Later These Mess
Supplies Were Turned Over To The Field-Hospitals, But At The Start
Every One Travelled With More
Than he needed and more than the
regulations allowed, and each correspondent was advised that if he
represented a first-
Class paper and wished to "save his face" he had
better travel in state. Those who did not, found the staff and
censor less easy of access, and the means of obtaining information
more difficult. But it was a nuisance. If, when a man halted at
your tent, you could not stand him whiskey and sparklet soda,
Egyptian cigarettes, compressed soup, canned meats, and marmalade,
your paper was suspected of trying to do it "on the cheap," and not
only of being mean, but, as this was a popular war, unpatriotic.
When the army stripped down to work all this was discontinued, but at
the start I believe there were carried with that column as many tins
of tan-leather dressing as there were rifles. On that march my own
outfit was as unwieldy as a gypsy's caravan. It consisted of an
enormous cart, two oxen, three Basuto ponies, one Australian horse,
three servants, and four hundred pounds of supplies and baggage.
When it moved across the plain it looked as large as a Fall River
boat. Later, when I joined the opposing army, and was not expected
to maintain the dignity of a great London daily, I carried all my
belongings strapped to my back, or to the back of my one pony, and I
was quite as comfortable, clean, and content as I had been with the
private car and the circus tent.
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