"Dinks" And Drinks

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

"Dinks" And Drinks

" Best Soldier in the Brigade

"Though the brew teas often rotten and the vintage mostly vile, And the patronne mean and grasping *nd the garcon full of guile, Often you and I, old cobber, found a glad deliverance From the dismal hell around us in a 'staminay in France. FULTON, who commanded the Dinks (Rifle Brigade), was a regular martinet, as men who served under him will agree. This is a story of two Dinks who got well under the influence just prior to a brigade inspection. But let one of the participants tell the yarn as he told it to me. "Bill and I got into an estaminet a few hours before General Fulton was to inspect the brigade. We were both holding plenty of cash and we indulged freely, principally tn champagne. Bill was one of those men who look well at any time —sober or not. "He was a perfect specimen physically, a good looker with a rosy complexion, and last, but not least, had ginger hair. I had a tough job getting Bill away from the estamtnet and we were the last two on parade. "Bill was drunk—very drunk —but he stood up to his full six feet, gazed steadily to his front and generally— although unconsciously—played the part expected of a soldier qjt a general inspection. General Fulton arrived and walked along the ranks, and when he came to Bill he stood and gazed at him for a full minute. Bill, quite unperturbed (he was too intoxicated to be otherwise) stood the General's scrutiny without batting an eyelid. " 'H'm,' remarked General Fulton, 'the best soldier in the brigade.* "The humour of the situation proved too much for me and I burst out laughing and was marched off to the clink." (By C. SCOTT.)