iving George Lynch
a cigar to allow me to sit down (on that march there was a mess
contractor who supplied us even with cigars, and occasionally with food),
and after that, whenever a man wanted to smoke, he would commandeer my
chair, and unless bribed refuse to budge. This seems to argue the
popularity of the contractor's cigars rather than that of the chair, but,
nevertheless, I submit that on a campaign the article second in
importance for rest, comfort, and content is a chair. The best I know is
one invented by Major Elliott of the British army. I have an Elliott
chair that I have used four years, not only when camping out, but in my
writing-room at home. It is an arm-chair, and is as comfortable as any
made. The objections to it are its weight, that it packs bulkily, and
takes down into too many pieces. Even with these disadvantages it is the
best chair. It can be purchased at the Army and Navy and Anglo-Indian
stores in London. A chair of lighter weight and one-fourth the bulk is
the Willisden chair, of green canvas and thin iron supports. It breaks
in only two pieces, and is very comfortable.

Sir Harry Johnson, in his advice to explorers, makes a great point of
their packing a chair. But he recommends one known as the "Wellington,"
which is a cane-bottomed affair, heavy and cumbersome. Dr. Harford, the
instructor in outfit for the Royal Geographical Society, recommends a
steamer-chair, because it can be used on shipboard and "can be easily
carried afterward." If there be anything less easy to carry than a
deck-chair I have not met it. One might as soon think of packing a
folding step-ladder. But if he has the transport, the man who packs any
reasonably light folding chair will not regret it.

As a rule, a cooking kit is built like every other cooking kit in that
the utensils for cooking are carried in the same pot that is used for
boiling the water, and the top of the pot turns itself into a frying-pan.
For eight years I always have used the same kind of cooking kit, so I
cannot speak of others with knowledge; but I have always looked with
envious eyes at the Preston cooking kit and water-bottle. Why it has not
already been adopted by every army I do not understand, for in no army
have I seen a kit as compact or as light, or one that combines as many
useful articles and takes up as little room. It is the invention of
Captain Guy H. Preston, Thirteenth Cavalry, and can be purchased at any
militar