3-078-194 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of military life: arrival of the new Subaltern, 1890. 'The arrival of a young subaltern, newly admitted to her Majesty's service, at the headquarters of his regiment, may be a trying ordeal to bashful simplicity naturally anxious for the esteem of his future comrades; but it is much the same with inexperienced and sensitive youths entering their College at the University...An attitude of reserve and cautious observation, with due politeness and civility, is really of better promise than immediate demonstrations of effusive friendship. The stranger has to find safety in calm and steadfast self-possession, and in strictly maintaining the ordinary rules of gentlemanly behaviour, not showing any particular solicitude for a close intimacy with one or another, but seeming to rely on the supposed general goodwill of appointed companions, and on his own sincerity of purpose, for their better acquaintance in days to come. In all matters of social intercourse, and in every rank or class, military or civil, the comfort of life is most apt to be sacrificed to an excessive eagerness for the favourable regard of others, or to the dread of missing an opportunity of recommending oneself to their notice'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.