New Britain herald., 1916-07-21

con the soldier servant places the
 food on the side board and everyone
 takes his plate and helps himself
 Few guests come. Sir Douglas keeps
 his time to himself for his work and
 his own choice of recreation.
 One of the aides receives the caller;
 and minute later the man with iron
 gray hair and moustache, sturdy
 athletic of build, slightly above me-
 dium height, who comes into the hall
 could not be mistaken, whether in or
 out of uniform, for anything but a
 soldier though something about the
 well-chiseled, regular features also
 suggests the scholar.
 "OxfOrd and Sandhurst and India,"
 said one of his admirers "and hard
 work at a desk when he was not talk
 ing exercise in open air best describe
 him."
 Tn one of the rooms of the ground floor the walls are hung with maps including a series which have been crowded on roller. Any portion of the front in all it's details may be re- ferred to in a moment In the center of the room a desk; and against the wall a table with more maps and drawings and some of those strange photographs from aeroplanes of gray
 ish lines of trench systems in a dusky field of shell and mine-craters which
 make one think of the dead world of the moon Out of doors a field of daisies, birds singing, a typical sunny day in Northern France.
 From this retreat a vast army is be- ing trained and it's organization com pleted and directed in the day by day tug-of-War for "The Chief" com mands an army still in the making There is something impersonal about 1t and yet personal; for he is absolute ly the chief. There is no suggestion of any commission system in the com- mand of the British army these days. The man and his method are as quiet as the room. With a battlefront which remains in the same place month after month the routine of his work has become almost as set as his ha bitatiOn and not unlike that of the autOCrat of some great business or ganization. The regular staff officers are in a-town not far away. Subor- dlnate chiefs of the different army branches, be 1t Operations, Intelli-
 gence, Ordnance or Supply, come to him in succession at hours set during the morning to make their reports and receive their instructions. They 1 do most of the talking; and they have | learned how not to do more I than necessary. He listens, decides If longer conference than usual I is desired it may come at luncheon or l later in the afternoon when he re- l turns from his ride which he takes 1 regularly every day. Then more work l until dinner and then some after din- ner If he goes down to the lines or l perhaps to confer with General Joffre l in the one car which alone of all the l cars carrying staff officers and gen. 1 erals along the roads flies the British l flag the routine for that day is broken. l Like General Joffre he sleeps long 1 hours. A rested mind is a clear mind l for great responsibilities. Like Won l Hindenburg he never reads fiction. 1 When reading has not to do with his l profession it is of serious books and l monthlies and quarterlies. Even dur l ing the battle of Ypres when 1t was | touch and go with disaster he slept
 as soundly as Joffre during the battle l of the Marne. At a crisis of the re- 1 treat from Mons he remarked as