A SPORTSMAN AFTER ALL

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 139, 15 June 1916, Page 3

A SPORTSMAN AFTER ALL

The following amusing story is told by Bishop Bury in an article on prisoners of war which he contributes to the April "Nineteenth Oentuary and After":—'ln one of the camps vihere combatants v.-ero imprisoned a new non-commissioned officer had been added to the staff. The first night that He came on duty, before turning off Hie light, he said, by way of asserting himself: 'Now, yon English swine, von worse than dogs and eats and carmyard fowls, the light is going out. vnd if I hear a sound after that you'll suffer for it, I can tell you..' and so on. there was an instant, silence which u), an Englishman would have been at -nice suspicious, but which was to the (ion-commissioned officer an in tens.! satisfaction. After a moment or two a dog was heard barking loudly at the bottom of the room, and the sergeant, itngvy and surprised, went down to find and turn it out, muttering, "Everyone knows dogs are not allowed ' As lie drew near the place two or three cats mewed and spat at each other just behind him. Startled and furious he wheeled round to find nothing but to hear, at that end of the room he had just lefty the shrill crowiii<>' <St a cock. Growing very hoc and angry he looked suspiciously at the silent and still forms of the men on every side, when suddenly they all lifted their heads and began to cough violently. The noise must have been almost as nerve-trying as shrapnel! With his hands to his ears he strode back to the place he had left, and turning round, with heated face, waited. When the coughing at last ceased, and there was quiet, he said in an almost choking voice, 'Gentlemen, T'ei sorry I said what I did. Will you think no more of it? T have my duty to do. Let us work together, and per haps, after all- we may be friends.'' Anyone who knows the average Englishman there would know how that appeal would go home, and how the men would say to themselves, 'He's a sportsman after all,' and go contentedly off to sleep, and that after such a start they would give their officer no mere unnecessary trouble."