Europe Revised by Irvin S. Cobb — Read

With us it is the dress of the women that gives life and color to / the shifting show of street life. In Europe it is the soldier, and in / England the private soldier particularly. The German private soldier is / too stiff, and the French private soldier is too limber, and the Italian / private soldier has been away from the dry-cleanser's too long; but the / British Tommy Atkins is a perfect piece of work -- what with his dinky cap / tilted over one eye, and his red tunic that fits him without blemish / or wrinkle, and his snappy little swagger stick flirting the air. As a / picture of a first-class fighting man I know of but one to match him, / and that is a khaki-clad, service-hatted Yankee regular -- long may he / wave!

There may be something finer in the way of a military spectacle than / the change of horse-guards at Whitehall or the march of the foot-guards / across the green in St. James' Park on a fine, bright morning -- but I / do not know what it is. One day, passing Buckingham Palace, I came on / a footguard on duty in one of the little sentry boxes just outside the / walls. He did not look as though he were alive. He looked as though he / had been stuffed and mounted by a most expert taxidermist. From under / his bearskin shako and from over his brazen chin-strap his face stared / out unwinking and solemn and barren of thought.