The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-10-17 00:00:00

WITH THE WOUNDED AT NETLEY HOSPITAL.

/10Idi IXPLILIVICEI OF VIZ MAR.

lifetime eye., lantern paw, feeble note, the invalid
costume of • hospital, the prostration of the silent hospital
ward, the crutches and lounges of the corridor., the
doctor, the handy Red Cross attendar.t. and the eoft-footed
sister, are, after all, the natural c moterpart and com-
plement of the stalwart soldiers, trim uniforms, laity
hurrahs, martial music, and teilliantly-decorated officers
that made • blase of glory when our soldiers set forth to
fight Arabia army. Here Is the differetee between that
fine Sunday morning on the 30th of July when the Orient
otthmed out of the Albert Docks amidst enthusiastic
popular acclaim, and this grey October day, when the
teemed warriors are recovering from disease or wounds
in the peaceful calm of Netley Hospital. The campaign
that hes been gone through in the interval, through
perhaps too brief to tire the soldier of war's alarms,
was long enough to reduce big men to • skeleton and
render others evermore unfit for military service. But
he they sick or wounded, they are content under the
skilful c ore bestowed upon them, and cheered in in any
cases by the visits and letters of friends, la all cane
certainly by the feeling that they are at looms.
There to lag no obstacle in any way of visitors,. I spent
some hours in looking over the admirafole hoop tal, and
gossiping with the returned mon. It is ex rremely
Ictsrestinr to hear what three iotdiers have to say,
though their early retir ment from Rapt dose not
leave them • full tale of adventure. Many of the young
men were not at all prepared t 3 find Egypt the sterile
countey neon which they encamped. Oyez a pipe in the
ground. I gathered from two or three young convaleicente
that they were a long while in getting over their dis-
appointment. They bad set forth with the vague hut rich
visions of some glimpses of Oriental beauty, such as the
popular min I associates with "the Etat They have
returned to tell of sanders* and nr puitoos, wade. of
deem sand and scorching suns, not palm Coen*, Dams, and
rooting fountabis. It Ls unfortaust for them that thee had
to be shipped home fefore they saw something of Lair°,
and mart of them, I find, feel this misfortune acutely. If
ail the young soldiers in Egypt are like the majority of
those with whom I haws been spending some hours in
and shout Netley, I can well understand Sir Gullet
Wolaeley's faith in them, for they have an intelligence
and '' form" which it has been tbe faahlon to assume that
the British soidier lacked They have brought back, as
may be expected, an unf ovourahle impreseion of so
much of the Land of toe Pharaohs as they have teen,
and they have conceived a vast contempt for the
Egyptian soldier.
" I had • capital chance," said a good-looking Lfe
Guardsman, with whom I had • gossip in one of the
corridors. "of coiling down one fellow. and I had railed
my sabre to do it It woof(' have been somethirg, you
eee, to be able to thy afterwards, 'The first man I ewer
killed in battle was so and so; but I really hadn't the
heart to do it. The poor beggar bad never hurt me, and
he hadn't a scrap of fight in him. So I whacked him
soundly with the flat of the sword, and drove him in like
• sheep—a prisoner.' It so happened that the Life Guards-
man had not an oppoitunity afterwards of trying his sabre
in real earned, He did act regrot the mercy shown to the
Egyptiae, though he did think it very hard that just
',afore his comrades executed their both charse amongst
the enemy he ehould to pieced hors de combat. He had
been in the waddle for nine hours, and was dismounted
standing beside hi. black hone when, after firing • few
rounds, a shell buret at hi. feet. "I ought to have been
killed on the spot," he said "but somehow wasn't,
thougha fragment of the dr II scooped oat • piece of my
let; anol here I am," he added. Coking up his crotches,
"what the doctors call an intereatine CASS." I hope my
friend will get well, though healing is with hie shattered
leg a now proo•aa. His experience of the immediate
effects of a shot Calle. with that of so many wounded in
action. Twee WWI no Ituniadlase pals, but be felt as if
electric needles were working within hint and presently
he began to gyrats like a dancing dervish. Then CMOS
faibteess, and, after trying to remount, ha fain crawled
in his agony into some rushes amongst the Arab prisoner',
until taken to the rear. S iveral other !nen expressed to
me their utter contempt for the &cretin. soluier.
" Why," said • convalescent, "you bad only to shove.= •
bayonet, and they were off like • shot You couldn't get
your blood up to proper plonk with • cowardly set of
hounds like thee We might here killed them by
hundreds at Tel-el-Kolar, but it would have boson like
slaughtering children. They were so quirk in laying down
their arms and givine themecleth up that we had to kirk
the prisoners out of our rued." Ac mods here struck in,
" You ; we ought to have let into 'ens more than we did,
for they were treacherous beutoe. A fellow would throw
down his gun and turn up the white. of his eyeelor mercy,
and then shoot you in the beck the next minut Ten
Arabs at ICaseassin got round one of our cavalry and were
beatng him to death with their muskets, but two
troopers rde up and drove them away. Why, air, our
doctors used to bandage those fellows up as if they were
Chriatiana"

