Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1898-05-19
HAv NJ FUN UNDER FIRE.
Amusing Incidents of the Franco-fEus-
sian War and Riel Rebellion.

sian War and Riel Rebellion.
From the New York Sun: A retired
major of a foreign service was talking
the other night of experiences under
fire. He declared that 1t was not all
serious work He said: Il have had
fun when soldering. and that, too, un-
der fire on the skirmish line. re-
member once In France during the
Franco-German war. when we were
with Bourbah at Montbeliord, / was
surprised to hear some of my men
laughing when we were about 400 yards
from the Germans and while we were
lying on dirty. damp ground and with
just the smallest incline in our front to
protect US from the enemy's fire. We
were hungry and cold, and were oblig-
ed to hug the dirty ground in order to
get cover. 1t was no place for hilarf-
Gus amusement, and yet the men kept
laughing, and they laughed so loudly
that | am sure the enemy heard them.
! could not stand up with any safety,
and the only way | could reach ths
men was to crawl, which | did, and
found myself in a good-sized depres-
sion in the ground, where there was
fair shelter, and there | found out the
cause of all the amusement. We had
been out on our post eight hours. and
had used up good deal of ammuni-
ton, and had ordered the men to keep
what they had left for an emergency
that | expected any minute. This
gave the men leisure to grumble or
make fun, just as they thought best,
and in this case it was all fun. They
were playing ninepins with the enemy.
And they did 1t this way: They made
nine piles of mud in the form and about
the size of sugar loaves, and they plac-
ed these at distances of about a yard
from each other. Then they made bets
as to which pin would be first hit, or
which would be hit the most times, and
as each pin was hit there was a laugh,
but ! found that each pin was named
after some unpopular member of the
| battalion. and when one Of the pins
was shattered the men would laugh and
say: There goes Long Legs, or Saw
bones is over, or Fly-by-Night is dis
| emboweled' and so on. | stopped the
| game. | remember an amusing insi-
| dent during the Riel rebellion in the
| Canadian northwest in 1885 The In
dams and half-breeds had dug pits at
/ Batoche, and we were pounding at them
for three days with little or no effect.
| During that time our men were on the
skirmish line all day, and at night they
! retired to the corral we had built i'm
mediately in our rear. But the half
! breeds and Indians were evidently hav-
| ing fun at the expense of our young
sters. Of course, even our militiamen
were prepared for the old ruse about
! putting cap on the end of a stick, but
the Indians made dummies, and they
| would suddenly expose a part of those
dummies, the head or shoulder, or the
side, or In one case the feet, and then
our young fellows would begin an in
dependent firing rapid enough to resist
a charge of cavalry. But the best part
Of the joke was that a great many Of
the youngest soldiers who fred at the
dummy were sure to say, I hit him!
L hit him. while there is no doubt
even the stoical Indians in their pits
were laughing, and l. too, enjoyed the
joke, for | had an excellent field glass
and could see the dummies very plain.
|