BACK PROM THE FRONT.

Northern Advocate, 12 May 1915, Page 6

BACK PROM THE FRONT.

SOLDIERS OBTAIN MANY COMFORTS. "War," said the British warrior, as he got out of the train at a French seaport on his way to a few days' leave in Euslaiul, "is not such a very bad job these times. Nice spells oil", comfjruibie billets, warm baths between the turnn in the trench-:"*, grub good—why, it was eats' meal and crusts at the manoeuvres in comparison! And every now and then it's ■Sergeair.;, take a week-end off at home.'. Xow, in South Africa " Ho broke into bitter memories of foot-slogging world without end. He was clean and well brushed ami ! smart, and when he pushe ' back his 1 cau the iil'jss of his curl reminded oho : somehow of tinned butter. Yet only J a few hours before he was a thing of 'J mud and little beauty, standing in a wot. trench within a cigarette's throw j of the Germans. ! lie h-is no use for the advertisement of heroism which a muddy kit would bring. When a British regiment comes back from the trenches Tor a few days' rest, you can hanlly hear the distant cannonade for brushes. WARRIORS OF THREE NxYTIOXS. Up and down the roads behind me battle front and in towns awaken?d from the long, long dreams of history by old memories of guns r.i._

marching men you meet the happy warriors to study them. Crouching Li a trench, with a rifle and a mud heap between himself and sudden death. a man is apt to conform to a pattern, for men figivfc and. die by certaia rules. But turn him loose, if only for a few hours' lelisure, and his personality rises triumphant above the common ties. The soldiers of the \ll'.os could be sorted out by nationalities, as you meet, them In the base towns, even if they'all wore the same? uniforms. The British soldier striding through the railway stations always attracts attention. -Hs i.s so clean, and confident, his khaki uniform, with little to distinguish horse or foot or guns, is so trim and workmanlike, and the French people, used to blue and scarlet and wide variety of cut and sty]*, always turn to watch him pass. He has a hearty "Cheero!" for any French or Belgian soldiers he moots on the platform, and he seems thoroughly at home, as befits an arrr>y that has fought in more climes taan any other. This fighting business, the jaunty set of the head seems to say, is a rare old game when you have already tried it in Afghanistan and South Africa and the Soudan.

Hs is a great, sightseer, Is the British soldier. Trains "have a knack of sotting him down at seaports between midnight ami dawn, with hours of wait for the boat to England. ITo docs not care. If you like to run th;- risk of being arrested as a isiioct tor wandering out of doors after ton at night you may meet him strolling about, the silent streets and peeping into shop windows at post-cards that he cannot buy. And if you have a few cigarettes with you, you are sworn to the brotherhood at once. FRENCH LIKE PASTRY. His constant desire is a cigarette, .but. to win the heart of his chum, the "French piou-piou, you should fill your pockets with pastry. And since the French soldier is such a splendid fellow and so well worth knowing, it is a sad thing that one forgets :o carry jam tarts as regularly as cigarettes. It is a strange pastry cook's in any of these towns of Northern France if you cannot see little groups of French soldiers standing at the counter munching cream buns or fruit tarts.

There must be something about the monotony of even the best food- in campaign days that drives the sweet-

toothed soldier to the pastry counter, and many a battle has been fought out with sponge cakes for Germans and chocolate eclairs for the Allies on a marble topped table.

You meet the Belgian soldier, too, and sometimes he is at the ■ pastry counter. But the Belgian soldier, as I shall remember him, is a sad figure, who feels his exile whenever he is not right in the fighting line.

Often he walks slowly along reading a letter that bears an English postmark, and if he hears your English voice he wM ask what you knew of the town or village across the Channel where his wife and children are being cared for.