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Show mXy give up drum FRENCH MINISTER OF WAR IS OUTSPOKEN. Thlnka Time of Soldiers Can Be More Profitably Employed Than in Beating Beat-ing Stretched Sheepskin, But Public M,y Differ. For a generation tho French rain-Isttry rain-Isttry of war has Intermittently .threatened .threat-ened tho drum tho prldo, the symbol of glory, the solace and tho epitome of the French army. Threatened lives live long and the drum is not dead .yet. Tho lntest threat 'Is ominous, because be-cause It Is Indliect. Tho minister of war explains that the law of 1905 reducing re-ducing tho conscript's term of service serv-ice to two j, curs makes It more than ever necessary' that the wholo term should bo short to military training proper, and consequently young drummers drum-mers will not ba placed In tho hands of the drum majors till a year after they ha'e Joined tho army, and then their practice must be conducted outside out-side tho hours of ordinary, drill and training. Tho minister of war apparently ap-parently believes that tho drum will icmaln In enly n few regiments where enthusiasts make It a point of regimental regi-mental honor and tradition. And he desires this icstilt quite honestly, bo-cause bo-cause ho does not think that even the veneration of tho French people for the drum, which has throbbed through ami above all the turmoil of their history, Jtistlflos Its retention at the cost of making thousands of men simply drummers Instead of soldiers. Gibbon In his account of tho cap-turo cap-turo of Constantinople remarks that the mechanical operation of sounds Tn quickening tlie circulation of the blood and the spirits has more effect on the human machine than all the eloquence of reason and of honor. The side-drum Is not an Instrument of music, but a marker of rhythm. Uut the kettle-drum Is a subtle thing which has been nioro and moro stud-led stud-led and employed since Deethoven virtually vir-tually promoted It to be a solo Instrument, Instru-ment, and Berlioz wrote In Its praise with enthusiasm. One of the Inimitable Inim-itable sights of a military procession In London is tho traditional flourish of a Life Guards' drummer as he plays the kettle-drums at the head of the regiment. The very action of tho horse makes It seem that he, too, understands un-derstands tho dignity and the potent use of the instruments he hears. But here we speak not of kettle-drums, but of tho plain, hanging foot-soldler'a drum, which has been associated with his triumphs and agonies through generations. it is easy for an official to say that bugle-calls art much easier to distinguish dis-tinguish than drum-calls; that learning learn-ing to play the drum properly Is an unconscionable waste of time; and that tho French army drums are a Moloch which lequlre the sacrifice of 25,000 good fighting men. Two divisions divi-sions of Infantry It Is a tremendous official argument. On the other hand, there are the exhilarating drum-taps which as they come down tho street make the citizen forget argument and remember only that the skin of the French drum passed everywhere over the plains of Europe; that It was parched In Spain and shrunk In the rains of Fomeranla, and was covered with snow In Russia; that It was the furious eacourager of gallantry and the muffled mourner for the dead; that It was t-e table for sparae meala In bivouacs and the place of Judgment at drum-head courts. The intellectual may say with Bordereau that the drum blisters his ears, or the cynic with Gen.- Galllfet that drums at all events do not make so much nolso as retired generals. But will the French people, and the French fantasslns, part with their venerated symbol, with ''The story of two haadred years Writ on the parchment of a drum?" |