ABSTRACT
Sir,—I am a soldier’s wife, and have just been reading a bit of the Broad Arrow of December 25, 1875, and I find some kind person would like Mr. Hardy. [Gathorne Hardy, Secretary of State for War] to do some good for us. Well, it would be a great benefit to us not to move us so often: that is our great drawback. It is as much as we can do to keep a few shillings together to move us, or to pay the debt we have to meet so often. A woman with a family must be always in trouble; and this shifting is so dreaded by a respectable woman who has to wash hard to keep shoes on her children’s feet. Every lady must know an officer’s servant must be very poor when he is leaving after his twenty-one years’ service. Why is there not something given to them that are deserving their last year or two, to save a little money before leaving, instead of all being given to the sergeants and sergeant-majors, who can leave with over £1000 in the bank. I have seen it often, and know it for the truth in my time.
