THE DASHING MILITAIRE. His Fal-de-Lals Vetoed.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 79, 4 January 1902, Page 8

THE DASHING MILITAIRE. His Fal-de-Lals Vetoed.

THE mihtai\ popinjays thioughont the Empire must be simply lopeable this week Just fancy it, Lord Roberts, the Com-mandei-in-Chief, has actually had tlic effrontery to issue an oidei abolishing gold-laced trouseis, gold sashes, and belts in the Army True, the cable message states it was "at the King s command, but eveiyone knows the suggestion must have emanated from little Bobs himself It is the beginning of the end. and, foi the curled darlings of society — the military swashbucklers, who love to stiut and swagger at holiday pageants, and capture the feminine heart with the blaze of scarlet and gold — the Army, as a profession, will lose most of its charms * * * And, doubtless, when this refonnmg spuit percolates thiough the mass as fai as the colonial vohuiteei forces, a lot of the dandies who make such a biave show in plumes and gold bullion on parade days, and at sham-fights will find their martial aadoui cooling off at an alaimmg rate It will also be distressing news for Mary Ann with the peranibulatoi, who, from time immemorial has simply doted on these military displays, and woishipped the Aimy when it had all its millinery and glittering gee-gaws on. But, on the other hand, the issue of the oidei is a pregnant indication of the leaven of common-sense w Inch Lord Roberts has been introducing into that stale old institution, the War Office •<■*■*■ The Boei wai has been a valuable object-lesson to Great Britain in many respects It has turned all sorts of hoary old traditions topsyturvy, and exposed their hollowness And the leform m uniform which these latest orders inculcate is not the least significant of its lesults The costliness of the gilded tiappmgs and pretty kickshaws of one sort 01 anothei which have been the fashion in the volunteer seivice — a-s in the Army which it has always imitated — has kept in the ranks or out of the seivice altogether many men who would have made most excellent officeis They could not nin the expense and theiefoie piefeired to keep out of the show * • « By cheapening the uuifomi theie will be less opportunity for playing at soldieis. and less inducement foi the merely fine-weather warrioi and the spectaculai 'Johnny to clothe himself in war paint and feathers to make a colonial holiday We want more of the spirit of Spartan simplicity in oiu own military methods and equipment Wai is a serious business and not a theatrical exhibition Hitherto too much attention lias been paid to the bedizenment of the warrioi. and his ability lo form squares, piesent aims and maich and wheel in strict accordance with the drill-book, and too little regard has been given to his training as a pioficient and self-reliant combat-

<uit Henceforth, let us have men who don t suffer from 'scarlet' fever, but can shoot straight ; officers who ah? not mere tailors' models and mihtai) coxcombs, but sensible levelheaded and well-instructed citizens