Show Live Circulation of Queens bil1ing Famous Coin Much in Use in GreatlBritain J Just Now How Her Majestys Army is Recruited V = Why the British Soldier Is Called Tommy Atkins His Training Par Food Clothing and Arms SirRedvers Henry Bullers ChanceV They are putting out the Queens shilling in Great Britain just now with unusual liberality and the chances are that its circulation will be still further and wonderfully increased within the next few months For the British army Is greatly in need of recruits re-cruits to be sent to South Africa and according to the British system of enlistment en-listment a queens shilling is paid over t > every man who enters the service serv-ice The queens shilling by the way is not a coin of special design It is exactly like every other coin of the same denomination and It is termed the queens from the fact that its acceptance from a recruiting sergeant makes the receiver a queens man body and soul The greatest task of the United States government when the war I with Spain broke out was to furnish an effective land fighting force on short notice and our critics in England friendly and otherwise had a good deal to say about the shortcomings of out army system under which only a ridiculously small force of trained soldiers sol-diers was maintained in time of peace a force quite insufficient to do our fighting In time of war In the present juncture the British army system which includes the recruiting department depart-ment of course may be put to almost as severe a test as was the American system last year For although the total military forces of the British empire em-pire are enormous in numbers aggregating aggre-gating considerably over 750 000 all told the forces immediately available for service against the Boers in whose subjugation the British navy obviously can take no part are only a small fraction of that number Even the figures representing the acti e fighting forcesnumbering nearly 2oO 000 are I misleading since they include 125000 or thereabouts that must be kept in India That leaves only about 100000 effective I troops in Great Britain and Ireland to draw upon It is true that there are nearly 440000 others l more or less well trained in j f military affairs but only a portion of I these can be draw upon and a large fraction oC them would maKe as sorry work of fighting in the TransvaaL or I anywhere else for the mattet of that as < the rawest of American recruits This1 force Is divided about as follows Army reserves 3OCKK militia 19000 jeomanry 10000 volunteers 232QOQi Some of these cannot be taken out of the country except for defense some are trained but little if any better than oui national guard while others the reserves though they have seen service serv-ice are pretty old to do active service in a foreign clime and have long been t < 1 f f I J rl Ji out of training Andw no matter how many are sent to V South Africa their places must be filled l > y recruits somehow some-how it possible since it would never do for Engiandj vyith1 potent possible enemies separated from her by only a f few mile oC sean ta allow any material reduction of her forces at home In these circumstancea the present activity activ-ity of Great Britains recruiting machinery ma-chinery is a matter necessity Man Who Gives the Shilling Thve BritIsh recruiting sergeant the man who gives the thUHng Is a splendid I splen-did reature He is tall erect broad of I shoulders deep of chest supple of limb with the bearing of a conqueror I tempered by meiyng geniality and I with V an ideally persuasive tongue Alitays in uniform ± n and white gloves with UttfQ cap atilt on his head with batdn twirling airily In his hand and continually In evidence he plays a most important part In the army sys I I tern of his country He generally hunts V HICHLhNDMuNTEDINrANTRy V 1 V V JUST 5EwV TO THE CAPE V = Il I l I I i e V f V SOME OF ENGLANDS FIGHTERS IN SOUTE AFBICA V V in couples and his chosen walks are I either in the viclnityci samx great barracks I bar-racks or in the poorer quarters of the I town where he is located Naturally more men are recruiled LShdon than anywhere else The fdvorite slanTlJ f ing giounds of the London recruiting sergeants are Tn the neighborhood of thCV Horse Guards and in Trafalgar square on the hide fronted by the National Na-tional Gallery and St Martins church V Nx one who has been much in London Lon-don need be told why the recruiting sergeants ser-geants patrol in the vicinitj of the HorS Guards since there day after day a miniature military paradethe regular ceremony of guard mountis held The detachment of toe household house-hold cavalry that goes through this evolution is made up unquestionably of the very flower of the British army The men are stalwart and dashing I with movements that show perfect training their uniforms ate fairly dazzling in their spick and span splendor I splen-dor and there i5 always an admiring I I crowd in the courtyard to view the Inspiring In-spiring spectacle Judged from it life I in the army is mainly pictorial and It I is an unusual day In times of no special I V V V r V V tp1H Lc 9 V r V Al V V V 1 i I 1N V I Ik 1j 7 V I l 1 V r V Sa EDVERS HE RY u tR 1 CHIEF OF COMMAND OF ENGLISH OECES IN SOUTH AFRICA excitement eenj orf1 whfch front twenty to forty young men are < n temp t-emp dj by the E guard mount show to 1 take1 Ith queens shilling front one of the tr m sergeants V V V These who take the shilling in the neighborhood mentioned are l Initiated in I the service of her majesty at the recruiting re-cruiting depot of St Georges barrackfe I just back of the National Gallery It is the largest In V Great Brltan and probably