The Press., 1899-02-23
ENGLISH ARMY LIFE.
HOW TOMMY ATKIES FARES IN THE
MATTER OF FOOD

What He Must Attain Before He Can
Secure the Privilege of Marrying.
How the Wives of the Privates Live
I'm the Barracks.
The orderly man clatters in at the
door with steaming can of tea, from
which he 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 fastidious tastes. II man pre-
fers his tea unsweetened, he can 60
elsewhere; the 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 a welcome one,
and the butter, being produced in its
wrapper of blue canteen paper, is speed
lily divided into equal portions. one for
each member of the mess
Should any comrade be go unfortunate
as to be languishing in the guardroom,
awaiting disposal by the commanding
officer, the orderly man has now to take
| his allowance to him, the tea being
poured into tin canteen and the bread
and butter wrapped in paper and slowed
! in haversack.
But it may be asked: "Surely we
have been told that soldiers enjoy more
variety than plain bread and butter at
their breakfasts. Have we not heard of
savory kippers, of porridge-yes. even
of eggs and bacon?"
True, such are the dishes encouraged
by generals and colonels 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 threepence per man in
mess or under 81 for a company with
the average strength of 60 men in mess
When it is realized that with this
money tea, salt, pepper, vegetables for
| dinner, -four, if a 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 cor
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 a 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,
e5 in the savings bank and two good
conduct badges | have heard it said
that there is such thing as borrowing
the e5 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