The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-09
FRANCES FOREIGN LEGION.
a Fighting Brigade That Figures
in Every Colonial Var.
Sturdy Soldiers Who Count 1t q Pleasure
to Fjghs-Tieir Ranks Recruited
from All Nationali-
ties.

The announcement in a Paris dis
patch that fifteen hundred men Of the
foreign legion had been ordered TO
hold themselves in readiness to EN- barlS
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 breaches of Ia Legion Etrangere"
have been for half century the har-
bingers of war IN those seini-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 rcbellious tribes or
check threatened instruction. 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, '1es premiers
soldats du monde as Gen. Douds en-
Enthusiastically termed them, which did
all the fighting and brought the war
to 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 private
soldier. 1t is recruited from every
country In the world. There have
men, Swiss and Belgians in its
ranks, bat Spaniards, Italians. Scandi-
naviaps, 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 romantic and het-
eroreneous crowd, of which nearly
every man has history. Some of
them are military advcnturers 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,
evaders 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 rnusket of the legion
meath the torrid African sun. More
than one American bank cashier has
skipped. not TO Canada, but 20 the
miiitaire of some French
city and been registered in these red
legged ranks. Bigamists have found
shelter here from too much marital re-
and Tilted lovers have had
of marching their blirhted
hearts into working order again at the
rte of thirty kilomcters day. Close
might even reveal the
brand of Cain on some OF the sun
burned browa.
There are two regiments Of the
foreign legion, which - an infantry
ton. and the total strength Is
from ten 10 twelve thousand. II is
by Frenchnen. The roman
tic Irishman or other alien who
joins the legion in the hope that he
nav discover aarshars baton IN his
knapsack very soon finds that a ser
geant's stripes must be the limit Of his
ambition. The headquarters OF the
F i~st regiment are at Bel Abbes, those
Of the second a. saba, both In the
province Gran, Algeria, ard 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 aud -aonoton-
Gus. and the !egionnaires hall war in
any part Of the world as . blessed
escape from its toll and 6riS2ery.
The rations are fair soup. meat AID