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if the comedian of the recent minstrel show is to be believed, what about the higher-up ^[[higher up]] men? The words of the jokster were: "Huh, the Lieutenant does everything and knows [[strikethrough]] knothing [[/strikethrough]] ^[[nothing]]; the Captain knows everything and does nothing" which leaves the speculation free as to the Colonels etc, [[underline]] and [[/underline]] indicates that the Honorable Private [[underline]] knows everything and [[/underline]] [[underline]] does [[/underline]] everything. Well, I wonder!

The [[strikethrough]] counts [[/strikethrough]] ^[[nobility - the counts especially]] impressed me very smartly. They appeared on the whole to be hard enjoyers of all that life offers in sorrow and joy; their faces, deep lined and bearded or marked lines of flowing moustaches or spade beards, had a shade of regret ^[[suggesting]] that they were ^[[sorry]] not ^[[to be]] still in their prime youth. Their ladies were well polished and bore themselves in graceful attitudes. French tailors and modistes [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] ^[[are]] all that custom has deemed they are, judging from the grand hommes et dames who were with us at the fête ^[[fête]].

At dinner hour a boxing and wrestling encounter attracted attention and after it was over the higher officers occupied our mess to the exclusion of the aviators. So several of us went