CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE ARMY.

Evening Post, Volume XLV, Issue 5, 7 January 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE ARMY.

About a week before the festive twenty-fifth, the preparations are begun by the laying-in of a prodigious stock of evergreens, and coloured tissue-paper, designed to form the decorations. This is a very important part of the whole proceedings, and il there is in the company a soldier possessing some artistic ability, this branch io handed over to him. Under his directions the men of the company fabricate chains, rosettes, knots, fringes and tassels of coloured paper, and wreaths and festoons of evergreens. The more important designs, shields, mottoes, and the regimental colours, which religiously form part of the decorations every Christmas, are fashioned jby himself. It needs a great deal of artistic taste to decorate a barrackroom, and there is always much rivalry between the different companies as to which room shall be the best decked. The company whose room can boast of no decorations is despicable indeed. On Christmas morning the different rooms are all on view, and the companies invite their friends from ' outside the gates ' to come in and see them. Visitors are plentiful, and the canteen and sergeant's mess do a roaring trade for Borne hours during the forenoon. Then one o'clock draws near, and the guests begin to troop towards the barrack-rooms. Civilians are not often invited to partake of the soldiers' Christmas dinner, and the guests are mostly restricted to the married men of the company, who live in the married quarter, and their wives and children. Attired in their best Sunday clothes, these find their way to their respective company rooms. And what a sight it is ! Standing at the open door, you look down a long room, sixty feet from end to end. Down its centre, the length of the room, stretch the tables, covered with white cloths and arranged with plants in pots, plates, dishes, and glaises borrowed from the married people. The ceiling is festooned with chains of evergreens and coloured paper, shields with mottoes adorn the whitewashed walls, the ungainly iron pillars are twined with evergreen and paper wreaths, and Chinese lanterns swing pendant over-head ; at intervals are trophies of bayonets and rifles fastened cunningly into designs of stars and crosses. At the far end of the room the colours of the regiment, executed in paper, occupy the place of honour over the fireplace, and three mottoes always present stretch around the room : ' God Save the Queen,' ' God Bless our Colonel.' and ' A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.' The room is crowded with soldiers in their smartest Sunday tunics, and women and children, ' Gaily drest, in all their best.' On this occasion best uniforms are de rigueur, everyone must be smart, and he who is happy enough to possess medals and badges displays them proudly ! The dinner-bugle sounds, and the band, standing in a circle on the square, begin a Christmas hymn, the strains of which come floating into the rooms as the guests take their places at table. Then, as the procession of cooks and their assistants come filing from the cook-houses, the music changes to the merry and timehonoured ' Oh ! tho Roast Beef of Old England.' Here is plenty, here is profusion. Sirloins of beef, legs and haunches of mutton, prime hams, and, it may be, a turkey or two, or a couple of geese. Vegetables are in abundance, potatoes, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflowers ; pastry is not absent ; and here, too, is the genuine English Christmas plumpudding, without which no soldier's Christmas dinner would be complete. As for the liquors, there is beer in plenty for the men, and wine, gingerbeer, and lemonade for the ladies, and what more would even the most thirsty of soldiers ask for ? In the midst of the revelry the door opens wide with a crash, everyone is respectfully silent, and the clatter of knives, forks, and plates ceases as the Colonel, accompanied by the Adjutant, the Sergeant-Major, and officers of the company, enters, while the Orderly-Sergeant, in stentorian tones, bawls : ' Any complaints ? ' There are no complaints to-day, and the officers are each presented with a glass of wine, M'hich they are expected to taste, and the Colonel is offered a fork and a small piece of pudding on a plate, which he is expected to taste, too. Poor Colonel, how many puddings he has tasted he scarcely dares recollect, but ho does his duty manfully, and exits with his staff amidst ringing cheers and a three - times - three, and, if popular, he is treated to a toast from the company and musical honours — ' For he ib a jolly good fellow, And so say all of us.' Dinner over, the 'business' begins. The tables are removed, the forms, covered with army blankets, are placed along the walls, where already long rows of divans are contrived by ranging the soldiers' beds end to end. Dessert of nuts, apples, and oranges is handed round, another barrel of beer is tapped, and conviviality make a fair start by calling upon Private Larkins to oblige the company with a comic eong, which he does, to the immense delight oi everybody. Private Miller and Lance-Corporal Jones give a comic boxing exhibition, whichkeeps everyone in roars of laughter. Then some of the band come in, i instruments are tuned, and half-a- > dozen couples are soon pegging away i with prodigious noise and laughter

to the tuue of ' Lanuigan's Ball ' So it goes on, song succeeds sonj.', and dance follows dance, till the wee sma' hours of morning, aud Christmas ends, as it should do, with peaco and goodwill towards all.