Show equivalent of w is not unprecedented I and there are some other regiments I recruits for which bring fancy pay to the sergeant securing them Tommy Atkins i The nicjcname Tommy Atkins which outbide of the British empire is generally supposed to apply to all British Brit-ish soldiers in reality applies only to the infantry of the line To call an artilleryman ar-tilleryman anything but gunner would be to insult him the enlisted cavalryman who like his superior is u I bit of a swell would snort at any title save trooper the engineer is a sapper sap-per and the men of the Grenadier Guards > would have fits were they to bespoken spoken ol as Tommies The origin of the nickname is rather curious 1 Twenty years ago when General Ward Wolesly wrote his celebrated PocketBook Pocket-Book he used the name of Thomas Atkins In the forms prescribed for officers offi-cers accounts and reports Somehow after the diminutive Tommy waS substituted for i Thomas the name tuck and UIC ordinary British soldier I will probably remain Tommy Atkins to the end of time The raw recruit is a Tommy in I every sense of the word from the moment mo-ment he takes the shilling and is liable lia-ble to punishment for desertion should i he fail to report at the recruiting depot I very soon after his acceptance of the I coin But should he repent he may be i bought off within a certain definite per Sdd and British mothers who hate the recruiting sergeants intensely frequently frequent-ly secure their sons release in this way In time of war the duties of the British soldier are like the duties of all soldiers engaged in actual fighting in time of peace they are far more arduous than thobf of the American soldier a much fnJater degree of attention being bestowed be-stowed upon the condition of arms and accoutrements trimness of uniform etc than here On the whole the cav tlr mart has more work in peaceful times than the foot soldier lor the cavalryman cav-alryman has his horse as well as himself to keep in constant condition The uniforms fprnisfoed to the British soldier are well made and comfortable as a rule Some of them are corneous and there is great variation in the outfit out-fit of different regiments of the same branch of t service The normal pay is a shilling a day or 24 cents while the normal dallVration varied sometimes I some-times to suit conditions is a pound of bread and threequarters of a pound of meat Of course the actual fare of the British soldier has < more variety than this would indicate but he has to pay for the additions out of his scanty stipend sti-pend His clothes cost him nothing but he lies < to pay for his washing It is claimed by the authorities that his net is larger than the average artisan arti-san class in England It is of record that more than one British regiment Bias mutinied because of poor maintenance mainten-ance but complaints of insufficient and bad food have been rare of late ears The pay of soldiers serving 5n India and the colonies is generally supplemented sometimes doubled Much more respect has been paid to the volunteer service in Great Britain than formerly It appears to have much in common with our own state national guard especially as membership in a volunteer organization is counted a sort of cial distinction and the prime object ob-ject cut the volunteers Is home defense and not outside fighting Ulie LeeMet ford rifle the standard arm of the BrItish BrIt-ish army has ben dealt out to the volunteers only lately however and they are almost as unfamiliar with it as our volunteers were with the so called KragJorgensens when the Spanifcli war broke out The LeeMet ford is considered inferior to the Mauser by some authorities especially for use against a civilized enemy The often expressed fear that the British soldier will prove defective in marksmanship marks-manship particularly if pitted against the Boers is based on admittedly insufficient in-sufficient rifle practice Transportation of troops to South Africa in numbers sufficient to carry on a war with the Transvaal neqes Mtj call for an increase of the British transi > ort service and UriXhas already augmented the demand for suitable ships and there is great danger of aWOl a-WOl mix up than attended our sending send-ing of troops to the West Indies and the Philippines in the early stages of the game British troops unused to ser v ire away from home will undoubtedly find much to learn about the proper are of43ie ne lves in South Africa but even reglment will probably contain enough experienced soldiers to reduce the complications from a change of climate cli-mate etc to a minimum Lieutenant General Sir Redvers Henry Buller recently adjutant general gen-eral of the forces as successor to Sir William Butler is just the man to command com-mand the forces against the Boers He isstud to have an old grudge against them He served in South Africa in 1STS3 when British arms virtually uipcd out the Zulu the Boers greatest en my Sir riedvers is fiO He has been in the service since he was 19 and has served in China North America and llgypt winning many honors and distinctions dis-tinctions for extreme gallantry |