Morris tribune., 1899-06-24
THE DRUMS OF THE
FORE AND AFT.
And a little child shall lead them.
By RUDYARD KIPLING.

Out LIE ARMY buIOuSu al us DdIIdChS
md canteens knows them now as the
Fore and Aft They may in time do
something that shall make their new
title honorable, but at present they are
bitterly ashamed, and the man who
calls them Fore and Aft does so at
the risk Of the head which is on his
shoulders
Two words breathed into the stables
of a certain cavalry regiment will bring
the men ont Slto the streets with belts
and mops and bad language, but whis
per of Fore and Aft will bring out
this regiment with rifles
Their one excuse is that they came
again and did their best to finish the
Job in style But for a time all their
world knows that they were openly
beaten, whipped dumb cowed, shaking
and afraid The men know it; their
officers know it the Horse Guards know
it, and when the next war comes the
enemy will know it also There are two
or three regiments of the line that have
a black mark against their names which
they will then wipe out, and it will be
excessively inconvenient for the troops
upon whom they do their wiping
The courage of the British soldier is
officially supposed to be above proof,
and. as a general rule, it is so. The
exceptions are decently shoveled out Of
sight, only to be referred to IN the
freshet of urguarded talk that occa-
sionally swamps mess table at mid
night Then one hears strange and hor-
rible stories of men not following their
officers of orders being given by those
who had no right to give them, and of
disgrace that, but for the standing luck
of the British army, might have ended
in brilliant disaster These are I'M
pleasant stories TO listen to, and the
messes tell them under their breath sit
ting by the big wood fires, and the young
officer bows his head and thinks to him.
self, please God, his men shall never be-
have unhandily.
The British soldier is not altogether
to be blamed for occasional lapses, but
this verdict he should not know A
moderately intelligent general will
waste six months i'll mastering the craft
of the particular war that he may be
waging, a colonel may utterly misun-
derstand the capacity Of his regiment
for three months after it has taken the
field, and even company commander
may err and be deceived as to the tenn
per and temperament of his own hand
full, wherefore the soldier, and the sol
der Of today more particularly, should
not be blamed for falling back. He
should be shot or hanged afterward-~
pour encourager les autres-but he
should not be Y9lifed in newspapers, for
that is want Of tact and waste Of space,
He has, let us say, been in the service
Of the empress for perhaps four years.
He will leave in another two years. He
has no. inherited morals, and four years
are not sufficient to drive t0ughness in.
to his fiber. or to teach him how holy
thing is his regiment He wants to
drink, he wants to enjoy himsef-in
India he wants to save mOney-and he
does not in the least like getting hurt
He has received just sufficient education
to make him understand half the pur-
port of the orders he receives and to
speculate on the nature of clean, incised
and SCATTERING wounds Thus, if he is
told to deploy under fire preparatory to
an attack, he knows that he runs a
very great risk of being killed while he
is deploying, and suspects that he is be-
ing thrown away to gain ten minutes
time. He may either deploy with des-
perate swiftness, or he may shuttle or
bunch or break, according to the disci-
pine under which he has lain for four
years.
Armed with imperfect knowledge
cursed with the rudiments Of an imagi-
nation. hampered by the intense selfish
ness of the lower classes and unsup
ported by any regimental associations,
this young man is suddenly introduced
to an enemy who in eastern lands is al
ways ugly, generally tall and hairy
and frequently noisy If he looks to the
right and the left and sees old soldiers
men Of ~ years service, who, he
knows, know what they are about
taking a charge, rush or demonstrated
without embarrassment, he is consoled
and applies his shoulder to the butt Of
his rife with stout heart His peace
is the greater if he hears senior, who
has taught him his soldering and bro
ken his head on occasion, whispering
''They, Il shout and carry on like this
for five minutes. Then they II rush in,
and then we've got 'em by the short
hairs
But, on the other hand, if he sees
only men of his own term of service
turning white and playing with their
triggers and saying, "What the hell's
Up now?' while the company COM
manders are sweating into their sword
hits and shouting Front rank. fix
bayonets Steady there-steady Sight
for 3OO-no, for 500I Lie down, all
Steady Front rank. kneelr' and so
forth, he becomes unhappy and grows
acutely miserable when he hears com
rade turn over with the rattle of fire
irons falling into the fender and the
grunt of poleaxed OK. If he can be
moved about a little and allowed to
watch the effect of his own fire on the
enemy, he feels merrier and may be
then worked nm to the blind Dassion of