LIFE ON A TROOPSHIP.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 734, 6 January 1915, Page 5

LIFE ON A TROOPSHIP.

A further letter from Mr L. M» Bartrop, now a trooper with the , New Zealand force in Egypt,' conveys tho 'intelligence, that.ail membera of the contingent afe well and send raraemBrancsa to J all their fciends, ihe latter is dated November 24th, and gives an account of ohb of the featurof the soldiers' lifa which will be read with interest by many in this district:— ~ ;..•' •..:■''' .-■'. ;i..'' : !

AT THE, DISPENSARY DOOR

"Patients will be treated only at 7.80 a.m.. and 4.30 p.m." So the iegend runs, and at these hours the halt, the maimed, and the blind collect each group in charge of a slightly bored N.CO. known as the "sick corporal." Perhaps this corporal mßy be excused a slight annoyanca, for the troopers and privates with an ailment are prone to think that the pain, or Whatever ill they ai;e inclined to, is quite sufficient passport to the dispensary, and it sometimes happens that I the N.CO. findß his flock reporting on "their own," which, by the way, is contrary to military discipline A rough classification of station cooks wat once made by, a squatter who had suflfat their hands. He divided: them into poißoners, food spoilers; and cooks, the /last being few and far between, and all addicted to *an indulgence in liquor. Our sufferers may wdl be classified by their knowledge of ailments, small people with big ailments, and big people with trifling. The deaf have • extraordinary way of not betraying their weakness, a quality most of us found bur schoolmasters* were guilty of. Apparently there are a. very trifling number of those oft-met people, who enjoy ill-health. Prom the deck one can hear but little of what happens inside when the wouldbe sufferer meets the medical staff. The latter gentlemen positively brintle with military etiquette in a most aggressiva form, but are at heart good fallows. The .assistants one comes in touch with Tare as a rule medical students, and the soldierman looks on such with suspicion as he feels they are likely to include the troopers in the same class as the* experimental guinea pig. A vast amount of information tit various Borts is forthcoming, nevertheless. "What'a wrong, brother?" "Oh, I feel rotten, head all stuffed up and deaf." This class escapas the pills, and is told to wash and come again, and'at the second visit is syringed very »icely. "Feeling crook?" a terse question iB similarly answered by "Pains all over," and ewqually treated to two pills—a large and smill-'-and directions as" to times of taking. "Hullo, what brings you here?" A rash on my chest," and this one receives the homely Epsom. Tha latter, by the way, is always alluded to as mag. Gulph., and til ho set 3 oyos on it the unwary soldier Isopgs'for the best. Nothing serious baa come up and much banter is forthcoming aa to try ins "elbow grsase," once a week instead of ones a month for a bath, *and one/is told that it is fairly clean for a soldier on shipboard .The assistants change so as to give an all-round experience, and so one's sergeant nurse of to day will be cutting up pumpkin, into large wash tubs. In fact such a thorough experience do assistants get that one of these, a theological student who had relieved the sick parson and taken church parade, with the 6nal "Amen" ringing in his ears change his cossock into fatigue dress to go on peeling onions. But the dispensary door has no terrors, and before much water has passed under the bridges the familiar Red Cross may, indeed, bring with it the cup of water and the light to lighten our darkness They are a fine lot though on the whole, and like the rest of us, made up of good and bad, and though there is a rivalry of sortß for the "Zambucha," aa they are called allude to the troopers aa "Swashbuckling cavaliere." There is a coloured gentleman amongst the lot and one has a feeling that one may come to the battlefield to find him peering into one'a.faca and givingjhe feeling, ||||JttJflaßa