The individual soldier haa seldom, from his own personal
observation, any clear notion of the Acton io which he is
engaged. A guardsman who was at Tel-el.Kebir gave me
his recollections of that bit of brisk morning's work. I
had cruelly asked him how many engagements he had
I Nun in, an he looked, u I fancied, rather pityingly at
me, aa he observed " How many engagements? There
was only one engagement worth calling one. All the rest
' were skirmishes.' Ile admitted that Tel-el-Kebir came
quits up to his notions of battle. " But," he said true-
lamely, "it was just like our luck. The whole thing, so
far aa fighting goes, was over before we had a show. There
wasn't half enough ti go round, confound it. The action
was polished off in an hour." Tills returned warrior had
not been wounded, but bet been brought to death's door
with dysentery. ll* says there was umething exciting
and weird about the night march to the front. The dark
desert, the splendid stars overhead, the phantom shadows
around, the half-hour's halt at four in the morning, and
the commencement of the a' t ark when the opal dawn was
bit faintly heralded, seem to be sharply photographed in
his memory. The ruddy tongues of dame darting swift
from the guns, while it was yet too dark to closely
distinguish ob ects, and the volumes of smoke abnormally
leturtliening • short interval of twilight, he recalls as
striking futures of the picture. It was all U.P. by sin
o'clock," he said. "At five o'clock, or thweabout., we
heard the Egyptian bugle csa the 'Assembly,' and not
much more than an boar afterwards I saw the bugler,
poor little chap—he could not have been more than
teirteen years old—lying dead, with his bugle in his hand,
the other side of the ontreochmente.,"
"We got quite smart in dodging the shells, raid
another, "and could generally tell by the sort of song they
sung where they were. ' Look out to the rigetl' or 'Mind
your eye. to the left there, you fellows l' would be the
word. The hones seemed to tome off worst; and, you
know, there's no doctoring them, except by s bullet to pot
them out of their misery." Young Harrill, of the Mounted
Infantry, who was shot in the back while bringing •
wounded rater out of setkin, and who has been mom-
mended forth. Victoria Cram is quite • slender stripling, 1
and not at all inclined to talk about his exploit. But be
informed me that he had no notion at first that a bullet
wee nailing close to his spine, thinking, until he dropped,
that he had been @track by a stoat no, the bullet was
entreated he has been doing well, but his soldier's career
is done.
One of the foot soldiers who was at the front at Tel-el-
Kehl, stated that in the excitement of the captors he sew
some of our troops bayonetting and firing at ZgyptUng in
their tete Another represented Arebi's cunt after the
battle as being more like • fair than anything.),. "It
was • rare lark," he raid, "seeing our fellows Adieu about
on teasels, honer, and pukes ; and you saw sun
pile. of secke—liour. peas, rice, tinned meat., and all sorts
of things—by Jove I they bed the hoot of everything.
Well, If we never had a good feed anywhere else In Egypt
we had one that day. Them geese and docks tame in fine,
for we had the sport of retching 'em, and the pleasant
duty of eating 'em, which we did muchly.' This narrator
I ventured to sound on the delicate subject of loot, and he
admitted that there was just a little that fell, so to speak,
accidentally in their way. He himself was encumbered
with a watch and chain out of an officer's tint—" it must
have b.Pn decor's," he explidusg" because Vother poor
devils all Wept in the open he cauht en Arab
charger, which, be was glad to add, was • "tip-topper.'
To the situation—Whet did be do with it? my informant
replied laconically, "Sold him for five quid.' He had,
moreover, beard of one lucky private who had attached
himself to • good rum of money which obtrusively forced
itself upon his attention in • tent where there were silk
kmino. 14.4.4.bu5id papers mattered about, and two
.-Arabs in a corner,—Doily tern

