[98] Experience shows that the noisiest instructors are almost invariably the worst; they are usually trying to appeal by means of their lungs to the rider’s ears instead of demonstrating their meaning by an appeal to his sense of sight. [99] The material common-sense changes made in regard to the comfort, amusements, health, and pay of the cavalryman, in common with the other arms, is one of the most marked advances in the army of to-day. [100] General Romer, after the American Civil War, wrote as follows: “Bad saddles destroy more horses than are lost in action.” It is certain that _wet_ horse blankets put on under a saddle will give more sore backs in one day’s march than will occur in a month of ordinary marching. [101] It has been said that “it is a peace theory that mounted infantry are as good as trained cavalry; it is a war fact that their ignorance of horse-management makes them five times as costly at the commencement of a war.” However that may be, we know that under first-rate officers, a proportion of whom have since joined the cavalry to its advantage, there was exemplary horse-management in some corps of mounted infantry, not only in the late South African War of 1899-1902 but long ago in the eighties. [102] Picard, _Cavalry of the Revolution and Empire_, vol. ii. p. 94. [103] “The idea of drawing cavalry recruits from the best horse-breeding districts,” says Denison, “is not original. Zenophon says that Argesilaus did so” (p. 41). It is certain that our best cavalry soldiers come from Ireland now. [104] Von Bernhardi, _Cavalry in Peace and War_, p. 273, says, speaking of German cavalry: “In the cavalry there is a want of trained instruction, and most regiments are even reduced to borrowing infantry under-officers and officers to assist in their musketry training, who are then also employed to teach the rudiments of the cavalry fight.” [105] The Japanese realize how far strength and activity go to make up for the unsuitability of the race for cavalry work, and from the moment a recruit enters barracks, every effort is made to render him active and energetic.--_Education and Training of the Japanese Divisional Cavalry_, p. 13. [106] Les Hussards étaient d’ailleurs les maraudeurs par excellence; ils se sentaient encore de leur premier recrutement. On respectait ce penchant des troupes légères pour leur donner plus de mordant dans la poursuite à laquelle elles se trouvaient ainsi plus particulièrement intéressées.--Picard, _La Cavalerie dans les guerres de la Revolution et de l’Empire_, p. 201. [107] “In teaching it is not sufficient for the teacher to express clearly what he means--the words may be to him quite clear, but the real question is, are they clear to the pupil, do they put his mind into a condition in which he follows and grasps the idea that the teacher would emphasize?”--Professor Culverwell on the Herbartian Psychology.