The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-08
A REMARKABLE ARMY.
Brave Men Who All Have Pasts They
Want 20 Bury.

| Brave Ken N no All nave faSts 1ucy
| Want 20 Bury.
| Probably the most remarkable army
division in the world is the Foreign
Legion OF France. It is this legion
| which is invaria bly, sent into the great
! est danger As rule. it heads the for
| lorn hope. Whenever there are hard
| ships to be borne TO which the French
authorities do not care to expose the
regular troops the Foreign Legion is
| invariably designated for the purpose.
Naturally the question arises, why is
this so?
| TIL character of the men who fill its
ranks is the explanation.
| Almost without exception they are
! men who, while brave beyond ques-
! ton, have past which they wish to
| bury. Many of them are serving under
incognitos, and place no value upon
their lives. Fully fifty per cent. are
foreigners-adventu and refugees.
A writer states that in one company
he has found Roumanian prince who
/ was under suspicion of having muir
/ dered his brother: an Italian lieutenant
colonel of cavalry. bearing an illustri-
| Gus name, who had been dismissed from
/ King Humbert's army in disgrace in
/ consequence of being found cheating
/ at cards: Russian nihilist, who es-
capped from Siberia; an ex-canon OF the
/ cathedral of Notre Dame. at Paris, who
had been suspended from his ecclesias-
teal functions in consequence of an Of
| Tense committed against public moral
| ity: an English ex-captain of the Rifle
brigade, and German count who had
not only served as lieutenant in the
First regiment of Guards at Berlin, but
| who had also held a position on the
military staff of the late emperor of
Germany.
All these men were serving as simple
privates in the ranks, and were sub
jected to iron discipline for which this
corps is celebrated.
In no other European army are the
punishments so severe as in the Foreign
Legion of France.
Composed as il is almost entirely of
social outlaws, men who have broken
with their past, and who have in many
cases criminal record behind them, it
is not astonishing that the utmost Sc
verify is needed to render them sub
servient to orders. The slightest of
Tense or act of aggression against SUI
perior officer is punished with death,
and during the TCnqEin war there were
as many as eleven members of one reci-
ment court-martialed and shot in one
day. The minor offenses are punisha-
bic by the so-called ''silo," which con-
sists of burying the prisoner in the sand
for hours, leaving only his head ex-
posed to the rays of the sun by day and
to the stings of insects by night: and
the ''crapaudine, in which the man is
bound hand and foot and left for hours
nay, sometimes days-on the sand,
lying helpless. somewhat in the posi-
ton of a trussed fowl.
Many of the most famous names of
France have figured at the head of
these regiments.
Among those who have held the rank
of colonel of the foreign legion are
found, for instance the names of Mar
shall Bazaine Gen de Neprier. Gen.
Dupin, who so distinguished himself
by his cruelty during the guerilla war
fare in Mexico, and last. but not least,
the brilliant Col. de Malaret.
The last had in his younger days
been one of the gayest and most popu-
lar officers of the Tuileries and par
ticular favorite of the Empress Eu-
geniez
Having, however, contracted some
horrible malady which had practically
z
his face. he asked for and obtained the
command of a regiment of the Foreign
Legion, anxious to serve his country
and yet to withdraw sufficiently
from the world to be no longer
exposed to the looks of horror,
disgust and pity which the appearance
of his face excited, not only among
strangers, but even among former
friends. He would arrive on the
parade ground with the hood of his
military mantle drawn over his head
even in the hottest weather, in such q
manner as 10 shroud and almost entire
" conceal his face. Indeed. one could
see little else but his brilliant, steel
gray eyes piercing through the gloom.
His lips rarely opened save to order
some more or less severe punishment
Very different was Gen. de Negrie.,
who was beloved rather than feared by
these strange troops. of whom it has
been said with some justice that they
were a strange mixture of the chival-
rous and high-minded gentlemen of
birth, breeding and honor and the
most criminal blackguards. N. L.
Recorder.