Much of the success of a long march depends on the first two or three days, until the men get into the swing. Where practicable the first day’s march should be a little less than average, the second a short one, after that our trained regulars can keep up the average march six days a week. On starting out it is the second day’s march that is the most trying to the men. This should be borne in mind and all practicable allowances made. An excessively long march should never be made just for practice. It does not fit the man for another but the reverse. VIII THE NATIONAL GUARD In training the infantry of the national guard we have a very different problem from that of the regular regiments. In these regiments the same proportional attention should be given to those things that should be habits as in training the regulars and the necessity for varied instruction in order to keep the interest of the men is even greater. [Sidenote: Scope of the instruction] My observation leads me to believe that the greatest weakness of many of our national guard captains lies in the narrow scope of the instruction given and in its monotony. There is a lack of variety at each meeting. The men lose interest. When the recruit first joins the guard he generally does it for the best of reasons and is interested in the work. But after going to the armory for a few times and drilling in a few movements over and over again he loses interest, then he cuts drill and possibly ends by trying to get discharged. There are many things that should be taught, and you can only hope for success by varying the work and holding the interest of your men. Do not put more time than necessary on non-essentials. [Sidenote: The recruit] Of course the recruit must first be taught the school of the soldier and he must have the necessary instruction in close order drill. But even early in his course there is a chance for variety; early in the game give him a rifle for part of the time and as soon as he has had a little drill in the manual of arms teach him sighting and then pointing and aiming drill. As soon as he is far enough along let him fire a score at gallery practice each drill. At first devote the most time to drill without arms but increase the time with arms until all the drills are with arms and you get him in the company for close order drill. The following should be taught as carefully as practicable: [Sidenote: Essentials for the guard] 1. Target practice on the range. If the gallery practice and pointing and aiming drill recommended below be well done, comparatively little of this will answer. But it cannot be omitted, every man should have some practice. Where possible some of this practice should be in “field firing.” In many cases there is a tendency to give known distance firing an exaggerated value to the neglect of other training.