The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-15
LECTURES VETERANS DESPITE RAWNESS.
C. G. D. Roberts Expounds
 Drill and Tactics
By HAYDEN CHURCH

|
 Tn the Kings imperial regiment, guar
 tered at Liverpool, described himself to
 me today as "one of the biggest bluffs going. Looking every inch soldier,
 Roberts is in London on a few day s
 leave for the purpose of pacifying ome
 of the editors and publishers who have
 been demanding stories from him, but
 whose fmpassioned letters he has been 1 unable to so much as answer--noT
 those of friends, either. with the result
 that most of us supposed that he must
 nave gone to the front-and this for
 the reason, he says that for the past | couple of months, or since in Febru-
 ary. they suddenly made him captain be has been hard at 1t night and day with, apparently, quite remarkable re-
 suits.
 Roberts opines that his long expe- 1 r1ence of the Canadian "backwoods," !" 1 Where he was born, and as a leader of | no end of hunting and other expedi- l lions therein. must have formed a use
 full preparation for a soldering life and certain 1t Is that his career since he Joined the army has been meteoric. He l enifsfed, you may remember, as an or I dlnary trooper in a squadron of the | Legion of Frontiersmen that was help ing the remount department at South ampton, but, only a month so afer ward. was gazetted a full lieutenant in the Sixteenth Kings. and then. at only l five hours notice. became a captain in the same crack regiment, which has a distinguished history, and whose first
 battalion has given a fine account of 1 itself at the front.
 1 All the time. moreover, in the inter- | n lin0 he ho- haa ntta,.- tit,.,
 himself with military lore, with the re- l suit that he recently was chosen to de- l liver lectures on tactics to the men 1n training, and does so a couple of times a week, apparently with complete suc- l cess
 But I'm a terrible bluff. really" he observed to me with a chuck1e There | l stand up and expound tactics ard l formation and such like subjects-I, who have never even seen a battle-to i mon with South African and Afghan medals, and with my brigadier, a C. B.,
 in the chair and somehow I get away with 1t. Between ourselves, they say I'm one of the best lecturers they ever had" And he chortled again.
 | Evidently Roberts has succeeded in putting the fear of God into the hearts | of his men, too. despite the fact that ! they are renowned as difficult to man age They are nearly all Irishmen from Liverpool. and represent the tough" elemtn that Is responsible for l most of the labor rlots in that city, but Roberts declares he gets respect from l every man Pat of them. Meanwhile, he has been offered both a captains and :t l majors commission in the rgu1ar arniy. considerable compliment, but de- 1 c1ined both at the urgence of his col
 cnel In the Kings, and, in such time as he has to spare, he sits on courts l 0f inutti,N and fok art msrtiais. and does other stunts rs- l markable to tell of man who never l wore uniform of any kind until six l short months ago.
 1 Hopes to Work Some Soon None of Roberts publishers nor friend s need be surprised. therefore, that they
 have heard nothing from him. He tells I me, by the bye, that from now on, he hopes to get an hour or so every day or
 two to devote to fiction. though he re-
 marked that it would be produced under difficulties Accordingly I told him | aoout Ralph Stock. now member of the Eighth Hampshire regiment, who IS us- l ing detention cell as workroom and writing new tales of the South Seas as
 graphically IS cold hands and feet will permit. not to mention a ceaseless "ac- compartment of mouth-organs, penny whistles and such like instruments with
 which Thomas Atkins beguiles his leisure moments
 l Meanwhile Charles Roberts literary | brother Lieut. Theodore Goodridge Rob-
 erts Ca full-length novel from whose pen
 appears in an American magazine this
 nonth), is also in this country. though
 the First Canadian contingent, with which | he came over. is now m France He is
 one of several officers of the original
 contingent, 1t appears woh were kept here
 to assist in getting the second lot of Can
 adian warriors into shape, and is now at | Harrogate, taking a special course of
 study in the new lessons of the war
 Certainly this family is going strong, in a military sense. for Charles Roberts 1 tells me that his two sons, who are now
 being trained at Ottawa with the civil
 service battalion, have progressed so rap
 Idly that both have been offered commis- sions.
 l Big Gift of Books
 What must be the biggest gift of books
 on record was. 1t seems, presented to the
 men of the British navy by famous
 Liverpool shipowner on Christmas last
 The story of this gift, which was kept out
 or the papers at the time by the donor s own wish, has now been made public
 owing to his death which occurred a day or two ago. He was Frederic j. Harri-
 son of Maer Hall. Staffordshire, mem
 Der of a well known firm of Liverpool l smpowners and his Christmas gift of books to the navy totaled more than 27b,- W volumes. To the men on the lower
 deck of every ship. Mir. Harrison pre- | sented so many books the quantity vary. | ing With the size of the vessels, but in | every case it was some library" The whole Of the order was executed by a | Ilrm which controls most of the railway | pookstalls In England, and they were re, sponsible for the selection of the volumes
 Ine number of parcels. weighing about 5o pounds each, was no less than 247S and the Job of forwarding these parcels to l their various destinations was undertaken by the admiralty.
 Amusing Blunder
 At seaside hotel the other day, I was ciecussins authors especially American ones With an attractive and evidently unusually we'll read English girl She was found, in common with many
 other folk In this country, a keen ad- mirer or the novels of Robert w. Cham
 ners' ana waxed particularly enthusiastic over that writer's last romance '.The Hid den Children.
 It's so interesting" she said. s.all about the Indians and their queer customs-espe-
 are fighting" 1orbore to point out to her that 1t is l not the Red Indians" as they are known
 in ,hls country. that are now fighting 1 With the allies. but I laughed quietly
 m my sleeve, laugh that suspect
 chambers will echo should he chance to
 reao or this naive tribute to his work
 Dell Vogue Raging
 The bright particular feminine star in
 the literary heaven Is now. so 1t seems.
 Miss Ethel M. Dell. the author of ..The
 Way Of an Eagle" "The Rocks of Val pre, etc, whose sales SD I was tnl6 hv