THE SINGING ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SINGING ARMY.

CHEERFUL " TOMMIES" IN FRANCE. Major tho Rev. Dr. Bruce Taylor, who has just returned to England from the front in France, where he has been acting as chaplain to a battalion of Canadian Highlanders, delivered a stirring and cheerful message to another battalion of Canadian Highlanders. "There is not a single pessimist in the fighting lines," declared the major. " Every man there is convinced of victory, and that there can be only one end to this battle of right against might. ■My message to you so'.diers who are going to take your places with these- brave men is 'Be merry, and keep up a good heart.'" As an instance of the indomitab'.e cheerfulness of the boys at the front. Major Bruce Taylor related how -one morning he saw a very young soldier staggering forward with a huge basket on his shoulder. Seeing it was very heavy the chaplain went out to help the lad, when the latter put it down and did a step-dance round it. He then murmured, " 'Art time, chayaiigc arras," with which he hoisted the basket on the other shoulder and marched off whistling, i On another occasion an officer lost his horse, and secured a very antiquated specimen barely able to move. A private, seeing his plight, marched up, saluted, and said, "Beg pardon, sir, do you want a tow?" "These are.just samples of the way in which our men keep up a merry heart at the front. Every danger and difficulty is faced with the same cheerfulness." Speaking of the songs the soldiers sing, Major Bruce Taylor said, "Wo practically never hear 'Tipperary' at the front. The songs 1 the men sang were all sorts of rhymes generally set to some well-known i hymn tune with a good chorus. Many ' a time I have lain in ray tent in the very early morning and heard a battalion of between 500 and 600 men marching back from digging trenches all night singing ' For it's nice to got up in the morning. There was another song tho boys were particularly fond of on the march. They sang 'A to a Moody and Sankey tune, and it ran— Waeli me in the water that they washed tho . the baby in, And I'll be whiter than the whitewash on the wall. These were worfced <tf with all sorts of taxations and it -wife' amazing the fun the men hid over each new effort."