onequarter of all the British recruits are there enrolled Other large depots are located at Woolwich Houn slew and elsewhere In fact there ib a e L jId l JJ < recruiting depot in every sizable town In all Great Britain Recruits In General V The recruiting sergeants who work In the square and near the Horse Guards have a far easier task to perform generally gen-erally than thofee who do duty elsewhere Under the splendid stimulus stimu-lus furnished by 1 tile crack cavalrys appearance the miuits rarely have to be subjected to much parsunsiom and often offer themselves unsolicited Recruits Re-cruits are easily obtained also In many places on occasions of great parades But In ordinary circumstances in most localities securing recruits for her majestys service is not a task to be lightly undertaken It is to the credit of the English that crimping and the press gang are no longer necessary in order to keep the army ranks fairly well filled But it is true that the recruiting sergearats for the militia and the ordinary loot regiments regi-ments are sometimes obliged to resort to rather devious expedients It is also true that a very large percentage there the-re ruits are picked up In city alums where a glass or two of ale and a good jollying from a splendid fellow like a recruiting sergeant are far more likely Hians anything else to produce the tie M slfed results Recruits obtained in sluntRetgfoborlxiods are youngsters out of work In the rrftftif often without family ties and son flmciS quit will Ins if well persuaded to get away from their current surroundings even if the prospects be fairly favorable for service against toe half savage native rebels in India the still more savage blacks in Africa or the Boers more dangerous because of their superior marksmanship than either HlrtJus or blacks A guarantee of the recruits good moral character is required ostensibly os-tensibly but the regulations vipon this point are not administered with great rigidity in many Instances and lae con tingencj of rejection upon the moral V record of the recruit is very remote indeed in-deed Verj many of the men recruited in the more crowded sections of the cities go into the militia which is about as unlike the national guard here as can easily be imagined and whose members mem-bers are regarded with less favor by the middleclass population of Great Britain than those of any other branch of the service It has been commonly supposed both In and out of England that the militia could not be ordered to do foreign service but this is an error The militia may be sent out of the V country is occasion arise and furthermore further-more if its ranks be not filed by volunteer vol-unteer enlistment limited conscription conscrip-tion may be enforced to that end This has not been resorted to in thirty years but the law authorizing it is still on the statute books and would be effective any year in > which the customary militia ballot suspension act were not parsed by parliament In the regular foot regiments re cruits from the English peasant class or rather as some one has > said peasants peas-ants deteriorated bj two generations of life as mill operatives are much in evidence The recruit of bids ttass hiV general is a somewhat undersized V narrovtfchested V fiaxenhalred lad of what would be termed rattier defective education in America and with abnormal ab-normal appetites so far as ale and tobacco to-bacco are concerned The British cruity of this type Is decidedly inferior in-ferior in body mentality and general training to the average American regular reg-ular army recruit In time of peace or volunteer as accepted while the war with Spain was or but probably not standard maintained below the bodily V during the greatest demand for soldiers in civil war times There has been much criticism by the English themselves of the > low physical standard of the army recruits and more than one British authority has referred to them as a lot of half grown boys A British officer of high standIng stand-Ing who admits that many immature t youngsters find their way into the ranks says this is a good thing on the whole His theory is that the recruit I who begins his service before attaining full growth will soon fill out thus acquiring the proper size and weight V I Meanwhile he will receive lila training f it Is most as a soldier at just the time lt mot likely a to produce a lasting Impression f upon him in every way Ira fact he i continues many commanding officers have reported that young recruits of i have repored that Jroung recris ten develop into more satisfactory soldiers I sol-diers than older men fiseause they receive re-ceive their military training1 during I and not after the formative period of their lives It should bet understood that not all British recruits are of inferior physical types Hen from every walk of life enlist in her majestijs service lre and many of them are splendid chaps bodily They enter the crack resnmentsi or course I is not expected that any of coure the raw recruits wilt bs srengout afc this time The British aim rs filaaytV Hate tme thO fighting don by seasoned soldiers sol-diers arscE should f eontinueIni any instance r in-stance till they are exhausted the n W I soldiers will have been pretty well I trained meanwhile V V Recruiting sergeant V are paid 60 cents I lfot RECl eveny ordinary recruit top recruit suitable to enfetf thfe SCot Guards the V f Ii Cavalej the engineers v oKthe arm b whosf qualifications must be of a higher 1 t high-er than those oftrecrut for most V Er nithosof the rpar Is V regimentS o fots lders pay I 1 gienW hnore is often allowed for a man fit to be ahlfeguardsmanthe 1 I I V V I |