Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, 17 September 1903, Page 7

Ways of Living.

' ON THE STRENGTH.' The colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady 4 Are Bisters under the skius.' a soldier falls badly in love, jQyfVK. and can't bear it any longer, &MpfflP aQ d when the girl says she will see about it, provided he behaves, then he asks & non-commissioned officer to parade him up to the cobnel. The colonel look<3 at his defaultersheet to see if it is moderately clean. Has he two good-conduct stripes on his arm P Has he done seven years of Bervice ? Has he five pounds laid by in the savings-bank P If he cannot paes that examination as to his morals, the order is: ' Eight about turn, quick march 1' But if he is really and truly good the colonel s»3 s : * Now let me see the young woman.'

[ Her lever brings in the girl to be in- ! spected. Sunday freck, best manners, ! eyes to the floor, and blushes all down her neck. If the colonel is satisfied that Bhe is a nice girl, and likely to do credit to his regiment, he grants approval. So tte colonel consents to an engagement, and the marriage may take place as soon as the next vacancy cccurs. The King's Regulations peimit a limited number of men in eyery regiment to marry, and the wives of these arc attached to his Majeatj'B Service—'taken on the strength.' In a quiet corner of the-barracks are special quarters, called the ' married lines.' These quarters may be apartments in a big bariack building, or cottages stand tag in a row. For a unit numbering 500 men there are from twenty five to thirty little homes. The first choice of these quarters belongs to the married men highest in rank—the warrant officers—then the sergeants and corporals get their chance, and the privates get what are left. The hewljmarried couple probably get a single room, severely white-wasbed, which they may divide with hangings into a bedplace and parlour. There is no rent to pay; the place is kept in repair; water, firing, and the light are all provided. Any furnishings allowed are regulation patterns. J The wife draws her husband's rations, cooks the food, and shares it, But that would mean rather hungry times but for a kindly arrangement about the washing. Every man m the regiment has to pay sixpence a week, which is divided by the colour-sergeants among the women in raymeut for all> ihe laundry work. This produces, say, |s3 15i., a«week, shared by the women who need it. Then there is a lot of washing and mending of clothes to do for the officers. But, besides that, the officers' wives are always more or less interested in the happiness of the married couples, not only giving employment in laundry and housework, but sometimes providing nice rooms where the women can do their sewing in coffifort. The welfare of the married women depends a great deal upon Mrs. Colonel, and as Rudyard Kipling says : 'The co'onel's lady and Judy O'Grady are Bisters under their skins.' But the married men, as a rule, are; drawing far more than a private's com- ] mon pay. . ' Apart from the no n-commissioned ranks and the band, a married man gets staff employment in office, shop, or storehouse, mess, kitchen, or canteen, or serves as an officer's valet, or sergeant-major's batman. On the whole th6y are able to bring up their families in reasonable comfort. A regiment is a big family set apart from the civilian world with interests of its own. and inspired by a tremendously | powerful sentiment—the pride of the corps. The sacred colours, the special honours, badges, and memories, the silver treasures of the mess, the band, the pet animals, the triumphs in polo, cricket, football, steeplechasing, and the military tournament, the glitter and pageantry of the service are interests valued in common by all ranks. These interests are practical, too, because the officers spend liberally in maintaining the band and the games, and the money filters down an encouragement to the players. There is the common interest of gossip especially active in the married lines, and of talking shop about the movements of troops all round the Empire, and the prospects of some new campaign. When the regiment moves within the kingdom or on 'foreign service' to any one of the Imperial garrisons over seas, the homes are broken up, and the married men go with their families, or, if the wife is sick, the husband stays. But for women wedded to soldiers not 'on the strength,' there is tragic suffering, because they are left behind to starve. On board the transport there are separate married quarters, kept private from the troop-decks. In the garrisons overseas there are married lines as at home, but the buildings are adapted to the various climates,

In India even a private soldier, married, must keep at least two native servants—one tocook, the other to clean. Tommy is a sahib over there, and addressed as *my lord.' Once the Army has taken a woman ' on the etrength.' the Government is responsible for her welfare. If she or her children are unable to bear the climate, they are sent home on the first transport, or in emergency shipped as passengers on board a liner at Government expense. When husband and wife are parted, she may not be left to starve, but is given a separation allowance, with twopence-half-penny a day for each of her children. The same rule applies when the regiment is sent on active service, and the women-folk must all be left behind. As to boys born' ou the Btrengtb,' there is a career open to them by enlistment as drummers, and schooling until they are ready for the band college, when they may be trained as musicians. The military band, drawing pay from all sorts of private engagements, is one of the plums of the service, and the exbandsman has a fairly good trade to fall back on in civil life. Every regimeni has a book kept by the adjutant as a register of its family life. Like the blank sheets in a family Bible, it is meant fer the entries of births, marriages, and deaths. A soldier's lawful marriage, mads with the colonel's leave or not, may be entered there, and the adjutant records all baptisms. Moreover, the officers enter their affairs in the same book, which holds good in law aB proof by which the widows and orphans of the regiment can establish their claims as heirs of mee who have fallen.

VALENTINES. The valentine is falling into desuetude, The process, indeed, dates back to February 11,1667, the then Secretary to the Admiralty writing in his diary, 'I am also tbis year my wife's valentine, and it will coat me £5 j but that I must have laid ou!s if we had not been valentines.' It made it apparent that aiready the custom had been deprived of the sentiment usually attached to it. Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, then, the valentine entered upon that meet healthy decline in which it has i QB»d itself ever

| Bince, and upon which it has thrived 80 exceedingly, that year by year the fact that the custom of sending velentines no longer obtaias is still regarded as an item of Hews, thereby proving beyond a doubt that the custom is very far from dead. If further evidence were required with respect to the state of health of St. Valentine it would be found in the fact thai Germany, a country in which the question of £ s. d. is not considered immaterial, even when affairs of the heart are concerned, turns out millions of valentines (one factory is alone credited with an annual output of 10.000,000 'comics') every year, and we may rest assured that the obiect of the makers is not merely a sentimental desire to keep alive an ancient custom that has no money in it. The lace and tineel trifles are chiefly sold by middle-class drapers and stationers. The efforts of these uphclders of an ancient custom are so far successful that the postal authorities .admit that the St. Valentine's Eve post is appreciably heavier than the ordinary nights, and this, as the average post comprises over seven million missives, is saying a good deal, insomuch as in so greet a bulk of letters an insignificant addition to the mail could hardly be recognised. It is difficult to arrive at the exact number of valentines nowadays circulating about the United Kingdom on the eve of the 14 Sh. It is, however, interesting to note in respect to the fluctuations in popularity of the Saint's token during the last fifty years that in 1556 the total appears to have been 618.000. in 1864 80.000 less. In 1870. 1.545 755 valentines were duly delivered, which figures had swolleß in 1883 to no less than 2,768 000 love tokens, that must have cost the public considerably over .£350.000, in view of the fact that the said sum represents the average amount annually tjpent from 1870 to 1880, during which decade the popularity of the valentine was far from achieving that attained nineteen years ago.