them personal interest in the institute, increases their responsibility and takes away much of the official atmosphere.  If we should provide magazines and newspapers they would not be so well satisfied with them.  There would always be more or less grumbling and criticism.  Hence it is better for them to make their own choice.  If we should provide crockery and glassware for the refreshment-rooms it would be more frequently broken.  The same rule prevails in other matters, and, what is still more important, we want to remove as much of the official relation as possible.  The management of the institute is in the hands of soldiers, under the supervision of officers, who simply act as checks or as inspectors to see that things go straight.

“We encourage the men to organize singing clubs, amateur theatricals and other entertainments in which they take a great interest and considerable talent is sometimes developed.  They have their own committees looking after these things, which is a healthful diversion; and the institute is the headquarters of all their sporting organizations and committees.  The officers of the barracks never go there unless they are invited, but when the men give an entertainment every officer and his family attend and furnish as much assistance as possible.”

Colonel De Barthe showed me the rules for the government of these institutes, which may be found in paragraph 658 of the Army Regulations for India, and begin with the words:  “In order to promote the comfort and provide for the rational amusement of noncommissioned officers and men, to supply them with good articles at reasonable prices and to organize and maintain the means for indoor recreation, a regimental institute shall be provided,” etc.  It is then provided that there shall be a library, reading-rooms, games and recreation-rooms, a theater or entertainment hall, a refreshment-room and a separate room for the use of and under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Army Temperance Association.  The reading-room is to be furnished with a library and the amusement-room with a piano; card playing is permitted in the recreation-room, but not for money or other stakes of value; the discussion of religious and political subjects within the institute is forbidden, and religious exercises are not allowed to be conducted in the building except in the room of the Army Temperance Association.

Every noncommissioned officer and private is entitled to the use of the institute except when excluded for profane or other improper language, for intoxication or other misconduct, for such time as the committee in charge shall deem advisable.  The management of the institute is entrusted to several committees of non-commissioned officers and soldiers and an advisory committee of three or more officers.  These committees have control of all supplies, receipts and expenditures, the preservation of order, the enforcement of the rules, and are enjoined to make the institute as attractive