OCR Text |
Show 'CAlffilTIlE SKETCHES . oood BiiortT stories for THE VETERANS. Dram Major, Originally a Court rant-Uonary In Fa rope, IU Km IVefl Oo of Oor Army stories of "Waterloo How a Mllploo I)Im. Terra-t'orane. Above the drep-eet vail y, ' Tha mountain rangee rlee. Abort In clouded lummlti, Tlia bounlleee iklaa. I Tleysnd Ihe creeled Burgee, Ilroad plalna o( ocean ere. Beyond tha dim hotltom. The even atar. Beyond, above, tha limits Of loll and rain and strife, Olaama like a ntful beacon Tha blMiad Ufa. Beyond Harth'a quick mutations. Itrlght hopes and glooms of fesr Ahl but hlfh heaten effrlghte ue Our home la herel Lewie Morrla In Literature. Tha Oram Major. Tha Infantry reglmenla of tbe United Unit-ed Btataa ara to bat drum raajon hereafter, according to thi provisions of tha Arm bill paiaed at tha Itit aes-aloa aes-aloa of congress. Tha (act that while tha gorgeous giant with tha big cana la an Important part of tha data mtlltla drssa paradta, ha hai had no place In paradea of United Btataa Infantry la not ao strange when ona hiara tha explanation. ex-planation. "Tha thing la almple enough," aatd a military antiquarian. "Tou hate only to remember thai In tha United Statea regular array there ara no hunara and no Pollih lancera. Just wait a moment and I think t can how you tbe connection. It la rather rath-er a paradoxical connection, but It la there, all tha line. Tha general Idea la that nothing la to be found In the United Statu army that waa not In the British regular army In tha fourteenth four-teenth year of tha ralgn of George lit. By that of courao I mean nothing In tha way of ranks and dlaclpllnary arrangements. ar-rangements. One or two things may hate dropped out of use tbe rank of cornet for example, which waa formerly for-merly the lowest commissioned rank In the cavalry both In the American and In the Ilrltlsh army. On tbe other band they have aeteral things that we hare not. If you will take the trouble to look It up you will rind that etery one of these things has been Introduced Introduc-ed Into the Ilrltlsh army since our war of Independence. The Polish lancer became famoua under Napoleon I, and the Ilrltlsh straightway turned half a doien or ao of tbtlr regtmtnta of light dragoons Into lancera, not only equipping equip-ping them with lances, but also git Ing - " them, the Polish caps with tha square, -flat tops, whleh lliejr mi wmt-vr full dress parade. It was about tha same time that they took up the name hussar, which la Hungarian anu comes down all tbe way from the day of Manilas Ma-nilas Cortlnus, the Hungarian king, whose old atlrrups were sold the other day, I aee, for $1,700. With the name of buasar the Ilrltlsh army took the dress of the Hungarian entailer the fur-eotered busby, the Turkish dolman or flying Jacket, trimmed with fur and hanging loose on the left shoulder, and ao on. They bate glten up the dying Jacket but the rest of the uniform uni-form they still keep. It was all Imitated Imi-tated from the French, who bad had huasara two generations earlier. Mural, Mu-ral, the spectacular marshal of tha empire, made It famoua and popular. Bo far 10 good. We bate most things that they bad In 177(1, not what they took up In Napoteon'a time. But one thing their standing army bad which we hate not had heretofore, and that la tha drum major. Naturally enough, too. There would be no drum majora In tbe continental army, because tbe continentals were only the old constitutional con-stitutional English mtlltla, representing represent-ing tbe shire and borough letles of tha middle agea, transferred to tha American colonies, while the standing army with their red costs, the royal lltery were an extra constitutional body of troops that began to exist under un-der the Stuarts mere royal retainers In fact. Now the drum major was first beard of In England In the reign of Charlea I. He was an cdlcer of the royal roy-al household originally, and his title wsa drum major general. The Stuarta ware very fond of Imitating tbe Frenoh court, and a whole century earlier than the days of Charles I the king of France bad had his drum gen-eial gen-eial and drum colonel to teach tha vi i iuu uiuui iuiuiiui iu icoxa ine royal drummers. It waa only after Charlea I had had hla head cut off that Louis XIV reduced bla drum generala and drum colonels to drum majors. But the drum major retained the authority au-thority to chastise his subordinates, and the big cane to do It with, which later all drum majora still wield for tha edification of admiring crowds. Bo you see thla office of drum major waa a thing associated with the court and the absolute standing army. No wonder It did not find a place In tbe army that originated In votes of the continental congress. Aa to how our state militias took up drum majors, I cannot say exactly, or as to when, but It Is significant that the name national nation-al guard, or rather, national guards, waa taken by the New Tork militia la Hit, by way of compliment to Lafayette, Lafay-ette, because ha