Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-01-10
Regiments From All Old-Known
Stations of East Curse Cool
Barrack Accommodation.
SMALL BLOCK OF ANGL 0-INDlA
Rejoice in Keen Autumn Smells,
and Parade Long Streets Filled
With Europe Shops"
NJ RUDYARD KIPLING.
Copyright. 1915. by Rudyard Kipling)
FIFTH ARTICLE

The telegraph office was an orderly
jam of solid, large made men. with
years Of discipline behind them and the
tan of Indian suns on their faces
Englishmen still so fresh from the
troop ships that one of them asked
me: What's tho dag O. the month";"
They were advising friends OF the.r
arrival In England. or when they might
he expected on short pass at the weeks
end: and the fresh faced tclegra ph
girls behind the grilles worked with
six pairs of hands apiece and all tho
good will and patience in the world
to back them
Ihat same young woman. who, with
nothing to do, makes you walt ten
minutes for penny stamp while she
finishes talk with a lady friend will,
at crisis. go on TIL she trops and
Keep her temper throughout We'll,
II that's her village" / heard one OF
the girls say to an anxious soul, II
tell you that that will be her telegra pin
Office You leave It TO me. She'll get
II all right"
He backed out, and n dozen more
quietly took his place. Their regi-
ments hailed from all the old-known
stations of the East and beyond that
their cool harrack accommodation;
they reJoiced in the keen autumn
smells, and paraded the long street all
filed with Europe shops: while their
officers and their officers wives and.
think. mothers. who had come down to
snatch glimpse Of their boys, crowded
fhe hotels. and the little unastonished
AngioS1ndian children circulated round
the Knees of big friends they had made
aboard ship and asked Where are
you going now?"
One caught scraps of our old eipsy
Il / k-n a m IS OF boarding houses,
agents addresses: "AIilly stays with
mother, OF course" I'm tnleint Jack
down to school tomorrow. It's past
half-term, but that doesn't matter
nowadays"; and CHEEKY farewells be.
tween men and calm-eyed women. Ex-
cept for the frocks. it might have been
an evening assembly at any station
band stand in India.
Outside on the surging pavements a
small boy cried Paper. Evening
paper" Then seductively, Marquis
What" l said. think my own back
ward-turning mind had cheated me.
"Delkko! Kargus." said he. ('.Look
here. Paper")
Why on earth d'you say that?"
Because the men like it," he replied
and slapped an evening paper Ono
change for a penny into the hand of
4 man in a helmet.
Who shall say that the English are
not adaptable?
The car swan bonnet-deep through
a mile Of troops: and a mile up the
road one could hear the deep hum OF
all those crowded streets that the
cathedral bells were Ginning over II
was only small block of Anglo-India
getting ready to take its place in the
all-devouring line.
Screw Guns.
An hour later at fshall we
ever be able 10 name people and places
outright again?) the wind brought I'D
one whiff-one -unmistakable whirr-of
CHI. Somewhere among the English
pines that for the moment pretended to
be the lower slopes of the Dun there
were native troops. a mule squcalcd
in the dark and set Off half a dozen
others.
1t was screw guns-batteries of them
waiting their turn also at the game
Morning showed them in their i'm
maculate lines as though they had just
marched in from Jutogh-littlc, low
guns with their ammunition; very big
English gunners in disengaged atti-
tudes. which. nevertheless, did not en-
courage stray civilians to poke and peer
into things; and the native drivers all
busted over their charges
True, the wind was bitter. and MANY
OF the drivers had tied up their heads,
but so one does at Quetta In the cold
wcather-not to mention Peshawur-
and. said naick of drivers: 1T Is not
the cold for which we have no liking
1t Is the wet. The English air is good,
but water falls at all seasons. Yet.
Notwithstanding. we of this battery
(and. oh; the pride men can throw into
mere numberD have not lost one
mule. Neither at sea nor on land have
we one lost. That can be shown
sahib."
Then one heard the deep, rackine
tobacco cough In the lee of n tent
where four or five men-Kangra folk,
by the look Of them-were drinking
tobacco out Of n cows horn. Their
own country's tobacco, he sure, for
English tobacco---. But there was
no need to explain. Who would have
dreaved to smell bazaar tobacco on
South country golf links?
A large proportion of the men arc
Of course. Sikhs, to whom tobacco Is
forbidden; the IIavilGar major him.
self was n Sigh of the Signs. lie
spoke, of all things in this strange
world, of the late Malachi McAuliffe'.
monumental book on the Sikh re.
iigion. saying. not without warrant,
that McAuliffe Sahib had translated
Into English much OF the Holy Book
the great Grunth Sahib that lives at
Amritzar.
He enlarged, too. on the ancient
prophecy among tho SIlths--that
hated race should some day come out
Of the sea and lead them to victory all