In the Old Canteen.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2000, 2 May 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

In the Old Canteen.

Poi m ion Recitation. One more toast at parting, messmates — one more toast, before I go : Let us diink " The Grand Old Regiment," as we used to, years ago, When we lay in trench at Lucknow, and in camp at Singapore : It is fifteen years come Christmas since I left the fine old corps ! * There be now but four among you who were messmates with me then : Bugler Brown and Tom the sailor, Sergeant Smith and Corporal Ben : Gone or dead— the dear old regiment ! — still I love it ail the same, As a fellow loves a headstone— hallowed with his mother's name. It was only yestcr even, as I sowed and ploughed the plain, That the young Bquire told me, •' Farmer, jour old regiment's back agaip : They be stationed down at Chatham ; " and I left the seeds and plough — I was home at nine this morning, here I am at Chatham now. For I say Sally : " Sally, it is fourteen years and more Since my reiment Bailed for india : they aro baok, the dear old corps I My old oaptain's now the colonel : I mu3t go and see him, lass : I must go and meet my messmates : we must clink a kindly glass : " But my Sally sighed, and answered : " Yon had better mind your plough 1 I have told you, dear, so often, there's no need to tell you now, That, betwixt old friends and glasses, many's the sorrows we have seen : When you meet your messmates, Charlie, keep away from the old canteen 1 " No I haven't done it, messmates; but *■ answered softly : " Sal, I hftvo always done my duty : Go's my duty— and I shall I I'll be back betimes, my lassie, firm of foot and hale of head — Back in time to read my Bible, and to put my boy to bead 1 " Hal you laugh I— to read my bible? Well, my hearties, where's the joke ? Night and morn I always reads it, and I love the dear old book : I have found no friend in England kinder to me, since my birth ; And I owe more to my Bible than to any friend on earth. No, I ain't a saintly fellow; I have lived a soldier's life ; Loved my pipe and loved my bottle,* been in many a rowdy strife ; Had my flings and had my follies ; and I tell you, frank and free, There be straighter roads to heaven than by marchin' after me 1 Yet I alway reads my Bible; if you wish, I'll tell you why: First, fill up your glasses, messmates ; I would have you drain them dry. Here's the health of "The Old Begimentt" coupled with " Our glorious Queen ! " Now, if you would hoar my story, " Attention 1 " in the old oanteen. My poor mother— rest her sprit I— some few years atore she died - Just when I had listed,^comrades— called me kindly to her aide : " You are going to leave me,' laddie : I have little, son, to give, Save my blesaing and my Bible — may it teach you how to live : It was once your soldier-father's ; it was aye your father's pride ; Dear he loved it in his lifetime, dear he loved it when he died. Take it, with your mother's blessing : prize it for your father's sake ; If my poor lad Boom its preoepts, his old mother's heart Jwill break I " Then the roase, and placed it— bless her — in the breast o' the ooat I wore In the breast o' my scarlet tunic ; and I sailed for Singapore. We were stationed there a twelvemonth : many a gallant march we made ; Last, to Lucknow, where the sun, lads, showed a hundred in the shade. There the children lay a-starving, and the mothers watched them die, For they couldn't move from weakness, and above them blazed the sky : And the Black Boys howled upon us, though the smoke of shot and shell, Like a swarm of swarthy devils— black deserters oat of hell 1 I was standing outpost sentry ; striken by the sickening Bun, Flat I fainted, and a comrade thought me dead, and seized my gun : Bat the bombshells bursting round me, shook me from my swoon, awake, And I rose, and lo ! a Sepoy sneaking round me, like a snake 1 Sneaking snakelike ; then outleapt he, with a yell — a wild halloo — With his hatchet raised to hack me, with his hatchet raised to hew : And b. second skulking devil slunk behind a heap of slain, With his rifle raised to shoot me— and I stood betwixt the twain 1 Bang ! the bullet whizzed— I bear it — pingeing, whistling to my'grave I Struck me on the breast— -the Bible— the old Book my mother gave : And the bullet bounded of it, and before his blow was given, Split the hatchet— felled the Sepoy 1 It's as true as God's in heaven - You may laugh, and chaff me, comrades : " Any book had served as well : Any book had stopped your bullet." That may be— l cannot tell. All I tell you is, my messmates, as I often tell the wife, " I have no friend like my Bible — for that old friend saved my life 1 " That's my story — true as gospel : and I often think, thinks I, " If on earth it never failed me, will it fail a chap on high ? " Surely not : leastways, I'll trust it, for my trusty friend it's been. Good-night, sergeant 1 good-night, corporal I good night, all, in the old canteen 1 Sajiceij K. Cowan, M.A. in the Theatre.

The menu of the reoent dinner given to President Arthur at the Hotel Kaaterskill was printed in gold on satin in cardinal, old gold in light blue, with hotel monogram and manager's name on the baok, the menu proper having two leaves of double satin. This is enclosed in a satin cover, stiffened, the outside front showing a fine picture of the hotel, also in gold, the whole bordered with thiok silk fringo, having silk cord and tassel to hold leaves jn oover.

Some ingenious soul finds that the diecolored brown spots on tobaooo leaves are caused by showers. The big drops left act as lenaes when the sun comes oat, and conoeo* trate heat enough to burnthe leavei.