Who are the Rank and File? They are the poor wild birds whose country
has cast them off, and who repay her by offering their lives for her
glory; the men who take the shilling, who drink, who drill, who march to
music, who fill the graveyards of Asia; the men who stand sentry at the
gates of world-famous fortresses, who are old when their elder brothers
are still young, who are bronzed and burned by fierce suns, who sail
over seas packed in great masses, who watch at night over lonely
magazines, who shout, "Who comes there?" through the darkness, who dig
in trenches, who are blown to pieces in mines, who are torn by shot and
shell, who have carried the flag of England into every land, who have
made her name famous through the nations, who are the nation's pride in
her hour of peril and her plaything-in her hour of prosperity--these
are the rank and file. We are a curious nation; until lately we bought
our rank, as we buy our mutton, in a market; and we found officers and
gentlemen where other nations would have found thieves and swindlers.
Until lately we flogged our files with a cat-o'-nine-tails, and found
heroes by treating men like dogs. But to return to the rank and file.
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