would not have been misplaced. I have known more than one lad ruined for life because of undue severity of punishment for a first offence.
Forty years ago every offence, however trivial, was classed as a "crime," and the "prisoner" was interned in the "guard-room." The latter, in the case of the cavalry barracks at Aldershot, was about fifteen feet square, indifferently ventilated, and with the most primitive arrangements for sanitation. No means of lighting it after dark were either provided or permitted. Running along one of its sides was a sloping wooden stage, measuring about six feet from top to bottom, which served as a bed for all the occupants, sometimes a dozen or more in number; at the top was a wooden shelf, slightly raised above the level of the stage, which acted as pillow; and no blankets (except in very cold weather) or mattresses were allowed, except for prisoners who had been interned for more than seven days. Until then their only covering, besides their ordinary clothes—which were never taken off—consisted of their cloaks, and they had to endure as best they could the sore hips and shoulders caused by lying on the hard boards. I shall describe presently how I once came to be incarcerated in this horrible place for a period of three weeks, and will only say here that I was exceedingly glad when the first seven days were completed.
A prisoner charged with committing an offence was kept in the guard-room until he could be brought before the commanding offcer, no other officer in the regiment having power to dispose of his case, and if he were remanded for a court-martial, as he not infrequently was, he might be interned for several days before his trial took place. In the meantime he would have for company all classes of prisoners thrust into the room at any hour of the day or night, some for drunkenness, some for desertion, some for insubordination, and some for no offence at all which merited confinement. This was not a healthy atmosphere in which to bring up young soldiers, to many of whom the shady side of life was as yet unknown, and, as will be shown later, a more sensible and humane system was eventually adopted. It should not be forgotten that these harsh and
