The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-14

|
 at Aldershot
 Still, there is excitement at Aldershot.
 But 1t is of a sort that you do not see. There are officers tearing their hair, it ] is said, because now that they have got
 their men ready and have to be off in a
 day or two they have got no clothing to put on them and cannot find out when | it is likely to arrive. Tt will be ready l for the embarkation," says Pimlico
 with passive calmness, and with that
 Aldershot has to be content.
 | The results of this are visible, though all the excitement is hidden beneath the red tape bands that hold complaints. ' Some of the results make our soldiers look almost comic. For instance, one
 sees the mounted infantry. They have got their Bedford cord brooches and their puttles, but not their khaki tu- ncs. So the poor chaps are left look ing almost like guys in very loose
 brooches surmounted by very tight old
 scarlet tunics.
 The colonial helmets have arrived,
 great packing cases full of them, all
 slowed inside one another, while the
 gilt adornments and chin straps are separate in other cases. There is no
 stopping to fix them together and num-
 Der the helmets. Instead of, that three
 sergeants play a little game of shop.
 Up marches a file of men in field caps
 Halt! Front turN Answer to your names. Right turn. march. Right
 turn, halt! Now. then, pick out a hell met and hurry up!'
 The file has drawn up in front of line of open packing eases. The mo- ment the men halt off comes each cap, and each man sezes a helmet and dabs it on to his head. Not one in six tries a second. Then a quartermaster tries one or two of the worst fitting. A cap- tain sees whether he can get little more head of this man out of the hel- met and a little more of that mans in. The quartermaster explains that each man must number his own. Then Right turn march," again, and as they pass by the heaps put ready, each man picks up the gilt adornments and the chin strap, and. goes off wondering how ever anything could be made so light as his new white helmet.
 Meanwhile other files are passing. bearing old home kits to the stores. Each has an armful of tunics in one file. In another each man is loaded with leggings Others are carrying away the old helmets.
 The reserve men are of course the great feature of interest just now. As to Aldershot, they may be divided into two sets-those who came in alone di- rect to the depot, and those who | i,, rti frpy nfbpr | barracks Bands and cheers always | met these big parties. But the great | human interest after all, centered In the separate men, The others had got over their partings and leave takings. These had only just come through the | thick of it.
 Once inside the camp the reserve man stands and twists his mustache in won- derment at the changes of recent years The wilderness had become town
 I came across one man who had just lurfied back from Monte Carlo from the service of a countess-and even he was lot sorry. Every man seemed delighted with the chance of being in action
 But the reservist Is not in the depot ong before he has to fall in with some l ,rmy If his uniform has come he is served out with 1t and with a sheet of brown paper, label, and bit of string. These last are for wrapping up Ill that is left of the civilian. If his inform has not come. no matter, there s rifle and bayonet and belt handy, 'o off he goes to drill in his own civil an dress. Some of the reservists were lrilling in morning coats, bowlers or all ,ine hats, and one mana navvy-was till wearing the works" holding up is trousers below the knee, During the irst drill he took one of these straps If, so that he should be quite sure Of lot forgetting which was his right leg.
 Then in little corners here and there ne could see the making of the army oing ahead. At the school men were citing refreshers in the art of signall- 1g. At the hospital men were being osed with injections of some patent opposed to make them proof against nteri-fever. The engineers were prac- sing with pontoons for bridge making. n the Wellington Lines the gun car ages and wagons were being painted . rom the usual gray to sort of drab