Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-01-15
SsA Modern Samson"

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A little more and Jean Resteau2
would have been a giant. Brittany
men are small as rule, but Jean was
an exception. He was a powerful
young fellow who, up to the time he
was compelled to enter the army,
had spent in dragging heavy nets
over the side of a boat. He knew the
Brittany coast, rugged and indented
as it is, as we'll as he knew the road
from the little cafe on the square to
the dwelling of his father on the hill
side overlooking the sea. Never be-
fore had he been out of the sound of
waves. He was a man who, like
Herve Riel, might have saved the
fleet; but France, with the usual good
sense of officialism, sent this man of
the coast into the mountains, and
Jean RasteauX became a soldier in the
Alpine corps. If he stood on the
highest mountain peak Jean might
but he could catch neither sound nor
sight of the sea.
Men who mix with mountains be-
come as rough and rugged as the
rocks, and the Alpine corps was wild
body, harsh and brutal. Punishment
iu the ranks was swift and terrible,
for the corps was situated far from
any of the civilizing things of modern
life. and deeds were done which the
world knew not of; deeds which
would not have been approved if re-
ported at headquarters.
The regiment of which Jean became
a unit was stationed in a high valley
that had but one outlet, wild pass
down which a mountain river roared
and foamed and tossed. The narrow
path by the side of the stream was
the only way out of or into the valley,
for all around the little plateau was
walled in by immense peaks Of ever
lasting snow, dazzling in the sunlight,
and luminous even in the still dark
nights. From the peaks to the south
Italy might have been seen, but no
man had ever dared to climb any Of
them. The angry little river was fed
from a glacier whose blue breast lay
sparkling in the sunshine to the south.
and the stream circumnavigated the
little plateau, as if trying to find an
outlet for it's tossing waters.
Jean was terribly lonely in these
dreary and unaccustomed solitudes.
The white mountains awed him, and
the mad roar Of the river seemed but
poor compensation for the dignifed
and measured thunder of the waves
on the broad sands of the Brittany
coast.
But Jean was good natured giant,
and he strove to do whatever was re-
quired of him. He was not quick at
repartee, and the men Knocked his
Breton dialect. He became the butt
for all their small and often mean
jokes, and from the first he was very
miserable, for, added to his yearning
for the sea, whose steady roar he
heard in his dreams at night, he felt
the utter lack of all human sympathy.
At first he endeavored by unfailing
good nature and prompt obedience to
win the regard Of his fellows, and he
became in a measure the slave of the
regiment; but the more he tried to
please the more his burden increased,
and the greater were the insults he
was compelled to bear from both Of
fcers and men. 1t was so easy to
bully this giant, whom they nick
named Samson, that even the small
est men in the regiment felt at liberty
TO swear at him Or cuff him if neces-
sary.
But at last Samson's good nature
seemed to be wearing out. His stock
was becoming exhausted, and his
comrades forgot that the Bretons for
hundreds of years have been success
full fighters, and that the blood of con-
tention flows in their veins.
Although the Alpine corps, as a
general thing, contains the largest
and strongest men in the French
army, yet the average French soldier
NAV be termed undersizer when COM
pared with the military of either Eng
land or Germany. There were sever
al physically small men in the regi-
ment, and one of these, like dininu