Thomas Atkins

“ This ration is more scientifically arranged than its recipient imagines; as a matter of fact, it comprises all the essentials which go to build up the stamina of the fighting man; and thus, well provided with fresh air, good food, to say nothing of hard exercise, the animal side of Mr. Thomas Atkins is kept in the pink of condition, and he is able to face the burdens of life which are incidental to his calling, and which are not a few, with remarkable ease and success. ”

“ It is difficult to imagine that Brother Boche, who on the other side of that ring of star-shells is conducting a precisely similar undertaking, is able, with all his perfect organisation and cast-iron methods, to achieve a result in any way superior to that which Thomas Atkins reaches by rule of thumb and sheer force of character. ”

“ Thomas Atkins, the British public is wont to blow hot and cold. When he is engaged in a popular war they are inclined to make a popular fool of him, talking as if it were rather wonderful, and not a matter of course, that he should [Pg xi] bear hardships uncomplainingly and not skulk in battle. When peace comes there are in some places of public resort as many snubs for him as before there had been sweets, pairs of socks, and other "comforts."
The following lines were cut by a soldier in a stone sentry-box at Gibraltar:
"God and the soldier all men adore
In time of trouble, and no more ”

“ The manifest superiority of Tommy Atkins as a fighter stands out in bold relief against the gentle populations of India, who regard him as the very incarnation of war and warlike attributes. His own confidence in his ability to whip all the multitudinous enemies of England put together, is as great to-day as it ever was, and nothing would suit him better than a campaign against the military colossus of the North in defence of the British interests in India he now so faithfully guards. ”

“ No matter, we shall be old campaigners when the winter is over; old mud-larkers, as impervious to wet earth as a worm. Even the mud is good training for the time we shall have in the trenches!
[15] TENT MUSIC
It is not often that Thomas Atkins of any nationality wears his heart upon his sleeve, and it is quite certain that the British Tommy but rarely does so, or his confrere of the Canadian Contingent. Perhaps he best shows his thoughts and relieves his feelings in song. ”

“ Atkins. “Just thrown away his talents, and misused his eloquence in denouncing the Compromise Measures, and Mr. Webster, and Slavery, and all the best interests of his country.”
“Be Jove, he’s a fool, that’s what he is,” remarked Thomas, caressing his military whiskerage.
“He’s worse, Tom,” replied his father; “he’s a traitor, and ought to be indicted for treason.”
“Does he move in good society here, Mr. Atkins?” blandly asked Mr. Lafitte.
“He! Why, sir, he’s a rank Disunionist!” exclaimed the merchant. “A Disunionist received into good society! ”

“ I had cut his shirt off him before this, and knew that it was marked “F.L.G.M.,” which does not stand for Boulson.
Boulson's name was not Boulson; but that was not our business at the time. We who patch up Thomas Atkins when he gets hurt in the interests of his Queen and country are never surprised to find that the initials on his underlinen do not tally with those in the regimental books. When the military millennium arrives, and ambulance services are perfect, we shall report things more fully. Something after this style—“Killed: William Jones. ”

“ And of course there have been rhymsters who have gone over to the side of the enemy, and who have made profit from exhibiting their freakishness, after the manner of circus monstrosities. Thomas Moore sometimes takes malicious pleasure in thus showing up the oddities of his race. [See Common Sense and Genius, and Rhymes by the Road.] Later libelers have been, usually, writers of no reputation. The literary squib that made most stir in the course of the century was not a poem, but the novel, The Green Carnation, which poked fun at the mannerisms of the 1890 poets. ”

“ He is a most respectable man, and an excellent watchman, as was his father before him. It is a tradition of the Atkins family that they are as brave as lions, and do not know what p. 81fear is; but unfortunately they are not always very clever, and Thomas is a little slow at learning, and does not pick up new tricks readily. His father had a tremendous hammer-and-tongs battle with the Dubois’ watchman once, right in the middle of the public street—thirty-six rounds or so they had of it—and licked him, as John Bull says, in true British style ”

