ittle about generals.

Perhaps men never did idolise generals, and historians, like
newspaper correspondents, are simply inventing pretty myths when they
tell us about the hero worship paid to Napoleon, Wellington, and the
rest.

Perhaps the fact is that the conditions of modern warfare tend to
obscure the glory of a general. He can no longer prance about on a
horse in front of lines of gaping men, proudly contemptuous of the
cannon balls which come bounding across the field of battle from the
enemy's artillery. His men are inclined to forget his existence,
usually do remain ignorant of his name because they do not see him.
One is tempted to wonder whether the formal--and very
wearisome--inspections which are held from time to time behind the
lines, generally on cold and rainy days, are not really pathetic
efforts of kings and generals to assert themselves, to get somehow
into the line of vision of the fighting men.

Perhaps it may be that generals, through no fault of their own, have
lost that "plaguy trick of winning victories" which bound the heart
of Dugald Dalgetty to Gustavus Adolphus. Victories, so far as we can
see, are things which do not occur in modern warfare, or, at all
events, do not occur on the western front. If any one did win a
victory of the old-fashioned kind it is quite possible that he might
become the hero of the soldier.

It would be very interesting to know what the feelings of soldiers of
other armies are towards their generals. The German people seem to
idolise von Hindenburg. Have the German soldiers any kind of
confidence in his star? Von Mackensen has some brilliant exploits to
his credit. Does Fritz, drafted into a regiment commanded by him,
march forward serenely confident of victory?

Our men do no such thing. They have unshaken confidence in
themselves. They are sure that their company commanders will not fail
them or their colonels let them down. But they have no kind of
feeling, good or bad, about their generals.

CHAPTER XVIII

PADRES

The name "padre" as used in the army describes every kind of
commissioned chaplain, Church of England, Roman Catholic,
Presbyterian, or Nonconformist. The men lump them all together. I
have heard a distinction made between "pukka" padres and those who
have not enjoyed the advantages of episcopal ordination. But such
denominational feeling is extremely rare. As a rule a padre is a
padre, an officially recognised representative of rel