The boys are scattered all over the world, one to each degree of land east and west, as their fathers were before them, doing much the same kind of work; and it is curious to notice how little the character of the man differs from that of the boy of sixteen or seventeen.
This is from “An English School” – collected (with some revision by Kipling) in Land and Sea Tales (1923); also in the Sussex Edition, Volume XVI, pp. 197-215.
To quote from John McGivering’s Notes on the text: The chief interest in this article lies in the fact that it was written and first published before any story in Stalky & Co., was — so far as is known — either written or thought of. Consequently, it gives a picture of the “Coll” at Westward Ho ! which is perhaps more likely to be accurate than the account in Something of Myself — or in any other subsequent reminiscences, such as those by Dunsterville and Beresford.
John Radcliffe’s Three Quotations
This week – Barracks
quote 1
The tension snapped. Simmons fell back on the arm-rack deliberately – the men were at the far end of the room – and took out his rifle and pack of ammunition. ‘Don’t go playing the goat, Sim!’ said Losson. ‘Put it down’; but there was a quaver in his voice. Another man stooped, slipped his boot, and hurled it at Simmons’s head. The prompt answer was a shot which, fired at random, found its billet in Losson.
quote 2
The fallin’-block had sprung free behind a full charge av powder – good care I tuk to bite down the brass afther takin’ out the bullet, that there might be somethin’ to give ut full worth – an’ had cut Tim from the lip to the corner av the right eye, lavin’ the eyelid in tatters, an’ so up along by the forehead to the hair… The dhrink and the stew that he was in pumped the blood strong…
quote 3
“Knee to knee!” sings out Crook, wid a laugh whin the rush av our comin’ into the gut shtopped, an’ he was huggin’ a hairy great Paythan, neither bein’ able to do anything to the other, tho’ both was wishful.
“Breast to breast!” he sez, as the Tyrone was pushin’ us forward closer an’ closer.
“An’ hand over back!” sez a Sargint that was behin’. I saw a sword lick out past Crook’s ear, an’ the Paythan was tuk in the apple of his throat like a pig at Dromeen Fair.
“Thank ye, Brother Inner Guard,” sez Crook.
scroll down for each source
1
This is from “In The Matter of a Private” in ‘Soldiers Three’.
A much harried private, bullied by his fellow-soldiers, and driven to desperation by the heat, gives way to hysteria. He runs amuck with a rifle, shoots one of his fellows and wounds another, before being captured, tried, and hanged.
2
This is from ‘Black Jack’ in ‘Soldiers Three’.
Mulvaney tells the tale of a plot among his fellow soldiers, to shoot their sergeant and put the blame on him. But he had discovered the plot, and tampered with the bullet in his rifle so that it blew back on the would-be killer.
3
This is from “With the Main Guard” in ‘Soldiers Three’
Mulvaney tells a tale of a fight on the Frontier, long ago, to carry his comrades through a stifling June night in Fort Amara.