SOME OF RIMINGTON'S SCOUTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7126, 15 June 1901, Page 2

SOME OF RIMINGTON'S SCOUTS.

A Daw-Devil Lot.

Tlxere was a man in my troop of Rhmngton'a Sooute, <* ooonmon trooper, ■who was the grandson of a former governot of the colony and descended ftoma duke— a huge Idradly giaat* wxtb ion breeding- stamped <a» has faoet and his «c---tions; ,*here was' * demon-faoed bJadk- j guard well-knowm. in Johannesburg as a card and bsbUiard sharper; there was a corporal who acted as coirespondettt for the **D«ay Graphic," and whose articles wens as good bits of description of real figiuttog as anything that left South AMoa by post; there was a sergeamt ■with abdut fourteen Mtials im frozub of ah assomed name, who admitted that he was better than he appeared to be, and mo betber th«n he Should be, for which latter reason, be found it convenient occasionally to vary his signatare— «m Oliver skinned, black-4nousiachea daxe-devfl, with the rounid head and the ipierdpg eye of the j true Celt. This man, who became at one time ser-. rut of my troop, told one that he spent life • • HTJBRTING FROM ONE FIGHT TO \ ANOTHEB, and when tihere was no fighting tibe name going on im a. pacific world, he was in the bswit of taking a little house in Wales, wheredn 6he reading of Welsh history and the drinWng of spatSding Burgondy. conetaifcoted his favourite - pastimes. I frequeratiy had discussions with him on some abstruse historical point, amd I became more and more astonished at the appalling profundity of the. man's erudifoon. ■

One day I remarked l that Wales had not yet fotmdi her historian, and my sergeant replied: "No; and there are only ttoe men alive capable of writing it." "I think I know two of them," I answered. "One is my old tutor, 0. M.* Edwards, of Lincoln, College, Oxford^ and another is Professor Rhys." "You are perfectly right," replied my Sergeant; "and! the third is myself." This wonderful man was, after my dear friend Hubert Howard, the bravest nan I ever cam* across. He volunteered on every occasion for the most risky -work, and he took a real pleasure in COTHtTINO DANGER. There was a belief in the regiment that for some treason on other he was unhappy, and that he had, come out to Africa to try to put an end to himself. But for this theory to be good he must have developed unhapprn«s at « very «arlyage; for on lbi« ow© confession he had fought in nearly every campaign, of the last twenty years.. His method of getting out to Africa was characteristic. He arrived in England f«rom the ends of the earth, and determined to go out to the war bj the firet ship. He rushed off to Southampton, and found that the vessel on the point of sailing was cramfull. He could not get a passage for love or money, so h« .determined to employ other means. ■ •

On the quay he came upon a second-class passenger a goos deal the worse for liquor. He bumped against Mm, apologised, -and began a conversation on the strength of- the introduction. The second-class passenger needed but little pressing when

AN ADJOtTRNMENT TO A BAB WAS SUGGESTED.

There my friend the sergeant made him speechlessly drank, noted the time, took !his ticket out of his pocket, and left fop the , boat at the last minute.

Not requiring two lots of luggage, he gave the second-class passenger's effects to the steward^ and was consequently very well waited on all the way. to Capetown. Then there was V., belonging to. one of the oMwst families in England, who, I suppose, had quarrelled with his bread and butter some time or another — a refined gentleman- of the best sort, yet a common trapper in ours, having to consort on a footing of equality with the Johannesburg swindler, and others of his kidney; and M., vrho, I believe, was at Eton with, me, and 'who has siacn spent some years In a lunatic asylum, till released 1 by has relatives to proceed as a trooper to South Africa, whence ho will return much: saner than he arrived there, after providing his comrades infinite diversion.

Poor M. ! on one occasion- it is reported that, after an engagement, he

BODS INTO THE BOER LINES.

undter the impression that he was going home, spent the night -there, and left thie siexb morning for his own- camp, attended by an escort of Boers rejoicing at their speedy deliverance fromf an unearthly creature. . . .

Them there -was Ooirporal F., th© Quartermaster's clerk, schoolmaster by profession, and a model of business-like precision, ■who one day astonished! the -world by taking on the bully of the corps i and knocked ft*™ out in two minutes.

" Yes, sir," the corporal was never tired of complacently remarking to am interested listener ; " I could "wear my cap and gavm if I liked."

HE HAD MATRICTTLATBD FOB . CAMBRIDGE. Though hie never quitted his office-stood (or tinned-meat box on end) on ordinary occasions, Corporal F. w«s very much, -to the fore whxm the band began* to play; but my solicitations never prevailed upon him to parade for action clad in ibis mo;r-

tar-board and undergraduate toga,— "A Subaltern's Letters to bis Wife."