The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-10-14
FRANCES FOREIGN LEGION.
A Fighting Brigade That Figures
In Every Colonial War.
Sturdy Soldiers Who Count It . Pleasure
to Fight-Their Ranks Recruited
from All Natlonal-
ties.

ties.
The announcement in Paris dis
patch that fifteen hundred men of the
foreign legion had been ordered to
hold themselves in readiness to embark
for Siam indicated an intention on the
part of France to adopt measures more
aggressive than mere blockade to CO.
cree the Siamese. For. says the New
York Times, the pert kepis and baggy
red breeches of '1a Legion Etrangere"
have been for half century the har-
bingers of war in those semi-civilized
countries which France has partly
ruled or upon which she has had de-
signs.
In Algiers they are always on the
march to punish rebellious tribes or
check threatened insurrection. They
exchanged hard knocks with the Black
Flags, and earned more graves than
glory in Tonquin, and recently in Da-
honey it was corps of eight hundred
of these Legionnaires, ''les premiers
soldats du monde" as Gen. Douds en-
Enthusiastically termed them, which did
all the fighting and brought the war
to a conclusion fattering to the pride
and not too exacting upon the purse OF
France.
''La Legion Etrangere," as its name
tells, is legion of foreigners. Under
the existing military laws of the re-
public, an alien cannot take arms in
the service of France except in this
brigade, and then only as a private
soldier. 1t is recruited from every
country in the world. There have
always been large numbers of Irish
men, Swiss and Belgians in its
ranks, but Spaniards, Italians, Scandi-
navIans, Poles, Americans and even
Turks are also found there.
At present nearly one-half the force
is recruited from the two ''lost prov
inces," Alsace and Lorraine. These lat
ter legionnaires are plain, prosaic,
everyday soldiers, such as may be
found in any French infantry regi-
ment, but the real foreigners, the
Celts, the Teutons, the Scandinavians
and the Slavs, are a romantic and het-
erogeneous crowd, of which nearly
every man has a history. Some Of
them are military adventurers pure
and simple, such as in medieval times
sold their swords and their lives to the
monarch who paid the highest price
for such martial merchandise; others
are deserters from other armies, and
yet others are fugitives from justice,
'evaaers Of the laws of many lands.
Many nihilist. for whose head the
st. Petersburg chief of police would be
willing to pay its weight in gold, is
shouldering q musket of the legion
meath the torrid African sun. More
than one American bank cashier has
skipped" not to Canada, but to the
attendance militaire Of some French
city and been registered in these red
legged ranks. B1gamlsts have found
shelter here from too much marital re-
sponsibility, and Tilted lovers have had
opportunity of marching their blighted
hearts into working order again at the
rate of thirty kilometers day. Close
investigation might even reveal the
brand of Cain on some Of the sun
burned brows.
There are two regiments OF the
foreign legion, which is an infantry
organization, and the total strength is
from ten to twelve thousand. It is
offcered by Frenchmen. The roman
tic Irishman or other alien who
joins the legion in the hope that he
NAV discover a marshals baton in his
knapsack very soon finds that ser
geant's stripes must be the limit OF his
ambition. The headquarters of the
First regiment are at Bel Abbes, those
of the second at Saida, both in the
province Oran, Algeria, and when
there is no miscellaneous fighting go
ing on in other French colonies the
soldiers of the legion are scattered in
small garrisons distributed through
the villages which border the Sahara
desert.
The life is hard, weary and monoton-
GUS, and the legionnaires hail war in
any part of the world as a blessed
escape from its toll and drudgery.
The rations are fair-soup, meat and
vegetables twice day. one-quarter
pound of bread, half bottle of wine
in the morning and pint of coffee in
the evening. A man can't Save much
out of his pay-eight cents every FIVE
days if he behaves himself; but he
steals as much more off the guileless
children of the desert. God help the
Siamese jewellers and money-changers
if ever corps of ''la Legion Etran-
pere' is caserned in Bangkok!
Yet, with all their faults, the soldiers
of the legion seldom desert-never in
the face of an enemy-and always fight
splendidly.