New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19
Second-in-C Command Bequeathed
Men a Lesson in Soldering
Always Cheerful Quietly Courageous, He Made His Tom
mics Forget the Mseries of the Trenches, and When
He Left the Inspiration of His Example Remained
By A. G. w. MENDS

LONDON, Aug. She was our sec.
end in command. An unsssuming
country gentleman, full Of the JOY Of
living, generous TO a fault, tolerant,
essy-going but never where the inter
ests of discipline were at stake) and
fearless in that rather boyish way
which suggests the natural outcome Of
an untroubled habit of looking life
squarely in the face.
The major, as we will henceforth call
him, was typical of that fine class Of
Englishman who by thought, birth and
education is essentially a gentleman.
At an early age, when walking was, for
him, no very certain accomplishment,
he made his first acquaintance with
horse. At FIVE he had had his first
spill, and in succeeding winters he
learned from rueful experience that
hunting is a sport which requires an
occasional fall to establish confidence
and consequent mastery over a horse.
At "rugger," too, he had suffered many
nasty knocks, which. as a rule, do lit
tie 20 aid IN the development Of
character which is by nature weak, but
possess the consolidating powers OF
cement on q spirit which - strong and
determined.
Thus a fine man was brought into
our battalion, and one who, moreover,
brought with him technical grasp OF
his work which was specially valuable
in the early days Of * Is army" This
was of value alike to him and to US,
for we had much to learn in those
days.
Our first IMPRESSION of him was not,
perhaps. favorable 20 any marked de-
gree. A cock o'hoop little joker" as
somebody said rather verbose and IN.
clined 20 be noisy, but a damned good
, man on a horse"
His Look Sufficed for Slackers
Life in those carly days was firing
business at best, what with the mcnot-
ony Of company drill or the equally un-
interesting route march, in which gour
arms and accoutrements consisted Of
"tomfool" make believe in place of the
orthodox weapons of war Then II was
that we began to find his very verbosity
and noisiness infectious. On the march
there was always a merry little twinkle
in the eye. which could speedily become
clouded should il by any chance light
upon a Stacker. In such case one
look would usually prove sufficient.
Patiently kind with those who needed
encouragement, he had 10 time for the
individual who was inclined 70 come
il" or "play the old soldier" Once
halt was called, his sense OF fun took
precedence of everything else. His
stock of good, clean, wholesome stories
would rouse g grin on the stonlest OF
countenances, and these he always
managed TO retail at moment when
everybody was "fed up" His cure was
invariably successful, for, told with
nuiet drollery uniquely his own, his
imagination gave food for a thousand
and one ridiculous incidents, from
which he was able to extract the ut
most amount of humor, even If at
times he did fall foul of strict verac-
ity. However, he was most excellent
company, and training was dull thing
without him.
It was not until the closing days
of our work in England that We
caught a glimpse OF his business ca
pabilities True, We had seen HIM
"tick off" defaulters in no uncertain
manner after obviously allowing every
latitude to the offender, but IT was the
calm, steady, self confident manner IN
which he handled everything that speed
lily begat confidence in his Judgment
both in officers and men alike.
Showed His Worth at Front
Across the water we learned still
more fully his real worth; first of all.
in biliets, il was he who appeared TO
achieve the impossible in improving
the lot of those under him, and he was
by no means backward in "strafng"
should anything less than the best
have been provided. When the best
was bad-well, his whimsical Jokes
promptly dissipated the general gloom
and prompted every one to make the
best Of the situation. A pessimist
hadn't chance in his company.
Or again, on the march to ---,
when a battalion of tired men dragged
themselves together with 100 pounds
solid weight in the shape of kit along
mile after mile Of foot torturing pave
road beneath n broiling August sun
see him stumping along there, for all
the world like a human Christmas tree.
Two rifles has he managed to sling
over his shoulders. in addition TO other