Canada in war-paint

by Ralph W. Bell

First Published in 1917

PREFACE

There is no attempt made in the little sketches which this book contains to deal historically with events of the war. It is but a small Souvenir de la guerre—a series of vignettes of things as they struck me at the time, and later. I have written of types, not of individuals, and less of action than of rest. The horror of war at its worst is fit subject for a master hand alone.

I have to thank the proprietors of The Globe for their courtesy in allowing the reproduction of “Canvas and Mud” and “Tent Music,” and of the Canadian Magazine for the reproduction of “Martha of Dranvoorde.”

Finally, I feel that I can have no greater honour than humbly to dedicate this book to the officers, N.C.O.’s and men of the First Canadian Infantry Battalion, Ontario Regiment, with whom I have spent some of the happiest, as well as some of the hardest, days of my life.

RALPH W. BELL.

December 11th, 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Canvas and Mud!	[ 9]
Tent Music	[ 15]
Rattle-Snake Pete	[ 21]
Mules	[ 26]
“Office”	[ 31]
Our Farm	[ 37]
Aeroplanes and “Archie”	[ 41]
Stirring Times	[ 47]
Sick Parade	[ 53]
Batmen	[ 60]
Rations	[ 67]
Our Scout Officer	[ 73]
Martha of Dranvoorde	[ 78]
Courcelette	[ 89]
Carnage	[ 101]
“A” Company Rustles	[ 106]
“Minnie and ‘Family’”	[ 113]
An Officer and Gentleman	[ 118]
“S.R.D.”	[ 123]
Beds	[ 128]
Marching	[ 134]
The Natives	[ 140]
“Other Inhabitants”	[ 147]
Bombs	[ 153]
Soft Jobs	[ 158]
“Grouse”	[ 163]
Pansies	[ 169]
Going Back	[ 174]
Three Red Roses	[ 181]
Adjutants	[ 187]
Home	[ 193]
Action	[ 198]

CANADA IN WAR-PAINT