Owen Rutter

“ In the Salonica Army,
Both in winter and in summer:
“How I hate this blinkin’ country.”
When the blizzard passed, the Dudshires
Settled down to work in earnest:
All day long obliging people
Found them jobs to keep them going.
Guards, fatigues and working parties,
Roads to make and hills to dig on. ”

“ Saw the Bulgars’ lines before it,
Snow-capped Beles to the Eastward,
Grand Couronné to the Westward.
All those winter months the Dudshires
Picked and dug the Serbian hillside.
Left their mark on Macedonia
Like a tripper on a tree trunk,
Slaved their souls out making trenches,
Slaved their souls out making dug-outs,
That they might be somewhat safer
From the beastly little pipsqueaks, [75]
From the most unpleasant whizzbangs,
From the great big five-point-niners,
And the crumps the eight-inch how. sends. ”

“ There is something in The Song of Tiadatha that all of us have experienced. That is one reason why it appeals so strongly to the B.S.F. But another reason is that The Song of Tiadatha is something absolutely our own. Nobody can appreciate it to the full who has not belonged to the great family of the B.S.F. And as you men of that Army have had trials which have been peculiarly your own, so it is right that you [9] should have a pleasure in which nobody outside the family can fully participate. ”

“ THE SONG OF TIADATHA CHAPTER I
THE JOINING OF TIADATHA
Should you question, should you ask me
Whence this song of Tiadatha?
Who on earth was Tiadatha?
I should answer, I should tell you,
He was what we call a filbert,
Youth of two and twenty summers.
You could see him any morning
In July of 1914,
Strolling slowly down St. James’s
From his comfy flat in Duke Street.
Little recked he of in those days,
Save of socks and ties and hair-wash,
Girls and motor-cars and suppers ”

“ TIRED ARTHUR INTO A SOLDIER
THIS SLIGHT RECORD OF ADVENTURE IS DEDICATED
IN MEMORY OF MANY DAYS (PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT)
SPENT UNDER HIS COMMAND IN WILTSHIRE AND
IN FRANCE, AND UPON THE BARREN
HILLS OF MACEDONIA
[6]
[7]
INTRODUCTION
The Song of Tiadatha first made its appearance in the columns of The Orient Weekly, and by the time two or three instalments had appeared requests came from every quarter asking that the fascinating story of “Tired Arthur” should be completed as soon as possible, and issued in book form for the further delight of its many admirers. ”

“ THE SONG OF TIADATHA
[2]
RHYMES OF A
RED-CROSS MAN
By ROBERT W. SERVICE
Cloth. 4/6 net.
“It is the great merit of Mr. Service’s verses that they are literally alive with the stress and joy and agony and hardship that make up life out in the battle zone. He has never written better than in this book, and that is saying a great deal.”—Bookman. ”

“ Went with Percy to the French Club
Bent upon a pleasant evening.
All things can be won by waiting,
All things can be won by pushing,
Even dinner at the French Club,
Where our very generous Allies
Let us come and eat their rations. ”

“ This was easier asked for than complied with. All sorts of urgent messages were sent to the Author, insisting on the fame that was awaiting him, but he was extremely busy with his military duties up on the Doiran Front, and in the intervals of raiding the Bulgars his serio-comic muse did not flourish too easily.
But bit by bit the pleasing fabric of The Song of Tiadatha was built up, and we are happy to be able to present it at last in complete form. ”