“ Amid men so full of such animal life as our brave lads, it will be readily imagined that existence is not wholly composed of shadow; indeed, few careers are so full of brightness and geniality as those of our fighting men. 'Tommy Atkins' is a unique creation. I know not from whence he springs. There is [90] something in his environment which evolves him, I suppose; it is not a question of years of association with men of his like, for the New Army which has only been in being for a few months produces precisely the same type ”

“ When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found his baptized wife, and the young woman newly married to my Jack-of-all-trades, were become great intimates, and discoursing of religion together. O, Sir, says Will Atkins, when God has sinners to reconcile to himself, he never wants an instructor; I knew I was unworthy of so good a work, and therefore this young woman has been sent hither as it were from heaven, who is sufficient to convert a whole nation of savages. ”

“ That ould thing’s bin run into twice since Bill’s had ’er, once on her transom and once on her port side just abaft the leeboards, and there warn’t no law case nor nawthen, but each time the party what done it agreed on a sum and paid it, and the ould thing made money over it for ’er guvnor.
‘I once see’d the Alma do a thing what I wouldn’t ’ave believed not if forty thaousand people told me. She was a layin’ in Limehouse reach, stackloaded and risin’ to abaout twenty fathom o’ chain. ”

“ Wa’n’t you nigh scairt to death?”
“Nobody’d be scairt with Mr. Moore and Wee-wee’s mother.”
“How’d it come about, Sonny?”
“It was after a woman called me a tramp and other names and ordered her boy not to come near me. Mr. Moore he told her what he thought about her, and that I was his guest, and then he made me come to dinner, and we talked.”
“I’d like to git a squint at that Mr. Moore,” says Mr. Atkins, reflective-like.
“He’s comin’ to call on you,” says Catty.
“I want to know! Um!... Calc’late I better wait for him right here in my office. Men likes to talk in their places of business. ”

“ Will Atkins, for his own particular, added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him home to England, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her now with all his heart. ”

“ Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over; so we went back our own way; and when we came back we found them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush, or no; and it was his opinion we should not; but that we should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us: so we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves; and I began with him thus:
“Will Atkins,” said I, “pr’ythee what education had you? What was your father?”
W.A. A better man than ever I shall be. ”

“ Atkins is one of the staff of servants attached to the Mansions, whose particular office it is to wait on the occupants of chambers on the first floor: a discreet man, who has a pretty intimate knowledge of the manners and customs of those on whom he attends. ”

“ In a war hospital that harbours many thousands of patients per annum, we should know, in the long run, something about the characteristics of Tommy Atkins; and it is with resent [Pg 108] ment that I hear him thus classified as a mere type. He is not a type. Discipline and training have given him some veneer of generalised similarities. Beneath these, Tommy Atkins is simply the man in the street—any man in any street ”

“ The steward, seeing that he was not wanted, went quietly from the room, intent upon securing his dinner.
Mr. Atkins and Sir John Freise approached our hero, and the baronet laid a kindly hand upon the young earl’s shoulder.
“Forgive us for interrupting your happy reverie, Lord Towyn,” he said, “but we are very anxious. Miss Wynde writes from Brussels, and in good spirits? We have been troubling ourselves for nothing?”
The young earl did not look around, nor did he speak. He only clutched the letter tighter in his fingers.
“We have got into a panic for nothing,” said Atkins, smiling. ”

“ Atkins was the same man I saw first sitting on a log down by the bayou. He was neat looking and kept his hair and beard trimmed, and there was a different look in his face, and even his walk was different. He used to sort of slouch along, but now he had a sort of a snap to his step, and if you didn’t know him you would think he was a regular, respectable man of business instead of a tramp that wasn’t more than half reformed. ”

