The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-04-28

80 sAAS
In the darkness by the ford
The waters Tapped the night wind blew.
Full armed the fear was born and grew,
And we were flying ere we knew
From panic in the night
-Beoni Bar.
Some people hold that an English
cavalry regiment cannot run. This is a
/ have seen 437 sabers flying
over the face of the country in abiect
terror; have seen the best regiment that
ever drew bride wiped off the army list
for the space of two hours. If you re-
peat this tale to the White hussars, they
will in all probability treat you severe
ly. They are not proud of the incident
You may know the White hussars by
their '.side, I" which is greater than that
of the cavalry regiments on the roster
If this is not a sufficient mark, you may
know them by their old brandy. 1t has
been so years in the mess and is worth
going far to taste. Ask for the enc
Gaire' old brandy and see that you
getit. If the mess sergeant thinks that
you are uneducated and that the gen
uine article will be lost on you, he will
treat You accordingly. He is a good
man. But when you are at mess you
must never talk to your hosts about
forced marches or long distance rides.
The mess are very sensitive and, if they
think that you are laughing at them,
will tell you So
AS the White hussars say, it was all
the colonel's fault He was new man,
and he ought never to have taken the
command. He said that the regiment
was not smart enough-this to the
White hussars, who knew they could
walk round any horse and through any
guns and over any foot on the face of
the earth That insult was the first
cause of offense
Then the colonel cast the drum horse
the drum horse of the White hussarsl
Perhaps you do not see what an I'M
speakable crime he had committed.
will try to make it clear. The soul of
the regiment lives in the drum horse
who carries the silver kettledrums. He
is nearly always big piebald waller
That is a point of honor, and a regi-
ment will spend anything you please
on piebald He is beyond the ordinary
laws of casting. His work is very light,
and he only maneuvers at foot pace.
Wherefore SO long as he can step out
and look handsome his we'll being is as
sured. He knows more about the regi-
ment than the adjutant, and could not
make a mistake if he tried.
The drum horse of the White hussars
yuo nr1u 10 al
equal to his duties. He had at least six
years more work in him and carried
himself with all the pomp and dignity
of drum major Of the guards. The
regiment had paid 1. 300 rupees for him.
But the colonel said that he must
go, and he was cast in due form and
replaced by a washy bay beast as ugly
as mule, with eve neck, rat tail and
COW hooks. The drummer detested that
animal, and the best of the band horses
put back their ears and showed the
whites of their eyes at the very sight
of him. They knew him for an upstart
and no gentleman. fancy that the
colonel's ideas of smartness extended to
the band, and that he wanted to make
it take part in the regular parade move
ments A cavalry band is a sacred
thing. 1t only turns out for command
ing officers parades, and the bandmas-
ter is one degree more important than
the colonel. He is high priest and the
"Keel Row is his holy song. The
excel Row" is the cavalry trot, and
the man who has never heard that tune
rising, high and shrill, above the rattle
of the regiment going past the saluting
base has something yet to hear and UNI
derstand
When the colonel cast the drum horse
of the White hussars. there was nearly
mutiny.
The officers were angry, the regiment
was furious and the bandsmen swore
like troopers. The drum horse was
going to be put up to auction-public
auction-to be bought, perhaps, by a
Parsee and put into a cartl 1t was
worse than exposing the inner life Of
the regiment to the whole world or
selling the mess plate to Jew-a black
Jew
The colonel was mean man and a
pully.. lie knew what the regiment
thought about his action. and. when
the troopers offered to buy the drum
horse, he said that their offer was mu-
tinous and forbidden by the regulations.
But one of the subalterns Hogan
Yale. an Irishman-bought the drum
horse for 100 rupees at the sale, and the
colonel was wroth. Yale professed re-
pentance-he was unnaturally submits
sive-and said that. as he had only
made the purchase to save the horse
from possible i'll treatment and starva-
ton, he would now shoot him and end
the business This appeared to soothe
the colonel. for he wanted the drum
horse disposed of. He felt that he had
madea mistake. and could not of course
acknowledged Meantime, the presence
of the drum horse was an annoyance to
him.
Yale took to himself glass of the old
brandy. three cheroots. and his friend
Martyr, and they all left the mess to-
gether Yale and Martyr conferred for
two hours in Yale's Quarters hut only