is the first occasion that United States
troops have been in action since the civil war, and because I have
more than once heard European officers question the possibility of
making an army out of elements different from those to which they were
accustomed. I have heard Germans insist that unless the officer
appears in uniform he cannot command the respect of his men. On this
ship it would be frequently difficult to tell officers from men when
the tunic is laid aside and shoulder straps are not seen. There are
numberless points of resemblance between Tommy Atkins and the Yankee
private; and the Sandhurst man has no difficulty in understanding the
West Pointer. But to do this we must go a little beneath the surface
and see things, not on the parade ground, but in actual war. For dress
occasions the American uniform is far and away the ugliest and most
useless of all the uniforms I know. The helmets and cocked hats are of
the pattern affected by theatrical managers, the decorations tawdry,
the swords absurd, the whole appearance indicative of a taste
unmilitary and inartistic. The parade uniform has been designed by a
lot of unsoldierly politicians and tailors about Washington. Their
notion of military glory is confused with memories of St. Patrick's
Day processions and Masonic installations. They have made the patient
United States army a victim of their vulgar designs, and to-day at
every European army maneuver one can pick out the American military
attache by merely pointing to the most unsoldierly uniform on the
field. On the battlefield, however, there are no political tailors,
and the Washington dress regulations are ruthlessly disregarded.

* * * * *

STEERING GEAR OF NORTH GERMAN LLOYD STEAMERS "COBLENTZ," "MAINZ,"
AND "TRIER."

The steering gear illustrated below, which has been fitted to a number
of vessels in this country as well as on the three North German Lloyd
steamers above named, is designed, primarily, to effect the
distribution of the leverage more in proportion to the resistance of
the rudder than exists in ordinary gears. The latter, as a rule, exert
a uniform and decreasing, instead of an increasing, purchase on the
rudder, in moving it from midgear to hard over. This important object
is attained in the gear under notice chiefly through the arrangement
of the quadrant and the spring buffers, which form an essential part
of it, and of the tiller crosshead. The