Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1895 — SWEARING IN RECRUITS. [ARTICLE]

SWEARING IN RECRUITS.

How it is Don* Here and How in Germany. ‘‘The unostentatious manner in which our national affairs are administered is well illustrated by the striking contrast between the ceremony of swearing in recruits in our army and the same ceremony in Germany,” remarked an officer who is stationed at Fort Wayne to a Detroit Free Press reporter. ‘‘Here the recruit after expressing his desire to serve Uncle Sam is ushered into the room, a bare, dingy, rented apartment, which serves as office for the enlisting officer of the army, and then and there is called upon to repeat, after the said officer, the following oath, its solemn import marked by the cursory upward tendency of the irrespective right hand: ‘I do solemnly' swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies whomsoever; and that I will obey' the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to?the rules and articles of war. So Qielp me God.’ Signature to this oath makes him, without more ado, a full fledged soldier. “ How different is the following ceremony used in binding Germany’s soldiers to their Kaisers. The young conscript is conducted to the church of the parish in which he enlists, where he is first addressed by the pastor on the sacred character and great import of the oath he is about to take. Then the flag of his country and that of his battalion being placed on the alter, the embryo soldier is required to place his loft hand on these flags, and, raising his right, to repeat the following: ‘ I swear before God, who is all powerful and who knows all, that I will servo loyally and faithfully my very gracious sovereign under all circumstances. On land and sea, in peace and in war, and in all places, I swear to seek only Ips good and to do everything to prevent Injury to him, I swear to observe strictly the articles of war which have just been read to me. I swear to obey all orders and to conduct myself as every courageous, honest soldier ought to do, delighting in fulfilling the duties that honor imposes upon me. As surely as God will aid me in gaining eternity through Jesus Christ, amen.' ‘‘ls it not a serious question whether our simplicity in the administration of a sacred oath doos not defeat its very purpose? We, in this free born American Republic, are justly proud of our simple, unostentatious ways, marked by want of useless ceremony, and we, by our example, daily administer rebuke to the old world for the vanity of its ways, but let us not carry the feeling too far. Human nature here, as elsewhere, is Impressionable, and if an obligation is rendered more binding by impressiveness wo should not hesitate to employ its nfcegsarv accompaniments even to the ‘fuss and feathers’ employed by our elders In the sisterhood of nations. “The average American, unversed in patriotic lore, woefully ignorant of patriotic symbols, is constantly accused of want of devotion to his country, of too great individualism, too little nationalism. Lot us hope that this is not so, that our patriotism but lies dormant, awaiting the occasion which will call It into play and make its existent strength emphatically evident to the world. “In the meantime, let the soldier swear by his country’s beautiful emblem ; furthermore, let the Stars and Stripes bo displayed more often and with more reverence before the people at large. Nothing will contribute further to arouse our hetrogenoous population, our too large disorderly element, the product of the sordid, selfish individualism, to a realization of other more worthy interests; of a duty paramount to all others, yet so generally lost sight of, to a country that exists, to a flag that waves, on this side of the ocean.”