A SALVATION ARMY WEDDING.
At eleven o'clock on Thursday morning the Cmgreas
Claptm, was crowded by about flee thousand
persons. who had smenibled to witness the marriage of
the "chief of the staff." Mr. Bramwell Booth. eon of
**General Booth. to Him Florence Vannes Soper, who
has been engaged with one of the Mir Booths in the work
of the Salvation fumy In Francs Two or throe " wedding
mom,' with the ramie of • powerful brass band, were
mcdrmd, the caw, autlence joining heartily and
reverently aba singing. Hoist the signals while you
slog mum., the mask," shouted General Booth at the
conclusion of the hymn, and the chorus wee repeated
amid the waving of handkerchiefs and banners.Mren
were offered by "H.R.," Day and othcm. what,
Herbert Booth sang • too hymn to • popular air.
The two Hiss Booths rer dared a duet which appeared
to 'mixer the vast audience. General Booth, in an
address which consisted of vigorous comments on •
variety of topica. mid Incidentally with reference to the
marriage that the Salvation Army andrarommtto ma
literally upon the direction of St. Pact—that whatever
they did, whatever they ate. or whatever they drank—
everything should be done to the glory of God. Whether
they had • funeral or • weddingthey gamma to mike It
promote the glory of the Lord- The bride and bridegroom
then stood on the platform while the General put to
Ise
bridegroom the questions whether be would ' have this
' woman to be his wedded wife." whither he „old comfort
her, honour her, and keep her in eickneee and in health,
" never seek to prevent her doing or giving anything
that ii in her power to do or WWII to help the Salvation
Army," and whether, forsaking all caficr,„ be mould
"keep only unto her so long al
~you both shall live."
To this the bridegroom responded, " I will," and the bride
inside the like reply to similar question& "Who gives
this woman ewer r saw the Choral ; and Dr.
the Whale 01 the braes odvaseed to his deachterr=
"Hrt Mbar Ova d skighlsi sm." sal4 Genii

IHOBPHODONE. The Beverage of
rivethg. AN4 1111,.1,1N0r ti.. llnntr.,l7. 11.1111111

fleattL

its,ter.

I Booth, an announcement which elieted loud shouts of
" 0 d blrwe her f and other tj sculationo The bind tgroom
pot the ring nn her finear, and both clasp d hands while Erser WZDNISDAY. ONE PENNI'.
Mr. 8 per pronounced • blts•ing on the union. "1 pro-
nouns.. 4f the Genteel, in the a sme ef the Falls's., THE CLERICAL WORLD
Son, and Holy 0h0.% lbtoo pnreons to be duly and
last:lolly mar iii in His Nunn and foe His glory, and AND FAMILY CHURCHMAN.
whom God hails joined t seethe, let no man put ',sunder."
A loud cry of Aim-n" nano: ton the aocbene.. who inn iliustrethd by gond Artists. Silty Columns. Bible
then bid to stand up, whit.t the Rev Mr. Ryder. " • eharacten. Sermons. Serial Stories by Mrs. L. T.
Chorea minister." pronounced • blessing. Mrs. Booth MEAD; and others. Mirwionary Neves. Portraits oir
a- et prayed, and after another address from theG I. Bishops and Eminent Men. Best Family Paper. Of
folio •ed by Ilse delivery of • "wedding song." the marriage all Booksellers.
service was over.

rpo CAPITALISTB.-25 per cent. per Annum
nu.res. naynl.l.. ,narterly. with stintipal ruarantred, • cured
and laid nut In lurchauu a GOT. rlnitrin crltln. larcaunest,
as 4 nankin* Aorrary aldSbt d Icl. 7... turnhfil, London. XC.