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A SPURT PAST THE BARRACKS 



speed, with or without accoutrements, 

 to hurdle, to wrestle, to box, and where 

 the situation of the post permits it, to 

 swim and hunt. 



These exercises have no object fur- 

 ther than to cultivate the physique and 

 furnish amusement ; but there are other 

 exercises of a peculiarly military na- 

 ture, known as applied athletics ; that is, 

 exercises which best prepare the sol- 

 dier to overcome those obstacles likely 

 to be encountered in a genuine cam- 

 paign. This latter class of exercises 

 consists of climbing steep walls by 

 means of dangling ropes, crawling 

 through networks of tangled wires, 

 running along narrow ledges with can- 

 non ball in hands, leaping over spiked 

 fences, scaling walls by the aid of fin- 

 gers and rifle, driving field batteries at 

 break-neck speed and riding cavalry 

 horses with the recklessness and daring 

 of Cossacks. 



To the spectator the military exer- 



cises are by far the most novel and in- 

 teresting, and the proficiency with 

 which they are executed proves the 

 American soldier to be both an athlete 

 and an acrobat. The wall-scaling con- 

 test alone one would think sufficient to 

 test the powers of the strongest and 

 swiftest. A wall ten feet high and per- 

 fectly blank is "erected upon a field. A 

 team made up of five men, each 

 equipped with haversack, canteen, 

 blanket, shelter tent, cartridge belt and 

 rifle, is stationed twenty feet from the 

 wall. At a given signal from the offi- 

 cer in command the five men rush for- 

 ward ; two of them place their backs to 

 the wall, while two others leap upon 

 their shoulders and are hoisted to the 

 top, where they instantly fire five shots 

 at an imaginary foe. Then they assist 

 two more comrades to the top and drop 

 to the ground. The last two to reach 

 the top raise the fifth man by the aid of 

 his rifle, and all three follow the first 



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