my he encounters. As Bishop Blougram says:--

Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things,
The honest thief, the tender murderer,
The superstitious atheist, demireps
That love and save their souls in new French books--
We watch while these in equilibrium keep
The giddy line midway: one step aside,
They're classed and done with.

This is all very well in fiction, but I protest it is a little hard on
the soldier, and it is certainly a dangerous belief for the future
officer to grow up in.

The following letter, which appeared recently in the _Daily Graphic_,
is well and truly written: "Having served as chaplain of one of the
largest recruiting depots in England, may I thank you for your article
on the Heroic Blackguard style of literature in vogue just now.
Soldiers have often remarked to me that they were represented as
'drunken roughs who couldn't speak the Queen's English.' As a matter
of fact, a steadier, better behaved, better mannered class it would be
difficult to find. There are exceptions, but not popular exceptions.
Blackguardism and heroism very seldom go together, Bret Harte and
other writers notwithstanding. The pluckiest and most reliable
soldiers are not animated beer barrels, but sober, keen-eyed, sensible
fellows, and of such the British Army chiefly consists."

When you are most inclined to think the Private an irresponsible
good-for-nothing, look hard at the next Commissionaire you meet on the
street. That smart, clean, well-brushed man, with his bronzed face,
his bright keen eyes, and general look of self-respect, was once a
soldier, and indeed it is soldiering that has made him what you see.
Look hard, honoured sir, at the next Commissionaire who comes across
your path, and you will never again be disposed to regard the soldier
as an insensate good-for-nothing.

"Tommy Atkins," says Baden-Powell, "is not the childish boy that the
British Public are too apt to think him, to be ignored in peace and
petted in war. He is, on the contrary, a man who reads and thinks for
himself, and he is keen on any instruction in really practical
soldiering, especially if it promises a spice of the dash and
adventure which is so dear to a Briton." It was just because
Baden-Powell acted on this assumption in the 13th Hussars that the men
learned to "worship" him. The few regular bad-lots that are to be
found, I suppose, in every regiment, are certainly no heroes among the
rest of the