Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-19
CHAPTER xIx-continued.
ON HIS OWN.

ON HIS OWN.
 The next in popularity is a card game called Nap It is well named. Every time I played it I went to sleep.
 Whist and Solo Whist are played by the high broWs of the company
 , When gamblers tire of all other games they try Banker and Broker.
 spent week trying to teach some of the Tommies how to. play poker, but because I won thirty five francs they declared that they didn't 'fawncy" the game.
 Tommy plays few card games; the general run never heard of poker euchre, seven up, or 5pinochle. They led Royal Bezique, but few know how to play it.
 Generally there are two decks of cards in section, and in short time they are so dog cared and greasy, you can hardly tell the ace of spades from the ace of hearts. The owners of these decks sometimes condescend to lend them after much coaxing.
 So, you see Mr Atkins has his fun mixed in with his hardships, and. contrary to popular belief, the rank and file of the British Army in the trenches is one big, happy family. Now in Virginia at school,sI was fed on old McGuffy's primary reads, which gave me an opinion of an Eng lishman about equal to a s'76 Minute sMan's backed up by a Sim Feiner's. But found Tommy to be the best of mates and gentleman through and through. He never thinks of knock ! ing his officers. If one makes a cost ly mistake and Tommy pays with his blood, there is no general condem- nation of the officer. He is just pit ied.- It is exactly the same as 1t was with the Light Brigade at Balaciava, to say nothing of Gallipoli, Neuve Chapelle and Loos. Personally 1 re- member little incident where twen- ty of us were sent on a trench raid, only two of us returning, but I will tell this story later on.
 I said it was a big, happy family, and so it is; but as in all happy fami- lies there are servants, 50 in the Brit ] ish Army there are also strvants, off, cers' servants, or 70. s." as they are termed In the American Army the common name for them is dog rob bers." From a controversy in the Eng l fish papers, Winston Churchill made the statement, as far as I can remem ! Der. that the officers servants in the l British forces fotaled nearly two hun 1 dred thousand. He claimed that this
 removed two hundred thousand ex-
 ceptionally good and well-trained fighters from the actual firing line claiming that the officers. when select l ing a man for servants duty, general 1 ly picked the man who had been out
 the longest and knew the ropes.
 1 But from my observation I find that
 a large percentage of the servants de 1 go over the top but behind the lines
 they very seldom engage in digging 1 parties fatigues parades or drills This work is as necessary as actually | engaging in an attack therefore 1 think it would be safe to say that th' l all-round work of the two hllFdre{
 thousand is about equal to fifty sani1
 sand men who are on straight -zlif;tsrj duties In nH.nerous instances. off
 cers' servants hold the rank o1 lance | corporals and they assume the saEn' duties and authority of a butter th'
 one e-stripe giving him precedence owe the other servants. t11
 r | There are hts of amusing starie told of 70. S." +. 1 One day ore of our majors wen
 into the servants billet and com
 menced "blinding" at them, sayin.
 that his horse had no straw, and tha he personally knew that straw hat