"Out of the strong came forth sweetness" might be said of many famous soldiers. An eye like Mars to threaten and command, but also a smile that betokens a loving disposition. Brave men are tender-hearted and chivalrous, and the sweetest domestic affections have not seldom been shown by those were towers of strength against the enemies of their country. Cromwell, Marlborough, Wolfe, Washington, are a few of the soldiers of the past who could love as well as they could fight, and there are many at present who conde the same. Wolseley, Roberts, Wood, White and many other good sol-diets are married. The writer once described to a German officer the Quarters, Schools and other provision for family life which were in our barracks. The German was astonished and asked: " What are women and children in barracks for; they do mot fight?" No; but they may' help men to do so. The soldiers. of ancient Rome were encouraged to marry, because it was thought that the shame of going home to their wives and children if they were guilty of cowardice, would make them behave as they ought.
A letter from South Africa was sent to a newspaper by the parents who received it from their son, a private in the Coldstream Guards. After describing the battle of Modder River in which he took a part, though very much that of a sleeping partner, he continued, "The bullets mere bees around us. I got tired of firing, and fell sound asleep, and dreamt I was down at Yarmouth rowing on-the sea with two young ladies in the boat with me, but I was awfully disappointed when I awoke, so I picked up my tige and continued firing." The awakening to the stern battle of life from a dream so delightful must have been indeed "disappointing." What we quote the incident for, however, is to illustrate how much young Indies come into the life and even into the work of Mr. Thomas Atkins.
When the Guards were leaving London for the Boer war a girl, leaning on the atm of her soldier lover, said, " Keep your pecker up, Dick." Taint me," he replied, "as needs keep my pecker up, but Kriizer." Women have a great deal to do with keeping up or keeping down a soldier's "pecker.
"Thy voice is heard through rolling drams That beat to battle where he stands; Thy face across his fancy comes And gives the battle to his hands."
"ann To My wire."
Yes, the loved ones of our soldiers are sith them in spirit on the battlefield if not in person. When they are badly wounded and realise that their chance of living is small, soldiers begin to think of the dear ones left behind. As a result pathetic wills have been found on their dead bodies. A dead soldier was found on the battlefield of Elandslaagte who, before death, had scrawled with the end of a load bullet on the inside of his helmet the words, All to my wife."
The saddest relic found at Isandhlwany was a letter in the tunic of a dead soldier. The address was obliterated by the sun and the rain but most of the letter was legible. Tt was written by the sweetheart of the man, who lived near Portsmouth. She had quarrelled with her lover just before he left for the war, and in this letter she asked forgiveness and hoped that he would make it up with her when he came back. In the Soudan the life of an officer in the Guards was twice saved by the miniature of his fiancee in a gilt case which the bullets hit. Several of the volunteers who went to the Transvaal had on their wrists bangles, the gift of sweethearts. They wore in this way their hearts on or rather under their sleeve.
During the Crimean wata young English lady wrote to an English officer a letter in which she playfully requested him to take Sebastopol quickly, and Prince Mentschikoff with it, and to be sure to let her have a button from his coat asa memento After the letter was written the officer was taken prisoner but he received it with a polite little note from the Prince himself, saying how much he regretted that he could not comply with the lady's two first requests, but that he had great pleasure in sending the enclosed button, in order that the third one might be gratified I read some time ago a ctitivism of the British army in an American newspaper, where it was remarked that our soldiers are treated like children, because they have to get leave to marry. If, however, they could marry as freely as they liked, would there not soon be almost as many women in the army as men, and how would the taxpayers like to support these ladies
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.