THE RIVALS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 12, 9 October 1917, Page 7

THE RIVALS

STEAM & A BUGLER'S BREATH

AND THE PART THAT DISTANCE PLAYS

fßy AVill Lawson.l

It was liion in Trentham Camp. On the parade grounds and rifle ranges thero were men. in khaki. They had been thero all the morning, going through every variety of the exercises which ore laid down as being essential to the proper training of a soldier. Suddenly a change came over the busy, widespread, animated scene. The Rivals had sounded the hour of noon. The squads broke info units, each of which was an individual, making for his hut or the canteen. One blast was sufficient for them, whether it came from a steam whistle or a bugle. The hungry soldiers did not wait to see and hear the, battle of the Rivals. Ten seconds Boforo noon a smart bugler had stepped out of the band-room, he looked as though'he had stepped out of a _ban'd-bo.x, too. He marched to within thirty feet of the power-house, where lurks tEo steam-boiler which drives the dynamos and heats the water for the soldiers' baths. With its 60-footi towering smoke-stack, the boiler is easily detected, in spite of the 'building that hides "it; and if the eyo follows the black funnel downwards it will encounter a steam-whistle—one of those double-chime whistles which are sweet to listen to over a long distance, and thrilling to feel when they are .blown just above a man's hat, thrilling, that is, to the wearer of the hat.

. The bugler raised his bugle and blew. Only one whole note had come from it, when a.gush of steam spouted out of the whistle and a double-tongued, shattering blast made the bugler's eardrums, vibrate unpleasantly. But he stuck to his call,' and sounded ait of it, though a person standing forty feet away from him could not hear a note. As he turned to go back to the band-box—or, rather, the band-room, he looked towards the en-gine-house, arid grinned at the engineman. Possibly he felt that there, was ho disgrace in being beaten by steam at a pressure of 180 pounds to the square inch. At "Reveille and at "Retreat" the same bugler, or his double, step 9 out, in the shadow of the tall smoke-stack, and blows like the trumpeter who capsized the walls of Jericho. Perhaps he hopes that his persistence will eventually upset the. 60-foot chimney. The. whistle at once smothers him, in the musical sense. But the throbbing metal might blow itself into little fragments, each one a whirling pibroch of 6ourid, ore it would prevent him from playing his call to tho finish.

The actual rivals are the steam and the breath of the solitary bugler. If the bugle had 180 pounds of steam to excite it, it would make the welkin ring —and that is the recognised liniit of effort which can he achieved by any known sound. At.it is, the bugle has only- a two-lung power to make its bronze vibrate. So the odds appear to be very much in favour of the thing of steam. But those who come to that conclusion are' reckoning without the vague measurement known as distance. A great deal" has been, said and written about the healing effect of time. Without any exaggeration, very much, inoro might truly be credited to distance. In the battle of the rivals it plays an important part. In fact, it makes the contest, a draw, quite frequently, and, sometimes, a win for the bugle. ' The sleepy people of Heretaunga and Silverstreani' sometimes hear "Reveille" sounded in the camp, the early risers always do, of course. For instance, on a frosty morning, they may hear tho bugle just beginning -the slow,. hailing notes of the call, "Hallo-hallo-o-o! Hallo-hallo-o-o! " when the steam whistle breaks in huskily. It has fog in tho throat. Presently it gathers volume, and makes the valley air virbrate. But tho bugle never yields a note. Every tone of "Reveille" comes clearly across the paddocks and round the easy curve of the hills, where the tuis are whistling and chiming their little bush bells. The distance has separated the rival calls, the bragging clamour, of the whistle fades away—tho clear bugle notes are as strong and clear as ever. Perhaps it is this knowledge of his long-distance powers which gives the bugler heart to blow beneath the towering funnel, and to grin so oheerfully at the engineman as he goes back to his band-box.