Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1898 — The Army Canteen. [ARTICLE]

The Army Canteen.

There is apparently a misconception of the word “canteen,” which is not necessarily a place where liquor is sold in the army at all. The “canteen” takes the place of the suiter’s stand, which no longer exists. All the profits from the sale of the goods in the “canteen” goes to the men instead of into the pockets of the sutler, who was frequently a robber, and who secured the monopoly of dealing with the soldiers and robbing them by a pull with the appointing power. The “canteen” may sell liquor clandestinely, just as the sutler did, but it is not a liquor shop by any means.