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Show Why Soldiers Carry Sticks ENOWSH TOMMY ATKINS Is NRVBB SkEN WITHOUT A CASH ml '; - - It is a question that has often been asked in barracks-who first suggested if Nobody knows. From time immemorial im-memorial drill sergeants have carried sticks and drum majors, too, and possibly pos-sibly the practice first emanated from that fact. ' So'diers nearly always have to buy the canes, or "swaggers." as they ; are called. Some regiments provide , s.icks for the' men. but if you lose the first you then have to buy the second and subsequent ones. It is in the regulations to carry canes, and when a soldier goes i out-that out-that is in walking out order-the guard at the barrack gates would challenge him if he didn't have a "Tsoldier one day couldn't find his cane, and knowing -that he would be challenged If he didn't have something ?n his hand, he passed through ft. gates all right with a poker in his fist. Some regiments-the rifles for instance-have canes with the badse of the regiment stamped on the hewl. Pearson's Weekly. When Cronje surrendered and his sword was taken from him, according to the custom of war, he made up for the material 10S3 of the weapon by sporting a thick club stick of large dimensions. This idea he got from our officers at the front, who, when in undress uniform, usually carry small, smart-looking canes, but as he was a general, while the officers he saw carrying car-rying canes were those mostly of subordinate sub-ordinate rank, he came to the conclusion conclu-sion that an officer of his rank should have something bigger and more tangible tan-gible than a mere delicate stick, hence his appearance one day with a huge club in his hand a large, unwieldly, heavy-looking stick, as strong as tne leg of a dining table. The British soldier carries a stick as a set-off against slouching, as many civilians do who carry nothing in their hands. Privates generally carry light canes, noncommissioned officers fairly fair-ly stout sticks and officers go in for the more expensive and showy kind but all soldiers of the queen carry sticks. |
