der no
circumstances should a man be humiliated unnecessarily or abused.
Reproof and punishment must be administered with discretion and
judgment, and without passion; for the officer who loses his temper
and flies into a tantrum has failed to obtain his first triumph in
discipline. He who can not control himself can not control others.

Every officer should study himself carefully, he should analyze
himself, he should place himself under a microscopic glass, so as to
discover his weak points--and he should then try with his whole might
and soul to make these weak points strong points. If, for instance,
you realize that you are weak in applied minor tactics, or that you
have no "bump of locality," or that you have a poor memory, or that
you have a weak will, do what you can to correct these defects in your
make-up. Remember "Stonewall" Jackson's motto: "A man can do anything
he makes up his mind to do."

The Progress Company, Chicago, Ill., publishes "Mind Power," "Memory,"
"The Will," "The Art of Logical Thinking" (all by W. W. Atkinson), and
several other books of a similar nature, that are both interesting and
instructive. "The Power of the Will," by Haddock, for sale by Albert
Lewis Pelton, Meriden, Conn., is an excellent book of its kind.

THE FIRST SERGEANT

=873.= It has been said the captain is the proprietor of the company
and the first sergeant is the foreman.

Under supervision of the captain, he has immediate charge of all
routine matters pertaining to the company.

In some companies in the Regular Army, it is customary for soldiers,
except in cases of emergency, to get permission from the first
sergeant to speak to the company commander at any time. In other
organizations soldiers who wish to speak to the company commander away
from the company quarters must first obtain the first sergeant's
permission, but it is not necessary to get this permission to speak to
the company commander when he is at the barracks.

The first sergeant is sometimes authorized to place noncommissioned
officers in arrest in quarters and privates in confinement in the
guardhouse, assuming such action to be by order of the captain, to
whom he at once reports the facts. However, with regard to the
confinement of soldiers by noncommissioned officers, attention is
invited to the Army Regulations on the subject.

THE NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS

=(The status, duties, etc., of noncommissioned officers are covered in
greater d