INSIDE A FRENCH BARRACK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 77, 17 October 1874, Page 11

INSIDE A FRENCH BARRACK.

Latbiy a number of Knglish rifle volunteers visited France, to take part in the prize shooting at the Tir in Havre. On one day they visited the splendid military barracks on the Boulevard dv Strasbourg. The correspondent of the 'London Telegraph' describes the visit: — "No attempt was made at display, the gallant officer properly believing that his guests would be better pleased to go over the building and witness the cvery-day routine of life of the French soldier, than to assist at a mere spectacle, agreeable enough to see, but liable to convey false impressions They were taken, therefore, over a few of the dormitories, which, probably from the building being new, seemed to allow a greater cubic space per man than i 9 (nought sufficient for the British soldier. With neatly white-washed walls, and parquet cleanly swept and polished, each man's kit was arranged with scrupulous exactness, on a shelf above his little iron bedstead. The men being at drill, gymnastics, or fatigue duty, the rooms were empty, just as they had been lefo after being arranged for the day ; but in one a party of recruits, clad in old Mobile uniforms, were stan ing at attention round a table, where a smart non-commiasined officer was teaching them how to fold and arrange each garment and article for placing on the aUelf or within the knapsack. A move was then made for the Salle d'Escrime, where an accomplished tnaitre d'armes had a squad of young soldiers under instruction. Sabres, foils, glove.->, masks, sticks, cannes, and the other appliances of the iencing school were tastefully arranged on the walls, the principal trcphy being surmounted by a brief sentence appealing to the honor and patriotism of the defenders of France. For a few moments the ordinary routine of the school wae interrupted, and the visitors were treated to about between an agile and promising young soldier and the maitre d'armes, in which honors were — perhaps with a little judicious abnegation on the part of the instructor — nearly divided, and the pupil rendered a proud man by a few approving words from the lips of his colonel, and by the applause of the foreign visitors. Next came a match between two young soldiers, whodispluyed that quickness of movement and suppleness of joint so characteristic to the Frenchman. A match, combining boxing, and what in French is called the savate, or art of kicking, was of interest, as showing one of the means by which this wonderful suppleness is acquired ; and a sort of military quadrille, in which four men executed to the notes of a violin a series of dancing extension motions, arms and legs alike coir ing into play, completed a mode of procedure for developing agility far in advance of anything in use in our own ■arm}'. A visit was next paid to the gymnasium, where, more than a hundred men were undergoing their regular course of instruction under nn officer who has graduated at the Normal School. The use of the vaulting horse aud horizontal bar, pole-leaping, flat -jumping, Jumping from height* into loose,. Band, mounting ropes hand over

hand, and then executing the difficult feat of climbing over the edge of the broad beam from which they were suspended, wore al] executed with marvellous facility, under the quick eye of the superintending officer, though most of the men were very young soldiers, andßome mere recruits. Where a little awkwardness was exhibited, a more skilful or powerful comrade would extend the slight aid that was needed, so that in no instance did a man fail. A few boys — en/ants dit regiment — were directed to strip, and climb hand over hand up the ropes and upon the cross-beam, and this severe test of physical power was accomplished almost as well and quickly us by the soldiers. The most marvellous thing, however, was the performance of the same feat by a number of men with knapsacks and pouches on, and chassepots slung over the shoulders. They also Jumped from a height of 17fb. or 18ft, most coining down with as much ease and safety as so miny cats would have done. A series of swarming movements followed, in which, the men in a state or organised disorder, made at the sound of a bugle such rushes as in modern battle are necessary to carry an emony's position. This ended in an escalade, a wall of 18 ft. or 20ft. being topped in a few seconds with no other aid than the men provided themselves by forming living tripods, up which the lightest and most active scrambled as up a ladder, utilising the slightest foothold in the brickwork to reach the top, when, with their assistance, their comrades were hauled up with ease. It is needless to say that the whole exhibition was most interesting in itself, and demonstrative also of a fact that is pretty generally known, namely, that the days of lax training in the French army are over. For officers and men work is incessant, and the discipline severe."