bad commanded tbe Oarde Nationals In France, All through the reteolutlon tbe consulate and first empire the drum major continued con-tinued to be a rery Important personage person-age In the French Infantry, Perhaps tur mllltla In their enthusiasm for Lafayette La-fayette wished to be ns French aa they rould In everything. It la worth remarking re-marking that wa bare taken up drum majors Just about twenty years after tha British bava dropped them. Since 1171 they bare had sergeant drummers to dlacharre ttrs -more serious fnno-tlons fnno-tlons which formerly belonged to the drum major." "lorlr at Waterloo. Iter. Canon Btateley In a recent la-ue la-ue of the Cornhlll Vagatlne reUlla eevtral "military anecdotes" of tha battle bat-tle of Waterloo. He recounta "one of the meet extraordinary etcapea from death" on the field of Waterloo. Lieut. 8lewart Moore recelted a ghastly wound "A Polish Isncer drote hit lance through one of his lungs. Ha must hate been destitute of medical aid for hours, for when the surgeon came to examine hU wound, It was dark, and a lantern had to be used for a proper Inspection Tha light was actually blown out by tbe air Issuing from the wound. Hut he recoterad and llted on to old age." The canon tells also of the wife of the quarter-master, quarter-master, who had atood fire with bar husband In South America, and been seterely wounded At Waterloo she lingered with the regiment after the firing commenced "Howeter, tha adjutant ad-jutant told her that a battlefield waa not tha place for an offlrer'a wife, she reluctantly withdrew, but only to eta-tlon eta-tlon herself In the belfry of tbe church at Waterloo, from whleh she had probably a finer and more exten-alte exten-alte rlew of the battle than eten Na-poteon Na-poteon or Wellington." Tbe canon winds up hla stories of Waterloo by a remarkable and Interesting anecdote told him by the alater of a distinguished distinguish-ed fellow of Trinity, noted as hating been the first Roman Catholic to attain at-tain the honor of fellowship: "Years ago thla lady paid a visit to tha Island or Mauritius. Bbe was Introduced to a Isdy of great beauty and commanding appearance, wbo ordered etery one about, and whose features were unmistakably unmis-takably Spanish. Who waa this ladyt An Infant picked up on tbe field of Waterloo from behind a wagon after tbe battle. Her parents were known to Ood alone. She waa found by an ensign, en-sign, Helllger by name, perhaps an officer In the klng'a (lerman legion. II placed her under the care of a soldier's wire, paying for her support, and aa she grew up, seeing how beautiful and talented aha promised to be, had her educated and finally married her, as Dick Swlttller did the marchioness. He held In his latter days an appointment appoint-ment In the Mauritius, and here follows fol-lows tbe extraordinary pendant to this romantic tale. The great granddaughter granddaugh-ter of the Waterloo 'waif and stray' (they maturo and marry tery early In those tropical climes) was the wife of Baron de Lesseps, the originator or the Sues and the unfortunate designer of the Panama canal. At tbe age of 17 ehe fell In lote with the baron, then about 70, and proposed to him according accord-ing to the custom of the Mauritius, by a floral offering. Tha old baron waa ao amaied that he declared that she rnuai.Jnland.lba.ofrarlna'aorahla.aon, who waa with him. 'Non, monsieur, e'est a voue.' " How rillplno Dire. The general. In a white hat, waa marching In adtanca of the firing line, when the discharge of a rifle was beard In the yard of a house next to tha road, aaya John F. Ilass In Harper's Weekly. Several soldiers rusbed Into the yard, but not In lime to prarant two more ahota, which came irhlnlng In the direction of the general. At thla moment I came to a break In the hedge where I could see what waa going on. A young Filipino waa about thirty yarda oil. He waa turning thla way and that Ilka an animal at bay, thoroughly thor-oughly frightened. He bad a rifle In hla band, It afterwards turned out that thla rifle was choked. The soldiers sol-diers were breaking down the high hedge to get In. Suddenly the Filipino made a run for life. He got through the hedge some way and daabed across an open field. Three ahota followed, all of which took affect. Tha wounded man turned, ran sideways a taw paces, lay down on tbe ground and a aecond after waa dead. I got a good sight of the whole Incident, and so naturally did tha Filipino atretch himself along the ground and rest his bead upon hla arm that I thought ha was shamming. An examination a minute later proved that he was dead. There la a difference differ-ence between the manner in which American and Filipino soldiers die the American falls In a heap and die bard; the Filipino atretchea himself out, and when dead la always found In some easy attitude, generally with bla head on bla arma. They die the way a wild animal dies In Just such a position posi-tion aa one finds a deer or an antelope which one haa ahot In tbe wooda. |