Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/506

 416 NOTES AND QUERIES. [IS.IX.NOV.I,IH. tion works both ways. A great amount of Parade, when the sheep and the goats slang which had been the almost exclusive | were divided, and " fancy religions " ordered possession of the uneducated became common ; to fall to the rear. There was a certain property through the sudden and complete ; humour in describing the fruits of one's mixture of classes, and attracted the interest ! own artillery, when, as not infrequently of those to whom it was new and strange, | happened, they fell short on our own front as well as useful under the novel circum- 1 line, as " friendly " shells. And while stances. The amount of really new and touching on the front line it may be recalled original slang was probably very small. j that the sweeping of our parapet at night ^ I with a traversing stream of machine-gun I miss the familiar' description " Derby bullets . was always attributed to some men," applied to those hundreds of mysteriously skilful Hun called ' Parapet thousands who attested under Lord Derby's <*> who must ha X e 1 b. een ^f ul help to scheme; and perhaps "Overseas men," the caretaker and his wife who were for those who came from distant parts of generally credited with holding the trenches the Empire, should be included. As regards PPosite to us. " digger," it came to be used as a form of " Salient " was a word which came into address by which one " Tommy " could its own during the war. Formerly the make sure of winning the good graces of property of professors, it grew to be fami- another whose name he did not know ; Harly used by the humblest Tommy, to " chum " was no less friendly but not so j whom it represented something as concrete complimentary. The second in command ! as the "fulcrum," which the intelligent of a battalion, whose duty it was to inspect working man interprets as a block of some the cook-house and to see that the swill-tub hard material on which to rest a lever, contained no wasted food, was often called Has not the word "consolidate" acquired " the swill-major," and battalion runners | a fresh meaning now ? When trenches with red bands on their arms, " scarlet ; were first captured, the act of " consolida- runners." A " second-sixth " (2/6) batta- 1 tion " that followed presumably referred lion was naturally called a " half-crown merely to a reorganization of the attacking brigade." An officer who preferred, when j forces, that the ground won might be held, in the line, to remain underground became | It later seemed to imply the actual retention a " dug-out king." " The queer fellow " of the ground, and we now can speak even was a term that indicated any person in in civil life of " consolidating our gains." authority, according to when and how it The mobilization store might not be was employed; and " spare -parts " (every recognizable to a civilian as the "mob soldier made acquaintance with the Lewis store." Certain military terms lent them- gun and its much execrated bag of " spare selves to humorous misuse : the wretched parts") was an excellent name for an! gas -mask which we wore night and day officer who physically and mentally seemed j on our chests had to be fixed "at the imperfectly adjusted. j alert " within a certain distance of the B. ! front line ; and it was a common joke Is not "duck-board" itself slang, if the j to quote an imaginary order for parade, correct form is " duct-board " ? We used I that " chin-straps will be worn at the to hear of the " duck-board glide " ; the i alert." The soldier who came back from miseries of progression through the trenches | orderly room and told us he had been on dark nights could not find a better word " demolished " (admonished) was an un- for their concealment. When a battalion conscious humorist. Then there was the went into the line, a third of its strengths "bundles of ten" expression winch pur- was left out as a nucleus, in case of re- j sued the soldier aU through his career, i formation being necessary, which was ! whenever we moved the order went fort! always known as " the life-boat party." i that all blankets were to be made up Then I miss the common description of rifles ! bundles of ten." The words became almost as " firing-irons." The " subsidiary line "an obsession, and when a soldier enter- was popularly known as " the subsidds." Ourjtainer bowed low to an Eastern potenta recollections of training abound with har- 1 telling him that all was ready, and rowing experiences on " night opps " (opera- 1 " the camels had been made up in bundle tions). I think the most delightful expression ! of ten," the joke required no explanatic I heard in the Army was before Church i "Jerry over, lights out!" was the