I place the water-buckets first in
the list for the reason that I have found them one of my most
valuable assets. With one, as soon as you halt, instead of waiting
for your turn at the well or water-hole, you can carry water to your
horse, and one of them once filled and set in the shelter of the
tent, later saves you many steps. It also can be used as a nose-bag,
and to carry fodder. I recommend the brass folding lantern, because
those I have tried of tin or aluminum have invariably broken. A
lantern is an absolute necessity. When before daylight you break
camp, or hurry out in a wind storm to struggle with flying tent-pegs,
or when at night you wish to read or play cards, a lantern with a
stout frame and steady light is indispensable. The original cost of
the sick-room candles is more than that of ordinary candles, but they
burn longer, are brighter, and take up much less room. To protect
them and the matches from dampness, or the sun, it is well to carry
them in a rubber sponge-bag. Any one who has forgotten to pack a
towel will not need to be advised to take two. An old sergeant of
Troop G, Third Cavalry, once told me that if he had to throw away
everything he carried in his roll but one article, he would save his
towel. And he was not a particularly fastidious sergeant either, but
he preferred a damp towel in his roll to damp clothes on his back.
Every man knows the dreary halts in camp when the rain pours outside,
or the regiment is held in reserve. For times like these a pack of
cards or a book is worth carrying, even if it weighs as much as the
plates from which it was printed. At present it is easy to obtain
all of the modern classics in volumes small enough to go into the
coat-pocket. In Japan, before starting for China, we divided up
among the correspondents Thomas Nelson & Sons' and Doubleday, Page &
Co.'s pocket editions of Dickens, Thackeray, and Lever, and as most
of our time in Manchuria was spent locked up in compounds, they
proved a great blessing.
In the list I have included a revolver, following out the old saying
that "You may not need it for a long time, but when you do need it,
you want it damned quick." Except to impress guides and mule-
drivers, it is not an essential article. In six campaigns I have
carried one, and never used it, nor needed it but once, and then
while I was dodging behind the foremast it lay under tons of luggage
in the hold. The number of cartridges I have limited to six, on the
theory that if in six shots you haven't hit the other fellow, he will
have hit you, and you will not require another six.
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