THE SOLDIER : HIS OCCUPATION.
SOLDIERING, considered as an occupation and as it is practised in time of peace, is tame, monotonous, wearisome. The occupa- tion of the soldier, qua soldier, is noefavourable to health of body or elasticity of mind. The drill he undergoes, the duty he per- forms, is harassing from its very want of variety. It does "little to develop the muscles or rouse the nervous energy." It is " mechanical, without exhilaration." " His only exercise now almost is drill " ; and certainly few things can be more wearisome than drill. That a man should have to go through a series of evolutions that fatigue his limbs without developing their forces, and absorb his attention without affording him any amusement, cannot but have a bad effect on both mind and body. And there can be no doubt that want of such exercise as will increase his strength, and of such recreation as will stimulate and amuse his mind., lead the soldier to idleness and dissipation, and entail on him disease as a consequence. The soldier, like every other human creature, has a certain amount of work to perform, and he has what many have not, a considerable amount of leisure. He rises at six, makes his bed, and cleans his clothes and arms ; at seven he takes breakfast ; at eight he has morning drill for an hour or so. After this, he has nothing to do until evening parade, when he is again drilled for a short time. This is the simple history of a day. But the soldier may be a defaulter, or slow at learning his business : if so, he is . again drilled in the afternoon ; then he may be engaged in learn- ing the use of the Minis rifle for several hours ' • or he may be on guard. One day in five he is on guard. In that case he stands _sentry for two hours, and is off sentry four hours. This is the Whole of his work. It was admitted before the Commission, that _a greater amount of duty and drill than they actually perform, cannot be imposed on the soldier without disgusting him. Colonel Lindsay tells the reason of this— "All the soldier has to do is under restraint. He is not like a working man or an artisan. A working man digs, and his mind is his own ; and an artisan is interested very likely in the work in which he is engaged ; but a man in the position of a soldier must give you all his attention, and there is a great deal of physical demand on him in consequence of the weight he carries. AU these things make me think that it would be impossible to ask him to do more duty or drill than he is now called upon to perform."
And if it were possible, of what use would it be ? Either a soldier knows his business, so far as it can be taught him in time of peace, or he does not : if he does, then all the drill he requires is to keep up his knoivledge ; if he does not, then he gets extra drill. The soldier who has rapidly acquired his drill has then much time on his hands. He does not know what to do with it. His barrack-room is not an inviting place. Sergeant Sotheron says, the men are confined to one room all day. " They have very little room to walk up and down ; there is a row of tables in the centre, and a row of beds on each side, and the men are cramped." If the soldier is in garri- son and there is a library, he will not find the library-room an attraction. In these rooms " there are merely a few forms and tables, and the room is indifferently lighted, so that practically the soldiers do not use it as a reading-room." There are, as a rule, no day-rooms ; there are hardly "any means of recreation." If a soldier is in a town, what can he do but lounge in his bar- rack, walk abroad without an object; "go after" the girls, or hang about the canteen ? If he has friends, they take him to a public-house, treat him, and probably send him home drunk. if he is in a country barrack, indeed, lie may get some amusement. He will probably play at cricket, quoits, or " rounders," and draw in health from the fresh air and vigorous exercise. But these are exceptional cases : as a general rule, the soldier is allowed to run into mischief; and he is punished for what is in such a great de- gree the fault of his position. _ It is a mystery why such a state of things should be allowed to continue. There is the soldier, a very costly person : in time of peace, he should be preserved, improved, kept in the highest health and strength, with the most scrupulous care. Instead of that being done, however, he is placed much in the same circum- stances as a mechanic whose wife does not make home comfort- able, and like the mechanic he runs into loose courses. " The barrack should be made so far as possible the home of the soldier." At present it is a kind of crowded caravanserai without one of the comforts or attractions of a home. Can it be supposed that the men prefer this ? Not at all. " If you give them amusement they take an interest in it," says Colonel Lindsay. " I think," says Mr. George Russell Dartnell, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, " that if gymnastic exercises, and manly sports and games, were more encouraged, they would be found valuable means of improving the health and vigour of the soldier I would recommend games of all kinds to amuse and entertain the men, and to develop their muscles and physical powers." " Where you have opportunities of employing men, you decrease the dissi- pation." One suggestion is, that, when not on military duty they should work at trades in a kind of barrack-workshop, and receive fair wages. Colonel Jebb thinks that they should work, and be paid, for the benefit of the public. " The more the soldier is use- fully employed, the better he would be for it in almost all re- spects." Mr. Neison is of opinion that much of the Army mortal- itymay be traced to the "want of the right sort of physical exercise." He thinks that "exercise is really the ruling element throughout the whole of life," and that where there is great exercise, other conditions being the same, there will be seen a prolonged dura- tion of life. It is because they have more exercise, and of a stiffer kind, that the cavalry enjoy better health than the in- fantry. " Exercise of the legs will not suffice for exercise of the chest." The whole weight of the evidence on this subject ap- pended to the Commissioners' Report shows irresistibly two things —the want of healthful recreation, the want of healthful la- bour, and on the other hand a great readiness on the part of the soldiers to engage in the one and the other. It is clear that many would enter with great zest into all kinds of athletic games, especially if stimulated by honorary prizes or substantial emoluments, like the new shooting-prizes ; that others would seek entertainment in books if they had a reasonable place to read them in ; and that not a few would do useful work, such as bar- rack-repairs, gardening operations, throwing up field-works, while some would even revert to their trades. It is certain that a large proportion could be kept from courses fatal to soul and body, if they were judiciously ruled and guided. So much that would fit the soldier for active service could be pleasantly im- parted with a little trouble on the part of his superiors, that the wonder is it has not already been done, not from a feeling of jus- tice to the soldier, but simply to preserve his life and make him the most efficient instrument possible for warfare. At all events, until some changes are made in his mode of life—changes which he cannot himself initiate,—he will still present moral disease by no means creditable to the state, and show physical disease that will lead to a lamentable waste of money and life. Nor must we forget, to use the words of Colonel Jebb, that "the more the con- dition of the soldier is improved, and the more the public become satisfied that he is well cared for in every respect, the sooner will a better class of -recruits present themselves" ; a consummation devoutly to be wished, especially now, when the demands upon the British Army are so largely increasing.
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