ng maniacs who would
scream that their religion had been insulted by the accursed infidels.
_Religion_ they knew nothing about, but to make trouble was their meat
and drink. There was a good deal of Irish blood among us, and many men
who would rather fight than go to the opera, so there were some good
old ding-dong scraps. Of course the "Gyppo" is no fighter, but he can
stand behind and throw stones and can't resist plunging the knife into
an inviting back, so sometimes our boys would get laid out. A street
row is always a dangerous thing, for those in front cry "Back!" and
those behind cry "Forward!" and there is likely to be a jam in which
the innocent, if there are any, get hurt. I saw a pretty ugly-looking
crowd dispersed with a characteristic Australian weapon. Firing over
their heads had no effect, nor threats of a bayonet charge, but when
two Australian bushmen began plying stockwhips, those niggers made
themselves scarcer than mice on the smell of a cat. As a good
manipulator of the stockwhip can pull the cork from a bottle, maybe
these plotters were afraid of having their guilty secrets picked from
them. At any rate, there were some who lost flesh in a part that would
insure them having a smaller following thereafter.

There was a battle fought in Cairo for which there will be no medals
distributed and to which stay-at-home Australians think there is no
honor attached, but I doubt if any one who took part in the battle of
the Wasir, except maybe the military police, are ashamed of what they
did. Any one who knows Cairo knows that there is a part of it that is
not mentionable at dinner-table. It is the sink of the world. Every
large city has its sore, but Cairo has an ulcer. This vile spot made
the clean lads from the wind-swept plains and scented bush of Australia
absolutely sick. The Australian is a practical idealist, and for him
to see dirt is to want to remove it. Besides which, this place was a
nest of spies and enemies. There were several of our boys who
disappeared, and, though it may be said they had no right there, the
sign "No Admittance" is one that the average Australian has never been
able to read. It was one of those scraps that no one starts but that
breaks out of itself, because it has been brewing so long. There were
a few thousand of the boys in Cairo that night, and when the news
spread it did not take long for more to come in from Mena and other
camps. They did not wait for