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810 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
"Every Man in
His Heart Is a
Medieval Knight
— His Lady's
Token — Figuratively
Speaking—
Upon His Sleeve"
"Move on or lie down," yelled
the regiment behind them and
the soldiers flung themselves
on the ground, thus permitting their
comrades to charge over to victory.
More seasoned troops under more
favorable conditions have been seized
with demoralizing fear. In one of his
many engagements General Grant's men
in the trenches showed keen uneasiness.
To reassure them, he climbed out of his
shelter, and sitting on a powder keg and
calmly smoking a cigar he exposed himself
to the enemy's fire. This act of ap­
parentfoolhardiness brought
forth a rousing
cheer from his
command, and
the soldiers set-
11 e d cheerfully
down to the business
of defeating
the "rebs".
Something
may have gone
wrong with the
army's commissary
that day,
their food may have disagreed
with them or the
supply may have been inadequate.
Napoleon's defeat
at Leipsic in 1813 has
been attributed to the fact
that he had been made ill
on onions and was unable
to follow up his victory,
just gained at Dresden,
with his usual skill and
decision.
It is for those back
home to look out for the
soldier's stomach just as
it is their duty to see that
the Red Cross has the money with
which to take care of him in the hospital
if he is wounded, and to write
letters to cheer his dreary and dangerous
clays.
A third element in the success of an
army lies in the quantity and kind of
amusement or recreation it gets.
Baseball behind the lines, or the rough
sport of tossing a man in a blanket
are some of the recreations our men are
going in for. The opportunities for
physical sports, however, are few and
the commanders strive to improve conditions
by giving motion picture shows
and improvised musicales. Artists,
actors, and musicians contribute their
share as occasion permits in keeping up
their own and their comrades' spirits.
Any one who has conversed with a
soldier from the front will understand