The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-08
Piper Findlater.

answered. Capital. thank you. sir.
Another word or two. then silence, Tor
Findlater is no talker-a bonnie hight
er. but hopelessly unable to proclaim
himself in the Ala Breck manner.
The situation would have been incense
to a rain person, but TO this always
rustic Scotsman il was worse than a
battlefield. Happy thought-would the
ladies like to hear him play the COCK
o. the North" Findlater plunged GU
his question with a desperate courage
which everybody realized. Delighted.
His pipes he had left in India-they
were the property of the regiment
but he had by him a ~''chanter." such
as is used for practice. There is moth
ing fearsome about a "chanter, no
windbag. no streaming ribbons; just
the lingering part of the ~bagpipes. with
the essential reed. which IN player
blows into like n penny whistle. SO
Findlater struck up the Cock o the
North" in this ubdued key. and We all
stood round listening. The last note
n Dargai had been taken.
The Cock o. the North" was our
first love about Dargai. and we have
stuck to II. That is all right because
il was played at Dargai, and. more-
over, il is the marching tune OF the
Gordon H~ighlanders. But what Find
later blew himself was the "Haughs o.
TOnludlt nduSh i'aihhh5
Scotch. a riverside meadow, while
Cromdale is a district in the High
lands. This pipe tun IL faster, more
vivid. more tumultuous than the for
mer; indeed il is the charging tune of
the Gordons. From Ffndlater
old me ] gathered that annie the hur-
ry and the excitement some of the
pipers struck up one tune. some an
other. Unquestionably. the Cock o
the North" best stand for the note
by which we interpret the Gordons al
Dargai. Findlater is full of praise for
his comrade Piper Milne. who. being
wounded. will also be at Netley before
long. 1t seemed that the pipe-majoi
of the Gordons-how ne must have
cursed his luck-had been instructed
to superintend the bringing up of the
reserve ammunition. He YVES still de-
tached on his duty when the order
came from Colonel Matthias to charge
That left Milne. who is a n cor
porai. as senior piper In rank. and M
CALAMITY led h pipers into action
The recognition which Mines nam
claimed when we got the news OF Oar
gal was therefore well won on othe1
grounds. A bullet went through hi,
right lung. and inevitably that ended
his last blast of the Cock o tn
North"
Gradually / had been ending to
wards his question-"What OF you
personal experiences during the &C
tion?' We all wonder how IL feels {
be in the middle of a fight. what
means to be wounded. Findlater ha'
no very exhaustive views on thos
:. matters-the soldier never has-but
h try to set down all that l mad
of him. What OF the ountai scener
which framed the fight? Awful,
quoth Findlater. and I drop the pori
! because he does not use IL always
He knew the Aberceenshire highlands
were they a patch In roughness o
these Afridi mountains? Why" wa
: his remark. you might have all I'll
Rraemar hills in the same spot. an
you would hardly notice them"
picture of the last British stand a
Maiwand happened to hang over III
, fireplace of the ward. 1t denoted III
stern sort of mountain and food whic
formed the Afridi country. w ha
, been lying in reserve for some time,
continued Findlater, and then the Of
der reached us that we were to az
vance and attack. IL was rather a sti
fight up the brae which the Arid