Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-06-17
British Indian Soldiers Give
Free Exhibition of Horse
manShip and ProweSS With
Lance to French Audience,
KING OF BELGIANS
IS AMONG SPECTATORS
Peasants Take Day Off From
Work to Enjoy Holiday
While Guns Roar Continu-
OuSly in Distance.
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frederick Palmer. who is az the
front, in France, for the Associated
Press, sends the following;
British Headquarters in France,
June licking Albert of the Bel
gians. who has not had many after
moons off during the last eleven
months, took one off TO see a show--a
gymkana. He has stuck as close to
his job in what remains of his king
dom as has many a desk-ridden
business man who cannot be induced
TO go to the mountains or to the sea-
shore.
Whether living in their own house,
or refugees whose houses In the fight
ing zone have been demolished by
shells, the French people in the rear
of the British front have not had
many afternoons off either. The
women, the old, the crippled and
every child who could hold a hoe had
taken the place Of the able bodied
men away at war With the crops
all in and the wheat ripening. word
came that strange. picturesque mort
ais from somewhere beyond the Ara
bian nights country, known as the
British Indian troops, who had been
refrigerating through a raw Fland-
ers winter in French barns and out
buildings, were going to give an ex-
hibition of horsemanship.
Like a Wild West show.
Everybody was invited ana there
was no admission fee. Ii was like a
free wild west show on the outskirts
of q New England village with a
chance TO see a heroic king, and If
he really was as tall as the people
had said.
The scene was small plateau
hardened by hoofs of the cavalry
drill the space in northern France
which the industry OF those too weak
to fight had not made green with
cultivation. Across the sweep of the
fields and groves which hid the
trenches and batteries along the Brit
ish front was an almost unbroken
silence, but farther north a section
of the horizon was roaring like a gi-
gantic muffled snare drum.
Used to Roar of Battle.
There French guns, hundreds of
French guns We're busy tearing away
at the German works known as the
labyrinth" There men were being
killed or wounded, but those living
near the front thought nothing of
that. They are used to it as is every
body living in the neighborhood of
Niagara Falls to their roar.
JOY was in the. Indians heart, the
joy of a warming sunshine to chill
dren of the sun fairly out of a winter
ice box at last. The joy was shown
in their dark eyes; it glistened on
their white teeth and 1t cleaned on
the forest Of their lances.
They were free Of sWaths, the
clothing which the king-emperor had
supplied to them TO keep out the
Flanders cold Sunshine had oiled
their muscles under their bronze
skin. Broadway and Kansas in dog
days would not be too hot for them.
This would be something like India
and home and while sahibs said two
more months-July and August
which were warmer, still were COM
ing.
Love Horses as Themselves.
Those who had survived the trench |
warfare were going to show how well
they had kept themselves through !
the winter. Particularly they were go
ing to show how well they had kept |
their horses amid the mud and slush. |
AS with the Cossacks, praise their
horses and you praise them.
Contrast and picturesqueness. II
you please, were in the trot OF these |
bit out of Durham and |
Delhi in an obscure corner of north
ern France as they were reviewed 4
by this giant, falr-haired king, with I
dropping straw oolored mustache, !
giving him a Viking air.
Groups OF. Indian officers in the |
crowd rubbed elbows with
French peasants. The French OF diff
ferent regiments after a greeting re-
ferred to some comrade who had
fallen since they last met.
Experts With the Lance.
Then the war and its horrors were
forgotten in the British love of sport.
An Indian, emitting a fierce scream
ing yell, galloped down the field and
impaled a small wooden peg stuck in
the ground on the lance.
Bravo" called the officers as he
rushed by at top speed. Another In
dian tried the same thing and failed.
TOO bad" was heard, but there
were more "bravos' than too bad's"
spoken in the quiet way the British
express their emotions. These officers
were in India in spirit, rather than
IN France. Tney were leaders VINO
had made soldiers out of the human
clay of the east and had held them
fast in the face of German shells as q
part of the working of that extensive
plant called the British empire.
French the Real Fans.
When it came TO demonstrative-
ness. the French were the real fans
mother and children
we're having the time of their lives.
It beat the movies in town and there
was nothing to pay either. They liked {
the way the Indians yelled. That made
them seep like real, sure Indians.