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quence by the violent collision with carbine buckets 

 on the one side and sword scabbards on the other. 

 Whether the recent abandonment of swords is an 

 advantage, or otherwise, remains to be seen ; their 

 utility was never really put to the test in the Trans- 

 vaal War owing to the wary Boers invariably keeping 

 at a respectful distance from them. 



INCIDENT OF CRUSHING. 



In a smart regiment of auxiliary cavalry, in which 

 the writer drilled for a number of years, a trooper, who 

 was more to be congratulated on his individual swell- 

 ish appearance than on the excellence of his horse- 

 manship, had suffered in a similar manner on several 

 occasions, and to avoid it he coolly withdrew to the 

 rear at each successive wheel. This was extremely 

 awkward for the other troopers, who had always to 

 move off to right and left to make room for him 

 coming up again, and to prevent him carrying this 

 out any longer they arranged amongst themselves 

 to close in upon him from either side at the first 

 wheel on a given day. The day came, and so did 

 the wheel. The trooper endeavoured to get back 

 by his usual tactics and partially succeeded, but not 

 before he was cleverly cauqht on cither side by halt- 

 a-dozen mischievous troopers. When the troopers 

 moved off hina again, he was left in a ludicrcus 

 plight, his pants being literally torn to pieces by 

 the impact. 



