PARADE HUMOUR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2758, 29 April 1916, Page 6

PARADE HUMOUR

i'WAIT TILL I GET MY GUN."

WHAT "L" STANDS FOR

The use of mnemonics, as aids to memory, is frequent in the training camps, the idea being to take thenamo of the duty, such as "sentry" andmako an acrostic of it, the sentences and phrases so formed being a summary of the tilings to be remembered.. Not long ago, an officer at Featherston Camp was giving instruction on these lines on the duties of a patrol. He was not quite sure on every point, but he did not let any man guess that. He said : "P, position of enemy; A, all about our own troops; T, time of return; R, resistance; 0, out bow long; L," he paused for just one second, trying to remember L. Then he said: "And L's what you'll get if you do it wrong." THE CASUAL SENTRY, One of the greatest crimes that a sentry can commit is to.part company with his rifle. There is no excuse for his doing so-for any reason whatever. A returned soldier, tolls', of a : casual Australian sentry he mot at Gallipoli, and bow he astonished an English, major. The Australian was on sentry go when the major approached. "Hullo, covey, who' are you ?" the sentry asked. The. major' stiffened. "I'ni amajor," he said haughtily. "Right-oh!"'the cheerful sentry said. "Just stand where you are while I go and get me gun, and I'll give you the royal salute." IN THE LINE OF FIRE. There was once a quantity of rough' stones ..on a track. which troops took when marching from camp to the parade ground. Many a time they'were blessed by officers and men who had to marchover them. It happened one day that in manoeuvres a pickot of men was placed beside the stony patch, and while they waited there their officers decided that it would be an opportune .time to remove the stones. The question was how to do it without departing from the. programme, which would be an' unjustifiable act. At last a lieutenant said: "I know," and calling tho picket to attention, ho proceeded to address them on the operations they wero engaged in.

"Now," he said, "in deciding upon tho picket's line of resistance, it is necessary that there should be a clear field, of lire. Modern weapons are eo deadly that it is only necessary to have a limited extent of clear ground, say 100 yards, in front '{ .No bii'e had the least idea what he was driving at. When he paused,' the :men decided that, he didn't know himself. But they were wrong. ■". —r and now," he continued, "just get to work and shift those stones out of the way." With so many willing hands, the stones were removed as though by magic, and nowadays no hard words are heard- when the. troops tramp past that place.