Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-25


endurance. make many of us medically I'M
fit"
Mr.. Pocock himself, though still a first
class fighting man, belongs to the latter
category. While chasing Louis Riel, the
famous French-Canadian outlaw ne had
the toes of his right foot frozen off
1t was about ten years ago that some
idea OF enlisting the LEGION that never
was listed first occurred to him At that
time ne had temporarily abandoned his ia
Forlte pastfme of hunting for trouble on the
outskirts of civilization and was sojourning
in London.
was sharing rooms" he said with a
publisher and chap who had lately started
an instruction In China in the hope of
getting himself made emperor. but was
compelled to give up the notion when he
was caught with a shipIoad of arms on the
hang-tse- All the filfbusters in London
used to gather at our rooms to spin warns
ana drink punch. 1t struck me then that a
cup or adventurers would be good fun
ana that it might be extremely useful in
bringing together the sort of men who could
pest serve the empire as guides. scouts and
raiders in warfare. Nothing however
came of it. and 1 started hunting trouble
again as captain of pack train In the
west Later. as scout In South Africa
during the Boer war, l happened to get
punished for feeding grass to horse by an
oIl1eer who didn't know that the horse was
a grass-feeding animal.
Il realized then that we frontiersmen
were being put to wrong uses. and my sub
sequent experience In the campaign
strengthened that conviction. We had
tumbled all over each other to take a hand
in the fight Outnumbering the Beers we
frontiersmen of the empire instead Of
beating them at their own game fr.ittared
away our strength playing at soldiers and
initiating Tommy II Is with no erudge
but with loving admiration that we own
up now how well he knew his business
But mad we come, not amateurs but n 3
guides, as scouts. as pioneers as horsemen
Tor hying raids; with our own leaders and
organization, our own methods tools and
weapons we might have done much TO
bring the war to swifter. more decisive.
more merciful ending. But it was the
Beers who served as frontiersmen with the
leaders and organization. the methods
tools and weapons of frontier warfare and
they proved the value In the field OF such
an organization as we are starting"
Pocock returned to England and took to
writing books, but all the while the idea NJ
the Legion of Frontiersmen was simmertns
In his mind.
''on Christmas eve, 1904 "she said. ~ was
sitting in the Savage Club. bored with nv
self and with everybody else, and / con-
eluded that IL was high time to begin tho
listing of the legion that never was iista5
To start new army l had twenty-three
good English sovereigns and some good
American cheek"
Obviously the first thing to be done was
TO inoeulate others with the same idea and
set them to work to boom it. Mr. Pocock
found that on many men of weight and in
fuenee the lessons of the South African
war had produced the same Impression as
on him. Among the first to promise their
help was Morley Roberts, able seaman and
novelist; Trooper Percy Burton. Cutiiffe
Hyne. deep sea fireman and novelist; Ed
gar Wallace. private soldier and war cor
respondent; II. A. Gwynne was correspond
ent and editor of the Standard.
The Earl OF Lonsdale was chosen az
leader. Probably IL he hadn't been great
peer he would not have been selected. but
he has qualifications that eminently III him
FOR the post apart from his title He Is
the only explorer who ever crossed arctic
America and one of the few arctic ex-
nlorers who never needed rescue expe-