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Show Tommy Atkins' Christmas How Kln6 Edward's "Thin Red Heroes" Celebrate Their Holiday. NO mntter where he may be or in what circumstances he may be placed, Tommy Atkins never falls to makca special effort to celebrate Christmas day In a bellttlug jlianner. Four years ago saw thousands thou-sands of llrltlfth soldier lads spending the festive 2.r)lh round camp flres on the South African veldt, but they en-Joyed en-Joyed themselves, nevertheless, In spite of their surround ings and the dlillcul-tli! dlillcul-tli! under which the Christmas dinner was prepared. It is Christmas In bar racks, however, which Tommy enjoys best of all, next, of course, to spending it with those who are dear to him. Comrades unite with comrades, and each contributes his sharo of help toward to-ward making the occasion one of Joyous Joy-ous festivity. ' '"Kui'ly Christmas morning sees the soldiers busily engaged In turning their respective barrack rooms into dining places, lied cots, which at ordinary times would bo standing at right angles an-gles to the wnlls, are ranged lengthwise, length-wise, and with the aid of spare pall-lasses pall-lasses and gay bunting borrowed from the stores for the occasion are transformed trans-formed Into luxurious looking divans. The companies vie with one another to make their rooms as attractive as possible. pos-sible. The homely custom of spreading festoons fes-toons of pink, blue and green paper from wnll to wall Is duly carried out, while mottoes, usually of a military character, abound. These mottoes, by the way, are often dedicated to popular pop-ular ofllcers, the following being examples exam-ples of the favorite forms: "Long live Colonel nnd Mrs. ," "(lod bless tho general," "Good luck to Lieutenant ," etc. In some regiments It Is the custom to usher in Christmas morning with fifes and drums Immediately after the sounding of reveille, and after breakfast break-fast Tommy has to prepare for church parade. This duty finished, ho Is at liberty to make a grand attack on the Christmas dinner. The soldiers arc 1 "HE'S A JOLLY 0001 rKIiLOW." first of all marshaled and arranged in their places at the table in tbo company's com-pany's dining room, which the captain then visits In order to make n brief inspection in-spection nnd see that "all's well" with tbo boys. After that there Is still another matter mat-ter which Thomas has to attend to beforo be-foro be can start feeding, but it is a matter which Is very agreeable to him. A few minutes after tho captain has made bis Inspection tho soldiers of the company are again called to their feet nnd to order by the sergeant major's '"Shun!" and immediately afterward the colonel, followed by the adjutant nnd other otlleers, enters. Needless to any, they are received with rousing cheers. The colonel will drink the health of company, n toast answer- I ed with wild cheering and the time I honored refrain, "He's n Jolly good fellow." fel-low." When tho olllucrs have gone It Is not long beforo Tommy proceeds to sample I the good things which have been provided pro-vided for his enjoyment. Hoast beef nnd mutton, turkey, goose and duck 1 are usually Included In the company's menu, not to mention such things as potatoes, greens, puddings nnd pes. After dinner Tommy indulges In his favorite freo and easy, enlivened with songs of nil descriptions. Patriotism, of course, enters into the greater part of tho music, although the comic song Is nlso a great favorite. Tommy cares llttlo what tho song may be, however, so long as It has n good swinging chorus cho-rus In which ho can Join. Thus the hours pass by, tho day's enjoyment generally ending in the veterans of the company being called upon to relato Htlrrlusr Incidents which have won glory and renown for Uie regiment. t Pearson's Weekly. ' ' |