A HOBBY-HORSE FOR SOLDIERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12536, 25 June 1901, Page 9

A HOBBY-HORSE FOR SOLDIERS.

fu the French Army a new form of “ Turk’s Head ” has just been introduced on wmch soldiers may practice swordplay. By turning a wheel, uie Turk’s head is made to revolve around a dummy horse as a centre. The rider on the dummy horse requires a good eye if he is to deal a, blow at the dummy head as it passes within reach. A full, illustrated account of this quaint soldiers’’ hobby-horse appears in the April,/number of “Pearson’s Magazine,” “ The old system consisted in making each soldier in turn mount a roughly-con-structed wooden horse, and make, a series of passes and-cuts, with lance or sabre, at a sorb of Turk’s head, mounted (in a wooden stand, and plao'ed at a certain invariable distance from hinp He could'hardly miss it if he tried, and as it is only mad-' men who can derive any sort of pleasure from thrashing an unresponsive dummy, it is nob surprising to hear that the exercise passed for being one of the most monotonous afd disagreeable in the whole course of instruction By no possible effort of a cavalry soldier’s imagination could • the Turk’s head be looked upon a» anything but a Turk’s head. Thanks to M. Ivlonlun, adjutant and drill instructor ,of the 3rd Dragoons of the French array, ah this has been changed, and the recruits now like nothing 'better. “The horse itself, if a little neater in appearance, is still only made;of wood, ns before, but the Turk’s head, representing the enemy, has been miraculously endowed with life, and rendered as mobile as quicksilver, or as a Beer commando. The soldier can never tell on which, side of him it is going to make its appearance next, or whether it will sweep round him in front or at his back. He cannot transfix it as formerly with mathematical precision, when and where ha will, but must keep all his faculties on the alert to touch it at all. “ Every time he makes a hit lie can flatter himself upon his skill in laying low a most dangerous opponent. If, on.the other hand, he misses, ha can tell himself in quite a platonic fashion that he is a dead man, but that he will sell, his' life dearly on the nest occasion! He can, in fact, become an expert swordsman, and exercise all his bellicose instincts without danger either for himself or others. ' “The new dummy, apart from its other advantages, can serve to keep half a score of differently armed men exercising at one' and the same time, as it executes evolutions that only a phantom horseman could accomplish,’ 1