replace them by trumpeters, who do come under that category. Like the white leather aprons of the sappers, which have disappeared for some time, the little parchment covered cylinders are henceforth doomed. We do not know whether the origin of the drum has ever been traced by some patient inquirer. We have been told that it comes to us from the East and that the Moors first brought it into Europe. Certain is the fact that the most savage races have always rejoiced in their tam-tams, and, as the pleasure of making a noise is inherent in human nature, perhaps this most effective way of creating a din was invented by Adam's sons or grandsons. But the drum does not appear to have been used in the French army until toward the close of the fourteenth century, and its introduction is attributed to the English invasion under Edward III.; its general adoption by the infantry dates back to the time of Louis XI., when the Swiss element was largely infused into the royal forces. The drum at that epoch was a shapeless instrument, and served more for rallying the troops or for the conveyance of the word of command than for regulating the step, which was far from being as measured as it is now. Each captain had a drummer in his private livery, and he employed him to carry his orders or his instructions as much as for beating the word of command, the drummer in those days appears to have been a kind of aid-de-camp. The covering was usually made from the hide of some animal - generally of an ass - though if it be true that John Zisca, the avenger of Huss, bequeathed his skin to his gallant companions-in-arms to form the covering of a drum which was to summon them in case of danger, material more noble was at least once made to serve the purpose. The drum was not used for drilling infantry to keep step until the middle of the eighteenth century, and the roll, such as we now know it, was only regulated some hundred years ago. The drummer's art then became more difficult, and to perfect it regimental schools were established, the master of which was the drum major, who in recent times was still such a prominent and popular personage in each French regiment. The period of his greatest glory was the First Empire, when the drum major of the Grenadiers of the Guard had rank of a captain and wore a uniform which cost Napoleon $600. Under the Restoration and the Monarchy of July, drum majors were given to the regiments of Bremen, and even to those of the National Guard; but of late years their prestige has diminished in a great extent, and also their stature; they are no longer such imposing clothes-horses, all lace and feathers, towering above ordinary mortals, the race has, in fact, been visibly deteriorating. Such as they are, however, they will now disappear from the head of French regiments, with their drums. |