Show L HAVING FUN UNDER FIRM abig Inel dente of the lan elan war itar and luel Beb aUlon prom the new york sun A retired major of a foreign service was talking the other night of experiences under declared that it was not all ime alfious oni work he sald said 1 I hare baye had bad y fun a wh when en soldiering and that too iiii nn da def fire fife on an the skirmish line I 1 remember 6 once ln france during the when we were vere 4 go fh at biord I 1 was surprised to hear some of my men 1 hi 7 hen we were about yards germans and while we were lying on dirty damp ground and with just the smallest incline in our front to protect us from the fire we were hungry and cold and were obliged to hug bug the dirty ground in order to get cover it was no place for hilarious hilarius 0 us amusement amuse ent and yet the men kept laughing aug hing and they laughed so loudly loudl y that I 1 am sure the ake enemy heard theme I 1 could not stand any a safety and the only way I 1 could reach atie men was to crawl which P did and after crawling about twenty yards I 1 found myself in a good sized depression in abe ground where there wae wa fair shelter and there I 1 found out the cause of all the amusement we had been out on our post eight hours and had used up a good deal of ammunition and I 1 had ordered the men to keep what they had left for an emergency that I 1 expected any minute this gave the men leisure to grumble or make fun just as they thought teet best and in this dase case it was all fun they were playing mi ninepins with the enemy and they did it this way they made nine piles of mud in the form and aboud the size of sugar loaves leaves and they ed these at distances of about a yard i from each other then they made bett bets as to which pin would be first hit vi 01 which would be hit the most times and as each pin was hit there was a 1 laugh but I 1 found that each pin was named after some unpopular member of the th battalion and when one of the pins pine was shattered the men would laugh and say gay there goes long leasor saw 1 bones is over or fly by night is dis em and so on I 1 stopped thi the game I 1 remember an amusing incident during the riel rebellion in the th canadian northwest in 1885 the indians and half breeds had dug pits al batoche and we were pounding at there the for three days with wih little or no effect during that time our men were on the th skirmish line all day and at night they the retired to the corral we had built immediately med lately in our rear but the half breeds and indians indian were evidently having tun fun at the expense of our youngsters te rs of course elenour eve nour militiamen iamer were prepared tor for the old ruse aboul putting a cap on the end of a stick bul the indians indiana made dummies and they the would suddenly expose a part of thos dummies the head or shoulder or th side or in one case the fee feeland tand ther our oar young fellows would begin an independent firing rapid enough to resa a charge of cavalry but the best beat part parl of the joke was that a great many 01 ol the youngest soldiers who fired at the th dummy were sure to say 1 I hit him 11 hit him while there Is no daubl even the stoical indians in their pit were laughing and I 1 too enjoyed the joke for I 1 had an excellent field glass and could see the dummies very plainly |