The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-09-20

ular soldier, and II there Is a delicate
spot In the history OF his regiment he
is bound to hear of it from the men Of
other units, and il any derogatory re.
marks are passed he feels himself hon.
or bound to fight the n who Is re.
sponsible for the remark.
If you should chance to ask q Royal
Horse artilleryman what regiment he
belonged to he would Immediately
s%traighten up and answer you some
what after this fashion:
Il belong to the Royal Horse artil-
lery, the extreme right Of the line
and the pride Of the British army"
Then he would 60 on to tell when
his regiment was formed, what it had
accomplished, how many honors it has.
how many Victoria crosses the men be-
longing to it have won, how many II.
tied officers belong to it, and SO on, al.
most indefinitely.
Nearly all the regiments have nick
names, and these names are very pop
ular. The Royal Scots claim to be the
oldest regiment in the British army,
so they are popularity known as "Pon-
titus Pilates bodyguard." The Glouces.
ter regiment is the only one in the
British army entitled to wear cap
badges in the back as we'll as in the
front, and the reason this privilege has
been granted them is that in some pre-
vious war the regiment became sur
rounded by the enemy, and, turning
back to back, they fought until relief
reached them.
Another regiment has the nickname
Of the "Cherry Pickers." In some war
Of long ago this regiment was ordered
to make a charge through a cherry or.
chard, and while passing through they
forgot their duty and stopped to pick
the cherries. From that day to this
they have been known as the Cherry
Pickers," and the trousers of their dress
uniform are Of cherry colored mate
rial.
There is a certain Scotch regiment
which for some reason had its kits
taken away and nov has to wear
trousers made of the same kind of
plaid that the kits were made of. The
men are working like Trojans in this
war to win their kits back again, and
they will very ~probably/be successful,
as they have done some wonderful
work.
Each regiment finds something to
boast about, and the men never miss an
opportunity. The Seventeenth Lancers
are known as the death or Glory
Boys" as their regimental badge is the
skull and crossed bones and Death or
Glory" is their motto.
The Royal Engineers have more Vic
tor1a crosses than any other regiment
In the British army, and it is no won.
der, for theirs is a very dangerous
work and affords plenty Of opportu-
mites for men to distinguish them
selves. The first Victoria cross award
ed in the present war was won by a
driver Of an automobile, a member Of
the Army Service corps.
Two days later word came around
that the regiment was going to the
front within the week. BY that time
l was covered with saddle sores and
was in agony the whole time. Al
though it requires nine months train
ing to turn out a full 1edged cavalry
man, l decided to try to go with the
regiment somehow, and l didn't care
how I went. Anything to get out of
that riding school. So I went to a
captain and told him the whole story,
Qrd hnrro1 him fn foGo NM IT,
was certainly mighty nice about it,
and in the end he attached me to his
personal staff and took me that way.
Up to this time l hadn't thought
much about what was going to happen
when We reached the front, but what
We got just before we sailed certainly
made me do some tall thinking. We
were issued identity disks first. These
are hung around the neck, and On them
are stamped the soldiers name, regi-
mental number and his religion. Then
we were given pay books and told
to make u wills in the back of them.
The chaplain next addressed us and
prayed owe us.
When this was all over l was so
scared I was beginning to think that
the riding school might have it's ad-
vantages. And all the way yer or
the transport l was feeling mighty
blue, and l was certain that I was
never going to see England again. let
alone the old U. s. A.
Crossing the channel, we landed at
Ostend at 4 o'clock in the morning o.
the eighth day Of October, 1914. We
had had nothing but bullybeef and
o.