Middletown transcript., 1898-11-26
ENGLISH ARMY LIFE.
HOW TOMMY ATKINS FARES IN THE
MATTER OF FOOD.


MATTER OF FOOD
What Ec Must Attain Before He Can
Secure the Privilege of Marrying.
How the wives of the PTivates Live
In the Barracks.
The orderly man clatters in at the
door with a steaming can of tea, from
which lie rapidly fills the basins, the
milk and sugar having been already
added before the tea left the cookhouse.
No allowance is made in barracks for
men of fastid1ous tastes If man pre-
fers his tea unsYeetened, he can go
elsewhere; tie taste of the majority is
alone consulted The tea having been
served out, the orderly man now pro-
ceeds to divide the bread into chunks,
one for each man, and announces that
the extra that morning is butter
This announcement is welcome one,
and the butter, being produced in it's
wrapper of biue canteen paper, is speed
lily divided into equal portions, one for
each member of the mess
Should any comrade be so unfortunate
as to be languishing in the gnardroom,
awaiting disposal by the commanding
officer. the orderly man has now to take
his allowance to him, the tea being
poured into tin eantoen and the bread
and butter wrapped in paper and slowed
| in q haversack
pY7F ba ooi-ol, l.,
have been told that soldiers enjoy more
variety than plain bread and butter at
| their trcai ISIS Fave we not heard of
savory kippers. of porridge-yes. even
Of eggs and bacon?"
True, such are the dishes encouraged
by generals and oolonels who like to
earn reputation for looking after the
welfare Of their men, but these fancy
relishes are not much encouraged by
Tommy Atkins, for the simple reason
that his funds will not allow of his re-
ceiving more than an infinitesimal por-
tion of the kipper or whatever may be
the favorite breakfast dainty of his
commanding officer. All that the cor
poral in charge of the grocery book has
to spend daily is threepenoe per man in
mess or under 81 for company with
the average strength of 60 men in mess.
When it is realized that with this
money tea, salt, pepper, vegetables for
dinner, flour, if "duff" is to ornament |
the dinner table, and all the groceries |
which the soldier needs to exc out the |
rations of bread and meat already de- |
scribed have to be provided, it will be |
understood that the question of proVid- |
ing extras for breakfast and tea is a
difficult one to solve, and that the COZ.
poral naturally prefers something like |
butter, which all appreciate, to some
other dainty which may not appeal to
the tastes of his constituency.
The question of permission to marry
is burning one in the barrack room.
Only limited number of men are al
lowed to marry, the strength of the roll
varying with the establishment of the
corps. Sergeants are given permission
to marry as matter of course, if there
is vacancy in the establishment, but
no soldier is allowed to enter the blessed
state unless he has seven years. service,
So in the savings bank and two good
conduct badges I have heard it said
that there is such thing as borrowing
the 60 till the necessary permission has
been obtained, but there is no getting
over the other two conditions.
The married quarters seem comforta-
BILE enough. What strikes us most is the
enormous number of babies and quite
young children who swarm round the
door Of every quarter, occasional yeIls
leading to the hasty arrival of flushed
and heated looking matron to restore
order in summary fashion. The allow
anoe of space does not strike one as par
ticularly liberal, soldiers with small
families being given only one room, with
the minutest possible scu1lery, the IA
theirs of larger families rejoicing in an
extra room. Sergeants, as rule, have
two rooms, but otherwise have no pull
over their comrades of lower rank.
The wives of the private soldiers add
largely to the scanty pay of their hus-
bands by doing washing for the men of
their husbands company, and twice
blessed is the woman whose good man I
belongs to company having few mar
ried soldiers. In this case she will be l
able to get more to do than her less for
5unate sisters. Some of the women who t
have a reputation as washerwomen earn I
plenty of money by washing for the Of 9
icers of the regiment The soldiers {
wife seems to drift naturally into being T
! washerwoman. t
u
A little conversation with the ladies {
s liberal education in esprit de corps;
zach woman thoroughly identifies her.
Ielf with the regiment to which her hus-
,and belongs, and even in these days of q
hort servioerit is not difficult to find .
women whose fathers and grandfathers u
lave soldiered in bygone days under the
colors now hanging in the sa- Z
red precincts of the officers mess. q
The ladies of the regiment, as rule, q
AXE great interest in the welfare Of L
heir humber sisters, frequently visit e
ng them in their quarters and giving q
nore than their sympathy at one of C
hose crises which occur SO frequently p
q the married block and generally lead %
Ultimately to the object of their solioi- Y
1de applying for extra accommodation :.
wing to an unauthorized addition to VI
be strength of the battalion.-sSocial q
life In the British Army, by Brit
ID Officer, in Harper's Magazine.
Burton and Tobacco.
Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent ~
'bacco, which goes far beyond all the - -