BARRACK COMEDY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8798, 27 April 1907, Page 1

BARRACK COMEDY.

“Tlia name of M. Cheron, Under Secretary for War, is a byword in tee French Army, on account of his surprise visits at night to different barracks to see if tee soldiers are properly cared for. An ingenious thief has taken advantage of the fact for his own base purposes. Two regiments at Chateau d’Eau were wrapt in peaceful slumber a few nights ago when, just after midnight, a silent figure entered the dormitories and leant over a snoring soldier. The soldier woke, hut he stranger soothed him, saying, “Do they look after you properly? Is your bed comfortable and warm? Yeryjwell! Don’t lot me disturb you. Go to sleep again.’’ The soldier watched the stranger examine his garments at the foot of the bed, and murmuring, It must bo Cheron, ” went to sleep again. The performance was repeated whenever a soldier awoke, and the news quickly spread from one bed to the next that M. Cheron was paying a visit to the barracks. Soon a whole great room was awake, and the man, sitting up in bed, chuckled at the thoroughness of the stranger’s inspection. Then someone struck a match", and the stranger’s face was revealed. 1 “It’s not Cheron at all,” a man shouted, and as he did so the stranger fled quickly from the room. The alarmist was derided, his comrades saying that none hut M. Cheron could possibly have made an entrance.

But wiien they dressed in the morning, every man found that his pockets had been emptied.