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TI1E DEEM.
Eor a generation the Drench Ministry of
War has intermittently threatened the
drum — the pride, the symbol of glory, the
solace, and the epitome of the Drench army.
Threatened lives live long, and the drum
is not vcfc ilnful. Thn inir»sfc i.lirpnl is
ominous, because It-it indirect. The Minis-
tor for War explains, that the Jaw of 190o
reducing the conscript's term of service to
two years makes it more than ever neces
sary tlmt the whole term should he given
to military training proper; and conse
quently young drummers will not bo placed
in the hands of the drum majors till a year
after they have joined the army, and then
their practice must be conducted outside
tlie hours of ordinary drill and training.
It will not he, as iu the old days, an ex
clusive occupation. "If," concludes the
oixler, 'this arrangement interfcrvcs with
the normal recruiting of drummers, the
beads of corps will gradually replace their
drummers, as it becomes necessary, by
buglers. The Minister for War appar
ently believes that the drum will remain
in only a few regiments where enthusiasts
make it a point of regimental honor and
tradition. And he desires this result quite
honestly, because he docs not think that
even tlie veneration of tlie French people
lor the drum, which has throbbed through
0N!(! the turmoil of their history,
.lustincs its retention at the cost of making
thousands of men simply drummers instead
of soldiers. iNapoleon called the drum the
King ot instruments. ;It alone ensures the
brisk, cadenccd step in marching. What
percentage of soldiers, can profitably be ex
cused from carrying rifles and bayonets in
order that they may inspire others to carry
' a "9el)er endurance and a better
spirit, ilint is the .problem. Wc have
M ,wLen Lord Hnglnn broke up
£i j.Ti i , n(ls the Crimea in order
tlmt the bandsmen might serve in the ranks
some observers doubted whether lie did not
lose in morale what he- gained in personnel.
Ihe bntish 'soldiers standing chilled and
disconsolate in the snow cast jealous eyes
on the Lrench, who. equally chilled but less
disconsolate, could be seen gathering round
their bands. One of the most popular
?rC\Si!n t »n rc,nc language is Frederic
Mistrals La tambour d'Arcole: — A
Baltniit, battnnt la charge,
/ 1 Ensemble, il leg fait bonrlir.
It is the talc of the drummer who used his-
drum to strike terror into tlie enemy. Bata-
lJlun, ratnplnn, rataplan; no more; but the
eireuuistanees were 'those of surprise, and
i lie, biioy.-int reiterations of tlie drum" in
visibly coining nearer turned the Austriqns
to rout. Andre Estienne was the drum
mer s name: he crossed the Adige on a ser
geants back at the battle of Areola beating
tlie charge. Ine Austrinns could not see
what was happening for tlio smoke, and,
hearing tlie drum, they thought the Drencli
liail crossed the river in force, and wore on
their flank. T hey paused, nnd in the inter
val ot doubt the gunners do«ertc(l the hat-,-
teries commanding the bridge. Napoleon
seized it, and Areola was won. After-
wnrds Napoleon gave Estienne drumsticks
of ivory and gold. At Marengo this same
drummer was wounded by a shell, and
Napoleon, reeogmsing him nftor the battle,
took the Cross from his own; breast and
pinned it on Ins. Visitors to Paris may
see a memorial to Estienne where David
carved the episode of Areola on the frieze
, Gio .1 anthcon; and legend says that
when Estienne was an old man ho saw it
lor the first time, and fell dead of emotion
in front of the building.
Massena is said once to have seized a
drum from a dying drummer, and rallied
lus men at a crisis by beating the charge'
with his marshal s baton. But there is
little need to pick out incidents, for tlie
arum lias . long since become the abstract ok
the 1" reneli nrmy. as the army is the com
pendium of tlio nation. No military monu
ment m D ranee which has not a drum in
ks composition (if tliee is such a monu-
ment) is truly soldier-like or truly French.
Iliac .(Cray seized-that point when he wrote
Ins ballad, ihe Chronicle of the Drum.
I he same throbbing rhythms which eon-
soled the French as They fell sway before
Mnrlbnrough helped them tp advance again
triumphantly under Napoleon; and the'
same .sounds throbbed again to a different
purpose when Louis XVI.,- on the scaffold
tried to raise lus voice above the crowd:—
"Ha, drummer! quid;, silent yon Cunot," '
Savs Saiitcrre, "with n beat ol vour drum."
Lustily then, did I tap it, V
And the son. of Saint Louis was dumb. ,
strong heat of the drum quickens
the I'Hlses of humanity to fever. There was
once a tin rely Professor of Poetry at Ox
ford, lom Warton— afterwards Poet Laur
eate — who would come rushing out from
whatever tavern- he was in. when' he heard
the sound of drums and fifes, and tlie
tears would stand in Lis eves. Much less
can plainer soiiis resist the fierce clial-
lenge to then- sensibilities. The "clastic
thunder of the drum is more compelling
than the flute of Orpheus. It is a genori
ous, vivifying note, a note, as Mr. Merc-
dith .has said, of "vast internal satisfac-
Gon J and- 'if monotonous,' the one note
of the drum is- very correct." The repeti-
tiona of .Jkc drum are nofc ineiFcctive:
under their influence half savage men have
been known to return to their primal state
— tlie awakened senses of civilisation numb
ed, stupefied and put once more to sleep.
In such states they may become uncon
scious of pain. They nre in nn ecstasy. No
wonder that the compelling drum is the
best recruiting sergeant in the world. Sea
son may be powerful, but a drum tap can
shatter it. Gibbon in his account of tlie
capture of Constantinople remarks that
the/ mechanical operation of "hounds in
quickening tlie circulation of the blood nnd
tiie spirits lias more effect on the human
machine than all tlie eloquence of reason
and of honor. The side ilrugjis not an in-
.strumcnt of - music, but .a marker of
rhythm. But the kettle drum is' a subtle
tiling which has been more and more stud
ied and employed since Beethoven virtu
ally promoted it to be a solo instrument,
and Berlioz wrote in its praise with en
thusiasm.' One of the inimitable sights of a
military procession in London is tli'e tradi
tional flourish of a Life Guards' drummer
as he plays the kettle drums nt the head
of the regiment. Tlie very action of tlio
horse makes it seem Hint lie,, too, under
stands tlie dignity, and tlie potent use of
the instruments lie hears. But here we
speak hot of kettle drums, but of the plain,
banging foot soldier's drum, which has
been associated with liis triumphs anil
agonies throughout generations, lt is easy
for an official to sav that bugle calls are
much easier to distinguish than drum
calls'; : that learning to piny the drum pro
perly "ia an unconscionable waste of tiine;
anil that tlie French army drums are a
Moloch which require, the sacrifice of
25,000 good fighting men. On the other
hand, 'there nre the exhilarating drum tans
which 'as thev come down the street make
tlie citizen forget argument nud remember
only that the skin 6f tlio French drum
missed everywhere over the plains of
Europe: that is wiis -parebeil jn Spain and
shrunk in the rains of I'omerania. and
was covered with snow in Russia; that, it
was tlie furious cncourager of gallantry and
the muffled mourner for the dead: that it
was the table for sparse meals in bivouacs
and the place of judgment at drum head
courts.—
-Spectator.
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