The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-11

THE TRANSFORMED BRITISH SOL
DER.
In these last months very notable
change has come over the British sol
der. He used to be a whey-faced,
kitchen-fed, pokerbacked, jointless
man, clad in ready-lnade reglmentals
which were his sole Identity. Observe.
him now in the London streets, back
from the war, and happily recovered
from wound or fever. Loose beltless.
easy with khaki clothes, Khaki boots
and khaki complexion, he goes about
like free man with history. There
is q world of meaning in the contrast.
The effect of it has even reached his
fellow of the depot. Although not so
Drowned or ndividualized as the cam
paigner returned from quarter rations
on the waterless veldt with it's blanket
less nights, he is still free of limb and
gait loosely clothed, and apparently
with spirit above "Attention' ana
the barrack-yard. An undoupted
change has come over the War-otfice
dream and the Horse Guards regula-
lions. How great the change Is can
best be seen In the soldiers nat 1t is
amazing to consider what things the
soldier has had to wear on his head.
Go, for example, to the Guildnall ana
examine the last charge of the GUARDS
at Waterloo as carved In marble on the
pedirnent of the wellington monument
There you see a long line of men OF un-
form height, with knapsacks, cross
belts and cut-away tail-coats, rushing
home on the French in perfect Hyde
Park formation, not button wanting,
not a gap In the ranks, and every man
with his hat stuck, and sticking,
straight on his head, And such hats!
The Guards have done wonderful
things, but they could never charge the
enemy and keep those extraordinary
things balanced on their heads The
hat in question is the familiar length
of stove-pipe, with a brow-shade, and
a ball on stem stuck on the front top
edge The eodiers Of those days were
long-service men and hard campaign
ers, and If they brought these hats
home with them they are entitled to
more credit than they have ever re-
ceived Unless the hats were lined with
iron, and used as complexities, they
simply represent waste of cubic
space. Historically they are interest
ing, as practical objects they are mir
acle
If the costumes Of the famous Roll
CALI picture are correct, the Guards
wore their bearskins in the Crimea.
We know retired guardsman who de-
clares that during the last few weeks
of the siege of Sebastopol he did not
possess a single garment belonging to
his own regiment. The dead furnished
a good deal of clothing for the living.
But soldiers tales are not always to be
believed, any more than monuments or
pictures. The men Represented on the
Guards monument in Waterloo Place
are wearing great-coats and carrying
them in their knapsacks at the same
time, In campaign the first thing to
go is the hat Once gone perhaps the
soldier wears the handiest thing he can
lay hold Of Doubtless 1t was a pleas
ure for him to lose his ancient bucket
hat, or bearskin, or cumbrous High
land bonnet. The British soldier went
through the last Egyptian Campaign in
helmets, and started with helmets for
Africa The worst Of helmets Is that
they are uncomfortable to sleep in.
Mr.. Atkins has slept so much out Of
doors in Africa as to make this a con-
sideration. Whether the tam-o shan
ters SO numerousy made for him ever