The Recruitograph.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 93, 29 April 1901, Page 4

The Recruitograph.

The idea of insinuating that the Vftv Office does not move with the times is manifestly absurd, in the light of the Office’s latest scheme. The British Army is to be largely increased, but it is one thing for the War Department to decide to have more men, and another thing to get the men. Not that recruiting is slack, on the contrary it has been noticed that during the last two or three months an unusually large number of recruits have offered themselves, of a class and physique considerably better than the raw material of the soldier that the recruiting sergeants generally get hold of. But, in view of the extra number of men required this year, the War Office is availing itself of the services of an automatic recruiting sergeant—one which, it is believed, will point out the glories of a soldier's life more eloquently than the most be-ribboned and persuasive sergeant that ever stepped. This is the “Recruitograph,” by means of which animated pictures and lantern slides, depicting life in the army, will be exhibited io every country, town, and village, throughout the country. A silver-tongued lecturer will explain the pictures, and dilate upon the advantages of the army, and a certain Miss Violet Montague, “ of London,” as the bills say, will lend variety to the performances by singing patriotic songs. With regard to the pictures, some care will naturally be taken that the grisly and painful side of war shall not be unnecessarily dwelt upon. We have seen, even out here, some animated pictures of war scenes calculated rather to discourage the aspirant for military renown than to send him hot-foot to the nearest recruiting office. A view of the return of the ambulance waggons from Spion Eop, and a photograph of some of the trenches filled with our English dead on that fatal hill, still haunt the memory. After all, however, there has been such a lot of this sort of thing, thanks to enterprising war photographers -and biograph artists, that very few people, we imagine, are now ignorant of what ghastly scenes modern warfare may produce, and still, as we have said, voluntary recruiting shows no signs of falling off, but rather the reverse. Every man, of course, believes he will escape, and considering all the circumstances, the number of cases in which the belief is justified by events is little short of miraculous,