The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-04-26
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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 draft, 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 Drag is also
popular. Using a casino deck, the
dealer deals each player, three cards.
It Is similar to our poker, except for
the fact that you only use three cards
and cannot draw. The deck is never
shufled until q man shows three OF a
kind or a "prile" as it is called. The
value Of the hands are, high card, a
pair, q run, a flush OF three Of a kind
or "prile." The limit Is generally q
penny, so it is hard to win a fortune.
The next in popularity is a card
game called MAP" It is we'll named.
Every time I played 1t I went to sleep.
Whist and solo whist arc played by
the high5rowS OF d company.
When the gamblers tire Of all other
games they try Banker and Broker"
spent a week trying to teach some
of the Tommies how to play poker, but
because I won thirty-fve francs they
declared that they didn't "fawncy" the
game.
Tommy plays few card games; the
general run " heard Of poker, eu-
chre, sever up. or pinochle. They have
q game similar to pinochle called
"Royal Bezique," but few know how to
play 1t.
Generally there are two decks Of
cards in a 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 c~ondescend to lend
them after much coax1ng.
So you see, MIR. 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 trenches
is one big happy family. Now In Viz.
ginia, at school, I was fed on old Nc
Guffy's primary reader, which gave me
an opinion Of an Englishman about
equal to a re Minute Mans backed up
by q Sim Feiner's. But I found Tom
my to be the best of mates and a gen.
tleman through and through. He never
thinks Of knocking his officers. II one
makes q costly mistake and Tommy
pays with his blood, there Is no gen.
eral condemnation of the officer. he
Is just pitied. It Is exactly the same
Is it was with the Light Brigade at
B~alacfava, to say nothing OF Gallipoli,
Neuve Chapelle and LOos. Personally
I remember q little incident where
twenty Of US were sent on q trench
raid, only two Of US returning, but I
will tell this story later on.
I said it was a big happy family. and
80 1t is, but as in all happy families,
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
q controversy in the English papers,
Winston Churchill made the state
ment, IS far as I can remember, that
the officers servants In the British
foeces totaled nearly two hundred
thousand. He claimed that this re-
moved two hundred thousand excep-
tionally good and well-trained fighters
from the actual firing line, claiming
that the officers, when selecting a man
for servants duty. generally picked the
man who had been out the longest and
knew the ropes.
But from my observation I find that
q large percentage Of the servants do
60 over the top, but behind the lines
they very seldom engage in digging
parties, fatigues, parades Of drills
This work Is as necessary as actually
engaging In an attack, therefore I think
H. NOulu Uc So4S W Soy thoI SAC oAA
round work of the two hundred thou
sand is about equal to fifty thousand
men who are on straight military du-
ties. In numerous instances, officers
servants hold the rank Of lance-cOrpo-
rails and they assume the same duties
and authority Of a butler, the n
stripe giving him precedence over the
other servants.
There are lots of amusing stories
told Of 20. g."
One day n Of our majors went into
the servants billet and commenced
%'blinding" at them, saying that his
horse had no straw and that he per-
sonally knew that straw had been is
sued for this purpose. he called the
l"ance-corporal to account. The cor
poral answered, "Blime me, sir, the
straw was issued, but there wasn't
enough left over from the servants
beds; in fact, we had to s some Of
the 'ay to 'elp out, sir"
1t is needless to say that the serv-
ants dispensed with their soft beds
that particular night.