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The Barabinzians of Siberia, a nation "up beyond the River Ob," tan them into water-proof paletots or aquascutums. How they catch their loon, before they skin their loon, is one of the mysteries of that unknown realm. Og, Gog, Magog, Memphremagog, all agog, Umbagog, certainly the American Indians were the Lost Tribes, and conserved the old familiar syllables in their new home.
It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the servants' door. It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high wind, like a sail.
In the foreground the officers sat on their camp-chairs, smoking long faïence pipes; in the rear, driven deep into the turf, the battalion flag stood furled in its water-proof case, with the drum-major's halberd beside it, and drums and band instruments around it on the grass.
Their bodies were heavy and clumsy, and were covered with thick, soft, grayish under-fur, which in turn was overlaid with longer hairs of a glistening chestnut-brown, making a coat that was thoroughly water-proof as well as very beautiful.
The Perfect Automatic stands in the garret with all its original varnish on. At its feet sits a half-used can of "Beesene, The Prince of Floor Pastes." We have only hard-wood floors now, which we treated, upon the strength of the label, with this Prince of Pastes, "Beesene" "guaranteed not to show wear or dirt or to grow gritty; water-proof, gravel-proof.
As I was going out, a sailor came to the door with a flat package, perhaps six inches thick and twelve or fourteen square, covered with a dirty piece of skin made from the intestines of a whale, which is used by the natives of this clime because it is light and water-proof. "We found this in a coil of rope, sir; it must belong to him. It must be mostly lead."
Tea, sugar-water, saki, are their chief beverages. Their paper is one of the most interesting articles which they manufacture. Some, of a thick sort, is made of bamboo and oil. This is used for umbrellas, and water-proof coats, coverings for palanquins and boxes, etcetera.
The Fairy had provided King Giglio with a suit of armour, which was not only embroidered all over with jewels, and blinding to your eyes to look at, but was water-proof, gun-proof, and sword-proof; so that in the midst of the very hottest battles His Majesty rode about as calmly as if he had been a British Grenadier at Alma.
Where there is room to spare, it is best to have the bath separate from the toilet, in order to prevent inconvenience in use. There should be a basin and toilet upon the ground floor, and a bathroom and toilet upon the sleeping floor. The walls of the lavatory should be tiled, or, if this is too expensive, they should be covered with water-proof paper.
Why should we add to this dismal recital the appalling sufferings of the soldiers, helpless victims to bad management at home and shameful neglect in the field, the long, freezing nights of trench-work under a driving rain, "without warm or water-proof clothing, the trenches two and three feet deep with mud, snow, and half-frozen slush, so that many, when they took off their shoes, were unable to get their swollen feet into them again, and might be seen barefooted about the camp, the snow half a foot deep on the ground," creeping for shelter into "miserable tents pitched as it were at the bottom of a marsh, where twelve or fourteen unhappy creatures lay soaking without change of clothing" until they were called out again to their worse than slave-labor, disease, brought on by exhaustion, exposure, overwork, and deficient food, sweeping the men off by thousands, and yet no sufficient supply of medical stores and no adequate number of medical attendants, not a soul seeming to care for their comfort or even for their lives, so neglected and ill-treated that "the wretched beggar who wandered about the streets of London led the life of a prince compared with the British soldiers who were fighting for their country, and who were complacently assured by the home authorities that they were the best-appointed army in Europe."
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