“ He uses a Canadian canoe. He's right, of course; no boat is so noiseless; with none other can you see so well ahead exactly where you are going, and guide yourself so perfectly. You must have a Canadian canoe, pervade Cliveden Reach, and see whether any such outrage is attempted again."
"It will be attempted again, sir," Atkins said decisively; "you may count upon that. If the story's true, the fellow will have learned that he can induce a strong and vigorous man, a Member of Parliament, and a good sculler, to deliver up his purse by just presenting a loaded revolver at his head. ”

“ We filed down and took our seats, and for a while nobody said a word, because we were hungry and the things Rameses III had cooked were mighty good. Then Mr. Browning says, “Got to row up to the village to send a telegram. Better come along, Topper.... Why don’t you boys wait around a while and go for a swim before you turn in?”
“Sounds good,” says Catty.
So, when dinner was over, Mr. Topper and Mr. Browning piled into the dinghy and Naboth went along to run the engine, and Catty and I were left alone on the Albatross with Rameses III and Tom, the engineer. Tom was one of the silent kind. ”

“ Whenever heredity is lightly touched upon in poetry it is generally indicated that in the poet's nature there are combined, for the first time, these two powerful strains which, in mysterious fusion, constitute the poetic nature. In the marriage of his father and mother, delight in the senses, absorption in the turbulence of human passions, is likely to meet complete otherworldliness and unusual spiritual sensitiveness.
There is a tradition that all great men have resembled their mothers ”

“ Atkins, with a gloomy look; “she has written us but few letters, and they have been very short and unsatisfactory. I suppose she has sense enough to know that no news is better than bad news; and having nothing pleasant to tell about herself, she thinks she will tell us nothing at all. ”

“ Us couldn’t let goo our anchor where us wanted to, as there was another barge, the Louisa, agin the quay. I had to goo off to see the guvnor, so I ast the skipper o’ the Louisa to give my mate a hand when the Louisa come off, for a course the Alma hadn’t got near enough chain aout. Well, that bein’ a calm then my mate tould the skipper o’ the Louisa not to trouble, as he warn’t goin’ to shift till the mornin’. That bein’ a calm then warn’t to say that ’ud be a calm in the mornin’ ”

“ They afforded a still stronger example of the influence exercised by Tommy Atkins upon the British domestic, and I therefore thought it right to relate them.
“The heroine of them,” I said, “is our Amenda. Now, you would call her a tolerably well-behaved, orderly young woman, would you not?”
“She is my ideal of unostentatious respectability,” answered MacShaughnassy.
“That was my opinion also,” I replied. “You can, therefore, imagine my feelings on passing her one evening in the Folkestone High Street with a Panama hat upon her head (my Panama hat) , and a soldier’s arm round her waist. ”

“ None of the men who are now known will find it. It is always the unknown man who makes that sort of discovery. He will come in time, and when he comes we shall wonder and admire, and say: ‘How new! How true!’ Why, in that very matter of Tommy Atkins, whose manifold portraits have done as much as anything to endear Kipling to the English people—it is known to many that in my own foolish youth I enlisted in the Army. I lived with Tommy. ”

“ ATKYNS, JOHN TRACY (d. 1773) , barrister-at-law, was the third son of John Tracy, of Stanway, Gloucestershire, and great-grandson of the third Viscount Tracy, of Toddington. His mother was a daughter of Sir Robert Atkyns, lord chief baron, and it was probably on account of the legal eminence of his grandfather that he adopted the name of Atkyns. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1724, and was called to the bar in 1732. In 1755 he was appointed cursitor baron of the exchequer. ”

“ Tommy Atkins looked like a beast. His clothing was a hardened-mud casing; his body was the color of the sticky Flanders clay in which he lived; but his soul was clean and fine. I saw him rescuing wounded comrades, tending them in the trenches, encouraging them and heartening them when he himself was discouraged and sick at heart.
"You're a-go'n' 'ome, 'Arry! Blimy! think o' that! Back to old Blightey w'ile the rest of us 'as got to stick it out 'ere! ”