Welsh Journals

A NEWSPAPER FOR THE MEN OF THE 2NU- BATTALION THE WELSH REGIMENT. Vol. I. No. 1. Trimulgherry, Deccan, India, March 14th, 1893. Price Annas z. LIST OP CONTENTS. Editor's Letter Regimental Notes Miscellaneous ... Sporting and Dramatic Notes ... Our Story Teller Original Poetry Letters to Editor Notices Answers to Correspondents Page 1 >> „ 3 „ 6 „10 ,,H „12 ,,13 „ 13 EDITORIAL. n issuing the first number of our Regi¬ mental Paper " The Men of Harlech," ^Q must claim the indulgence of our Readers for any short-comings that may appear, and ask them to credit us with good intentions if we do not effect all that We would. The aim of this, as of all Regimental Papers, is to bring all ranks into close companionship, and foster that " esprit de corps, " which a few foolish minded persons would have us believe is dying out. We know better, but we also know, that this *' spirit of the Regiment" this feeling of brotherhood, binding Battalion to Battalion, officer to man, oldest soldier to last joined recruit, needs maintaining at its full strength by every means in our power. How can this be better effected than by keeping up a constant communi¬ cation between the various units at home and abroad? We of the 2nd Battalion have taken upon ourselves to weave this cord °f connection by starting the " Men of Harlech" in the hope that it will travel ^ar, and carry to the Mess rooms and Recreation rooms of the other Battalions, t° the homes of those who have served Under our colours, to the hearts of those who think of us and pray for us, to our *Hends at home and abroad, whenever they may be, a hearty message of goodwill. REGIMENTAL NOTES. ^v*.e hope that our numerous subscribers whether connected with the Regiment or Hot, will not rest content with reading the Paper, but will also set their pens to work and' write for it. Every thing is acceptable; short stories ( original if Possible), reminiscenes of homo life, expe¬ diences, descriptions of shooting expedi¬ tions, walks in the country, notes on Natural history, reports of race meetings, foot ball or cricket matches, concerts, dances, entertainments of all kinds, jokes, original poetry—any thing, every thing. No man need be afraid of getting into trouble by writing ; for every communica¬ tion will be treated with the strictest confidence. Even complaints are fish to our net. Rules as to communications will be found further on in the Notices to correspondents. It wag agreed at a General Meeting of those interested in the Paper, that the " Red Dragon of Wales" should appear on the title page, and some disappointment may be felt when he is found to be absent. We regret his absence but as no engraver could be found in the neighbour-hood sufficiently bold to undertake the delinea¬ tion of such a monster as our sketch showed him to be, we were obliged to entrust the work to a Bombay firm which has promised to tackle him. In our next number therefore he will, we hope, appear in all his glory. Wro have been asked by several people to tell them who St. David was, and our answer has invariably been: " Why! the Psalmist of course, who taught the Welsh men how to play harp 1" This we know to be incorrect, but we shall be glad of information on the subject The following extract from the Trimulgherry Parish Magazine throws some light on the matter. "St. David, the patron Saint of Wales..... "was the son of Sant, Prince of Cardigan "and lived probably in the fifth century. "He was Bishop of Meneria, the name of "which was changed to that by which we "now know it, St. David's, in his honour. "He died on March 1st which has ever "since been observed in his memory." We find in Haydn's Dictionary of dates:—- "The First of March is annually com- "memorated by the Welsh in honour of St "David. Tradition states that on St. "David's birthday 540, a great victory was "obtained by the Welsh over their Saxon "invaders and that the Welsh soldiers "were distinguished, by order of St. David "by a leek in their caps." In Shakespeare again we find the badge of the leek men- tioned as worn on St. David's day. King Henry V. act IV. scene VII. Muellen reminds the King of a battle fought in France by Edward the Black Prince in which "the Welshmen did good service in "a garden where leeks did grow, wearing "leeks in their Monmonth caps." It would appear from this passage and the context that this was the first occasion on which the badge of the leek was worn. The following, taken from the Deccan Budget and headed "Off Ranching", is news to "some of us. "Captain E. S. O. Goldschmidt, Welsh Regiment having sent in his papers to retire, is permitted to pro¬ ceed to England at his own expense, re¬ porting his arrival to Horse Guards. Wo understand thatOapt.Cxoldschmidtpurposes; hieing away to the backwoods, and going in for a ranche. A quiet life in the Army, with only a dacoit hunt, or a skirmish on our frontiers now and again, to disturb the tranquility of the times, is far too tame for a man of Captain Goldschmidt's temperament. Plenty of " go " and some¬ thing to show for it, day in and day out, is the gallant Captain's motto." It will rather surprise the paper in question to hear that Capt. Goldschmidt has gone home to take up the appointment of Adjutant to our 1st Volunteer Battn. We are sorry we shall no longer see him judging a boxing competition or hear him sing "knocked'em in the old Kent road." The Regiment came well out of the Military tournament held here a short time ago. Pte. Broad with the gloves was able to hold more than his own against any of the opponents brought against him. Corpl. Gower showed that he had not forgotten the art of fighting with a bayo¬ net. He was one of our team which did such great things at the Agricultural Hall last year; and the gunners were not in it with our tug of war team, who simply put the rope over their shoulders and walked away with them. Everybody was glad to see " Taffy " the Regimental goat on Parade again. He nearly came to an untimely end through eating unboiled gram.