SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11049, 29 August 1896, Page 2

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

, It is a remarkable thing that life in the two services will, after a certain time, change exactly similar characters. The surroundings are so completely different that they mould the temperament and alter the habits of men who are very much, alike in individuality' when entering the respective services. Tommy Atkins and Jack Tar have', their peculiarities, but there is one thing that belongs to both, namely, a happy indifference to the future and a quick seizure of every opportunity to get away from thq fearful monotony of a daily round of peace duties, but

When the guns begin to play, as Rudyard Kipling says, both respond to the call of duty, without a flinch. The boatswain pipes his whistle and the drum--xner beats to quarters, or the' bugler sounds the advance, and at it these veritable tigers for fighting go, whether dressed in blue or red. But in peace, how different: is the jovial, gay, light-hearted tar to the stiff bearing of the redcoats. No one ever; saw two soldiers riding on one horse; but this is one of Jack’s highest ideas of fun. Nelson, Drake and Rodney obtained for England the supremacy of the sea, without torpedo boats or ironclads. Wellington gained immortal victories without Maxim guns and quick-firing breechloaders that. Could kill at 1000 yards. So it is with 1 other things. The old clay pipe and the cheroot are discarded as obsolete, and now Old Judge Cigarettes are, figuratively a* well as literally, in everybody’s mouth.