The Washington herald., 1918-02-27
"OVER THE TOP"
By ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Copyrighted by Arthur Guy Empey
Copyrighted by Arthur Guy Empey.

and you are waiting for the fifteenth
to be called. In an imploring voice
you call out, Come on, Watkins,
chum. I'm sweating on 'Kelly's Eye"
Watkins generally replies: well,
keep out of a draught, you'll catch
cold"
Another game is "Pontoon" played
with cards; it is the same as our
Black Jack" or "Twenty-one."
A card game called, 'Brag'.. is also
popular. Using a casino deck. the
dealer deals each player three cards
1t Is similar to poker. except for the
fact that you use only three cards
and cannot draw. The deck is never
shuffled until a man shows three
OF kind or 'prile" as it is called.
The value of the hands are, high
Of a kind or prile." The limit is gen.
| fortune.
The next In popularity Is a card
game called NAP" 1t is well named
Every time I played it went to
| sleep.
Whist and solo whist are played by
the highbrows of the company.
games they try Banker and Broker"
I spent a week trying to teach some
! of the Tommies how to play poker.
but because 1 won S5 francs they de-
clared that they din't 'fawncy'' the
/ game.
Tommy plays few card games; the
general run never heard of poker,
euchre. seven up, or pinochle They
have game similar to pinochle called
Royal Bezique," but few know how
to play 1t.
Generally there are two decks oil
cards in section, and in a short time
| they are so dog-eared 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, con-
trary to popular belief, the rank and
file of the British army in the trench
es is one big happy family. New in
Virginia, at school, was fed on old
McGuffy's primary reader, which gave
me an opinion of an Englishman
| about equal to &c Minute Mans
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 knocking his Off
| GERS. II one makes a costly mistake
and Tommy pays with his blood.
there is no general condemnation of
the officer. He is just pitied 1t is
exactly the same as it was with the
Light Brigade at Balaclava, to say
nothing of Gallipoli, Neuve Chapelle,
| and Loos. Personally I remember a
little incident where twenty of US
were sent on a trench raid, only two
Of us returning, but l will tell this
story later on.
/ said 1t was a big happy family,
and so it is, but as in all happy fami-
lies. there are servants, so in the
! British army there are also servants,
officers servants, or 20. s." as they
are termed. In the American army
( the common name for them is dog
robbers" From a controversy in the
English papers. Winston Churchill
made the statement, as far as I can
remember, that the officers servants
in the British forces totaled nearly
100000. He claimed that this removed
| 100000 exceptionally good and we'll
trained fighters from the actual firing
line, claiming that the officers, when
selecting man for servants duty,
generally picked the man who had
been out the longest and knew the
| ropes.
But from my observation find that
large percentage of the servants do
go over the top. but behind the lines
they seldom engage in digging par
ties. fatigues, parades, or drills. This
work is as necessary as actually en-
gaging in an attack. therefore I
think that it would be safe to say
that the all-around work of the 20o.-
900 is about equal to $1,000 men who
are on straight military duties. In
numerous instances, officers servants
hold the rank Of lance corporals and
they assume the same duties and an
thority Of butler. The one stripe
giving him precedence over the other
servants. ,...,- .ts.g,. =
There are lots Of amusing stories
told of 90. s."
One day one of our majors went
into the servants billet and COM
menced binding" at them. saying
that his horse had no straw and that
he personally E,4Sw that straw had
been issued for sfhts purboses He