i's works
that is rather astonishing. Their hard and strenuous drill does not
deprive them of a curiosity to know something about _Barabbas_ and _The
Sorrows of Satan_. Sir Conan Doyle and Dr. Neil Munro are also great
favourites, and deserve to be.

A large number of the Inverness recruits come from the Long Island. They
almost invariably require to be taken to the hospital a week or two
after their arrival. Change of diet and new modes of life seem to upset
them at first. For those who have a mind to improve themselves, there
are abundant opportunities. The reading and recreation rooms are well
appointed and comfortable. Altogether, the regular life, physical drill,
and healthy tone of the barracks must have a most beneficial effect on
the men.

I am bound to say that I do not greatly admire the English style of the
gentleman who composes the War Office placards that one sees at railway
stations in the north. These are meant to allure country labourers to
join the army, but the following piece of fatuous rhetoric must surely
act rather as a deterrent than otherwise:--"Are you, the descendants of
those who conquered India and carried the colours of the Gordon
Highlanders through the Peninsula and at Waterloo, _content to sit at
home, or be satisfied with dull labours in the fields or at the mills_,
whilst the ranks of your own regiment are filled by strangers from the
South?" I heard two freckled rustics, with difficulty and labour hard,
spelling out the phrases of the foregoing sentence at the little station
of Fyvie. They did not seem at all impressed by the fervent
interrogation nor by this picture of prospective delights: "_Many of
your countrymen have seen the wonders of the Indian Empire and enjoyed
the soft calm of Malta, and of Ceylon, the Paradise of the Ancients._"
It does not evince much knowledge of a ploughman's mind to seek to
awaken his martial ardour by old myths about the Garden of Eden; nor is
it specially alluring to him to mention, as the acme of glory, that he
may distinguish himself so much as to gain "_thanks from both Houses of
Parliament_." Such weak and watery declamation won't do for a country
that has had thirty-eight years of compulsory education. If our War
Office wishes to rouse patriotic feeling, it should cease to contrast
"the dull labour of the fields" with "the soft calm of Malta": the
veriest clown would not be caught by such chaff. It would be more to the
point to send gratuitous