Mix-Up in Which the Senior Cat, the Junior Cat, and Rations Were Involved
Had to be Adjusted by the War Office.
The precision of organization and discipline that is the very foundation
of military life is always a matter of wonder and admiration to the
civilian. He may express impatience with army "red tape," yet he has a
lurking regard for this very thing which he condemns, because he knows,
vaguely, that it has a reason for being and that it is good for men
generally to be compelled to respect a silent force as powerful and
dignified as this is.
Red tape is a serious matter, not to be lightly treated by any one,
soldier or civilian, but the observance of its "code" to the very letter
probably never was more complete than in the case of a native officer in
India.
* * * * *
This babu, who was in charge of the documents of a certain town, found
that they were being seriously damaged by rats. He wrote a letter to the
government, informing it of the danger to his records, and respectfully
urging it to provide him with weekly rations for two cats to destroy the
marauding rats.
The request was granted, and the two cats were installed--one, the larger
of the two, receiving slightly better rations than the other.
All went well for a few weeks, when the supreme government of India
received the following despatch:
"I have the honor to inform you that the senior cat is absent without
leave. What shall I do?"
The problem seemed to baffle the supreme government, for the babu received
no answer.
After waiting a few days he sent off a proposal:
"In re Absentee Cat. I propose to promote the junior cat, and in the
meantime to take into government service a probationer cat on full
rations."
The supreme government expressed its approval of the scheme, and things
once more ran smoothly and without friction in that department.
A Fight With a Cannon.
By VICTOR HUGO.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is most highly regarded in France as
a poet and dramatist, while in foreign countries his novels
are best known and hold the highest place.
Hugo was the son of a soldier of the First Republic and of a
lady who was a royalist of the most enthusiastic type. The
son, therefore, showed a blend of the two traditions whose
clash has made France what it is to-day. His most striking
quality was his wealth of imagination. His creations were
always imaginative--sometimes superbly so and sometimes
grotesquely so--but his thoughts and imagery were always
vast and gigantic, even when monstrous.
Hugo's second trait was his egotism, which prevented him
from having the saving grace of humor. He thought himself to
be almost more than mortal, and he lived in an atmosphere of
hero-worship. When the Emperor of Brazil visited Paris and
expressed a wish to meet him, Hugo disdainfully remarked:
"I have no time to waste on emperors."
When the Germans were besieging Paris, Hugo seriously
proposed that the war be settled by a single combat between
himself and the newly crowned Kaiser of Germany. He wrote to
the emperor:
"You are a great monarch; I am a great poet. We are
therefore equals."
His notion of himself was summed up in a single epigram:
"France is the world. Paris is France. Victor Hugo is
Paris."