ROUND THE CAMP FIRE WiTH TOMMY ATKINS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10568, 14 February 1902, Page 1

ROUND THE CAMP FIRE WiTH TOMMY ATKINS.

" The) Latent TalagNun."

"See the latest, Jack? Twelve o'clock chat inst come in." ■'No, whafs in't, Bill; 'notherbloomin' cjittin' up 'spect?" "Well, it ain't; it's only a yarn; nother hambush. Them there Boers aint bloomin' dummies, I know; tricky as a box of monkeys. Still, it's only common bloomin' sense they're usin , when yer looks at it, ain't it?" "Too much bloomin' red tape in this harray; it should be like beatin' eggs wiv a stick, beatin' tha Boers, if they'd lot Tommy have a rub at 'em 'imself, but they won't. Look 'ere, we've got bloomin' generals as couldn't drill a hole in a bully beef tin. I'm a better general than Boiler myself, sent 'im out of the army, but they'll watch sendin' me out." "Yes, you're better than Bailer; yer can prove it." "But it's a bloomin' shame about Boiler, all the same." "Yes, 'c's too bloomin' good to be true.* '"What are yer tryin' to give us?" "Fightin' Mac was too bloomin' good, too ; they sent 'm 'one in case he'd get shot. They don't know a good man when they get nn," '"Some say Mac was the best general; others says Buller, others White ; _ but I say Tommy Atkins is the best general of the bloomin' show, I do." "Well, 'c ain't; very few generals 'stuck if for two years, like a lot of Tommies I know." "Yes, and sticldn' it yet, but 'fed up.'" "Who wss't that the telegram says was cut up?" "Who wast? Who do you expect, but them there bloomin' Imperial Yeomanrys do nothin', and puttin' good soldiers in the rate, 5s a box, too. "They must train 'em to put up their 'ands and then send 'em to the front; bloomin' well trained, too, I say."