High Noon of Empire by B A 'Jimmy' James

Author:B A 'Jimmy' James [James, B A 'Jimmy']
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844155781
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2007-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

13th January

At Malakand. On 8th Inst. an order was sent to the Regiment to send one Wing Officer to do duty with the 38th Dogras. I was detailed. On the evening of the 9th I dined with the Garratts (also a Miss Garratt a cousin staying with the Butts) and went with them, afterwards to Lahore to see Miss Ada Delroy’s Company some of it was rather amusing. I heard one new joke there concerning a blacksmith and his assistant who both stammer. The blacksmith (taking a piece of red hot iron out of the fire) to his assistant, ‘H ... h..hi, hi, h..hi hit it!’ The assistant, ‘Wh...wh, wh, wh...where... shall I hit it?’ The Blacksmith, ‘N, n..n..., n,n..,ne..,never mind it’s cold now!’

I left Lahore station at 4.10 p.m. on the 10th Inst. and reached Nowshera at 8 the next morning. I went on at once in a special tonga and stopped at Hoti Mardan for a wash and breakfast. I felt too dirty to go to the mess, so went to the dak bungalow which is quite the filthiest place I have ever been to. I have never been so badly fed in my life. I reached Malakand at about 5 p.m. and found the 38th on the same dreary unattractive spot, living the same monotonous life and generally cheerless and depressed by two years of it. With the Regt. were Capts. Burne (K.P. the brother of N.A.K.) and Tribe, Barstow, Hay, Hugo (I.M.S) the Colonel returns in a few days from 10 days leave.

The place has been cleared and fortified and made ship shape and tidy, but nothing can alter the uninviting aspect of it. There is a fortified barrack on Castle Rock – isolated, another on Maxim Point, the Ridge is enclosed by a high wall in which space is most of the Regt. and personnel of the place. The politicals’ house has been built below the fort and commanding the Crater (evacuated) and two isolated picket towers on Gibraltar, the corner where the Khar road comes in is held by the Levies. The tribesmen could never take the fortified barracks or Fort, but it seems to me that they could do a lot of damage to Followers, Mules and Property and cause confusion generally by rushing the wall on a dark night.

The C and M Gazette had another story of mine in today – ‘Love’s Labour Lost’. Its literary value is very small, if not absolutely nil, but intrinsically it is worth Rs 16/- of the best to me, so I shall continue to write them; it isn’t as if people had to read them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.