Chap. VIII. GROUNDS OF DISCONTENT. 323 
This extra pay should be 18 cents daily, and the portion 
curtailed went into the pockets of the commandant, the 
quartermaster, and other officers, who not only lived in 
luxury, but were able to save money. So said the soldier. 
But, if this be really true, we must doubly admire Uncle 
Sam's liberality, which is so great, that, after all such 
embezzlement, the soldier has still more than he can use. 
At all these forts the traveller can purchase superfluous 
rations and cloaks ; the latter often so little worn, that 
many a German burgher would be but too thankful to 
possess one. It is scarcely possible in Europe to form an 
idea of the luxurious equipment and maintenance of the 
army in the United States ; and, if this consideration were 
the principal one under a military point of view, the 
system would be admirable indeed. This liberality, how- 
ever, is of the same character as the wasteful expenditure 
of Congress in printing their public documents, from which 
no great literary fame can result. The United States 
government acts, in these respects, like a rich parvenu of 
insufficient education, who, by lavish expenditure, strives, 
though unsuccessfully, to gain the position of a gentleman. 
The cause of the frequent desertions from the frontier forts is 
simply this : — the officers turn with haughty pride from the 
common soldiers, and thus the beneficial influences over 
the men, which they could so easily exercise, are lost. In 
these frontier forts, — placed, as they mostly are, in un- 
peopled localities, — an enlightened intercourse between 
officer and man is of the utmost importance. Most of 
these desertions are caused by intolerable ennui. 
The valley below Fort Fillmore is uninhabited for a 
considerable distance. We bivouacked at a spot where the 
road runs close to the river. This place, which is called 
Los Alamitos, or The Poplar Trees, is one of the most 
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