180 
MAKING OR BREAKING. 
tion, while he is first admiring his freshly donned colours and exulting 
in his emancipation from the weary work which has enabled him to 
achieve success. For the studious lad, a month of freedom and the 
congratulations of his admiring relatives may suffice ; such wild oats as 
his are quickly and scientificalty sown and garnered, the “ succession 
crops ” being farmed with equal skill in his subsequent leisure moments. 
With the other, the conditions are widely different. Have his fling’ he 
will; and it is well that his seniors should at times bethink them of 
their own youth, and remember that, by a merciful dispensation oj 
Providence, old heads do not, as a rale, grow on young shoulders. 
The panacea for boredom is novelty—fresh sensations and respon¬ 
sibility. Let the youngsters, therefore, be at once placed in charge 
of men, and hold them responsible for the smartness, efficiency, and 
well-being of their command. This, to which Major Saltmarshe ably 
draws attention in a paper in these “ Proceedings” (August, 1892), 
is the secret of the success of the Field Artillery subaltern. As pointed 
out by him, the difficulties in the way of the Garrison subaltern having 
a definite section to command, are not insuperable, and every effort 
should be made to overcome them. It should be borne in mind that, 
when tempered with the sense of responsibility, parade work, pure 
and simple, carbine and marching drill, are new to the boy, and a spirit 
of emulation may be readily engendered, if praise be bestowed on the 
youngster whose men are the best set up, best drilled, and best con¬ 
ducted. The wayward, flighty boy may become a leader of men, but 
you must first give him the men to lead. After he has imbibed the 
love of soldiering and of man-leading—and not before—he should be 
delicately introduced to the more serious and (to him) the less interest¬ 
ing portion of his training. 
And here I would refer to the first lines of my paper. Are we not 
by reason of our current scientific literature running the risk of mak¬ 
ing our young retrievers gun-shy ? Are such publications as the 
“ Tactical Working of Coast Artillery” fit and proper books to put 
into the hands of youngsters ? Are they not strong meat for 
babes ? A spurious and unholy desire to read them might, perhaps, 
be inspired, were they labelled “For Field Officers Only/'’but this 
would soon wear off. It will be long before I forget the hunted look 
in the face of one very young officer to whom I gave one of these 
books to read, when he laid it silently on my table after a space of 
three days. “ Did you understand it ?” “ No, sir,”—and, I was fain to 
confess, no more did I. This is one result of enforced science, and I 
cannot think that it is wholly satisfactory. One of the best Majors, and 
most accomplished Field gunners of my acquaintance, confessed to me 
the other day, with bated breath, that he did not know the meaning of 
the expression te Gravimetric density,” and I am afraid that I inferred 
from his tone that he didn’t care ; but was he, for this crass ignorance, 
one whit the worse ? Why should he burden his brain with such tech¬ 
nicalities ? For the specialist, the understanding of these things is a 
necessity and when that necessity arises, the knowledge can be readily 
acquired; but let us avoid them in our current literature if we hope 
for its being read by anybody but rival authors, who scan it through 
