MAKING OR BREAKING. 
183 
would not be attained. The Gunnery Instructor lias a character to keep 
up, a reputation to sustain, and he is too young to dare to be deliberately 
simple and terse in his language. Little actual harm is done by his 
using the expressions “ vis inertia ” and “ momentum,” when, in nine 
cases out of ten, the word “ weight ” would have answered all pur¬ 
poses ; but much good results when the older officer restricts his 
vocabulary to words of two, or at most three syllables, and apparently 
does not lose caste thereby. 
It must be remembered that Garrison Artillery only is being treated 
of. The instruction of Field Batteries is on an absolutely different 
footing and for them no better system could, I think, be employed 
than that indicated by Major A. M. Murray, R.A., in the R.A.I. 
“Proceedings” of August, 1892, the Duncan Gold Medal Prize Essay 
for that year. 
Thus far we have considered the training of the young Garrison 
gunner only in the matter of work—his play is almost of equal impor¬ 
tance. The sober joys and methodical indiscretions of the nascent 
inventor need not concern us. It is with the “ wide ranger ” that we 
have to deal. Much trouble may be saved by an admission, at the 
outset, that although, at certain times and seasons, afternoon parades 
are more or less frequent, this is the exception—not the rule; and 
practically the Garrison Brigade subaltern is free and idle after lunch. 
This statement may be traversed, and theoretically he should have 
afternoon parades. In practice, it is not so. The nature of the 
work and the distance apart of the various batteries in a fortress* 
tend to long mornings; besides which, the afternoons are essentially 
fitted for fatigues, especially those for the Ordnance Store Department 
and Inspector of Warlike Stores. 
In garrison towns at home there are clubs; in garrison towns 
abroad there are public-houses. These latter are also dignified by the 
name of club, but their raison d'etre is a bar, and to these undesir¬ 
able places our youngster will most certainly gravitate, unless counter 
attractions are provided. Cricket, football, rackets, golf, are all strong 
inducements to the boy who does not want to become a loafer, but 
there is no doubt whatever that the best lure from the loafing, sherry- 
and-bitters set, is the horse. In most foreign stations, a young officer, 
by practising a little self-denial, can manage to keep a pony, and 
without giving a fancy price for it, can play polo, ride paper chases, 
and amuse himself in a healthy and thoroughly satisfactory manner. 
Some of us, not blessed with an undue proportion of this world’s 
riches, will preserve a vivid recollection of their first venture in this 
line after getting their commissions. How well we remember the 
hours spent in the stable superintending the grooming and feeding of 
that first purchase, the surreptitious visits at all hours of the day, with 
bits of sugar; the training of the brute for the gymkhana, and the 
first game of polo, when he stood over the ball in the midst of a scrim¬ 
mage and a torrent of the most appalling language ! Was it not a 
fact that this sorry beast contributed more to our good behaviour than 
all the excellent advice of our intensely serious but somewhat gloomy 
Major ? 
