The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-05-05

Aucy re SOuuu enough Sdlu lue
colonel 1--WE must take our chance of
sick casualties. .
So they went northward, ever north
ward, past droves and droves of camels
armies of camp followers and legions of
laden mules the throng thickening day
by day, till with shrek the train
pulled up at a hopelessly congested
junction where six lines of temporary
track accommodated six 40 wagon
trains; where whistles blew, Baboos
sweated and commissariat officers swore
from dawn till Far into the night amid
the wind driven chaff of the fodder
bales and the lowing of thousand
steers.
"Hurry up! You're badly wanted at
the front, y was the message that greet
ed the Fore and Aft, and the occupants
same tale
so Tisn t so much the bloomin fight
in,'' gasped a head bound trooper of
hussars to a knot of admiring Fore and
Ats. 'Tisn't so much the bloomin
fghtin, though there's enough O that.
It's the bloomin food an the bloomin
climate. Frost all night 'cept when it
halls an b'ilin sun all day, an the wa
ter stinks fit to knock you down. got
my cad Clipped like an egg. I've got
pneumonia, too, an my CUTS is all out
O. order. Tain no bloomin picnic in
those parts, can tell you.
.sWot are the niggers like7" demand
| ed private.
There's some prisoners in that train
yonder. Go an look at EN-. They're the
aristocracy O. the country. The COM
mon folk are dashed sight uglier. If
| you want to know what they fight
with, reach under my seat an pull cut
! the long knife that's there
They dragged out and beheld for the
| first time the grim, bone handled, tri-
| angular Afghan knife. 1t was almost
| as long as Lew.
"That's the thing to int you, said
the trooper feebly.
cit can take off mans arm at the
shoulder as easy as slicing butter. 1
halved the beggar that used that un,
but there's more O. his likes up above.
They don't understand thrustin, but
they're devils to slice. -
The men strolled across the tracks to
inspect the Afghan prisoners. They
were unlike any ''niggers'' that the
Fore and Aft had ever met-these huge,
black haired, scowling sons of the Bnei-
Israel AS the men stared the Afghans
spat freely and muttered one to another,
with lowered eyes.
My eyes Wot awful swine!'' said
Jakin, who was in the rear of the pro-
cession. Say, old man, how you got
puckrowed, Ell? Kiswasti, you wasn't
hanged for your ugly face, hey?'
The tallest of the company turned,
his leg irons clanking at the movement,
and stared at the boy. ssSeel" he cried
to his fellows in Pushto. ''They send
children against us. Whats people and
what foolsp'
'tHyap' said Jakin, nodding his head
cheerily. "You go down country. Khana
get, peenikapanee get-live like a
bloomin raja Ike marfk. That's bet
ter bandobust than baynit get it in
your innards. Gcodby, ole man. Take
care O. your beautiful fguree ed an try
to look kushy.
The men laughed and fell in for their
first march, when they began to realize
that a soldiers life was not all beer and
skittles. They were much impressed
with the size and bestial ferocity of the
niggers whom they had now learned to
call "Paythans, and more with the
exceeding discomfort of their own sur
roundings. Twenty old soldiers in the
corps would have taught them how to
make themselves moderately snug at
night, but they had no old soldiers, and,
as the troops on the line of march said,
"they lived like pigs" They learned
the notwithstanding cussedness of camp
kitchens and camels and the depravity
of an q. P. tent and wither wrung
mule. They studied animalcule in wa
ter and developed a few cases of dyson
terry in their study.
At the end Of their third march they
were disagreeably surprised by the ar
rival in their camp of hammered iron
slug which, fired from steady rest at
700 yards, ficked out the brains of a
private seated by the fire. This robbed
them Of their peace for night and
was the beginning of long range fire
carefully calculated to that end. In the
daytime they saw nothing except an
occasional puff of smoke from crag
above the line of march. At night
there were distant spurts of fame and
occasional casualties which set the
whole camp blazing into the gloom, and
occasionally into opposite tents. Then
they swore vehemently and vowed that
this was magnificent, but not war.
Indeed it was not The regiment
could not halt for reprisals against the
ranc-tireurs Of the countryside Its
duty was to go forward and make con-
nection with the Scotch and Gurkha
troops with which it was brigaded. The
Afghans knew this and knew, too, after
their first tentative shots, that they
We're dealing with raw regiment.
Thereafter they devoted Themselves to
the task of keeping the Fore and Aft On
the strain. Not for anything would they
have taken equal liberties with sea-