ger. Yet other people consider that the
army should be built, like a pair of lazy tongs--on the principle of
elasticity and extension--so that in time of need it may fill up its
skeleton battalions and empty saddle troops. This is real wisdom,
be-cause the American army, as at present constituted, is made up
of:--Twenty-five regiments infantry, ten companies each.

Ten regiments cavalry, twelve companies each.

Five regiments artillery, twelve companies each.

Now there is a notion in the air to reorganize the service on these
lines:--Eighteen regiments infantry at four battalions, four companies
each; third battalion, skeleton; fourth on paper.

Eight regiments cavalry at four battalions, four troops each; third
battalion, skeleton; fourth on paper.

Five regiments artillery at four battalions, four companies each; third
battalion, skeleton; fourth on paper.

Observe the beauty of this business. The third battalion will have its
officers, but no men; the fourth will probably have a rendezvous and
some equipment.

It is not contemplated to give it anything more definite at present.
Assuming the regiments to be made up to full complement, we get an army
of fifty thousand men, which after the need passes away must be cut down
fifty per cent, to the huge delight of the officers.

The military needs of the States be three: (a) Frontier warfare, an
employment well within the grip of the present army of twenty-five
thousand, and in the nature of things growing less arduous year by year;
(b) internal riots and commotions which rise up like a dust devil, whirl
furiously, and die out long before the authorities at Washington could
begin to fill up even the third skeleton battalions, much less hunt
about for material for the fourth; (c) civil war, in which, as the case
in the affair of the North and South, the regular army would be swamped
in the mass of militia and armed volunteers would turn the land into a
hell.

Yet the authorities persist in regarding an external war as a thing to
be seriously considered.

The Power that would disembark troops on American soil would be capable
of heaving a shovelful of mud into the Atlantic in the hope of filling
it up. Consequently, the authorities are fascinated with the idea of the
sliding scale or concertina army. This is an hereditary instinct, for
you know that when we English have got together two companies, one
machine gun, a sick bullock, forty generals, and a mass of W.