The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-04-04
YOUNG MEN OF FRANCE
RICH AND POOR ALIKE MUST GO IN
THE ARMY THREE YEARS.
The Military System Has a Marked
.Dot- Provided for Daughters.
Paris Letter in Boston Herald.

Paris Letter in Boston Herald.
What is French is right is the attitude
generally adopted by the French, who,
however much they may growl at ministers
and deputies, are very loyal to the state,
la grande republique, that writes "Liberte
Egalite, Fraternite," over all her municipal
and state buildings. To love France, to
be wildly enthusiastic over Russia, to hate
Germany and be mildly and superiority toll
crate of other nations is the national creed,
and to give three years of ones life to
wearing a soldiers uniform is the national
duty.
l wonder If many of our young men
realize what it means to be un enfant de
France? Every man, or rather boy, at
twenty, whether the son of the President
or a little waif of the cutters. must report
for military duty. He draws his number,
and at twenty-one enters the army as a
private soldier for three years service.
Practically every Frenchman from the age
of twenty-one to tw~enty-four is a soldier,
wearing the coarse, ugly, red uniform, that
is always too big for small men and ludi-
crously scant for large figures, and is too
clumsy to fit. even when one of the three
sizes given out in a hit or miss sort or a
fashion happens to be of proper measure
mentS, ne Is INlnS III cOlu DdIIdChS, peas
ant and aristocrat huddled in together; he
is eating coarse food. undergoing a strict
discipline that may be totally %repugnant to
both youth and temperament, and receiv-
ing for pay a sum ranging from 6 confines
TO 2 sous per day. Two sous equal 2 cents.
and 6 confines are not represented by even
the smallest coin in France to-day.
If he is studying TO be a lawyer or doc
for his colleCe course is interruDted. if a
mechanic. he has three years in which to
forget the half-learned meter; if he has
taken upon youthful shoulders a share of
the family burden. he must resign it, for
il is not duty that calls, but sheer necessity.
And what has he in return? He may
gaze upon the mourning banners on the
statue of Strasburg, in the Place de la Con-
corde, and listen to speeches in the Cham
Der on the depopulation of France, in which
he is reproached for not having six broth
erS to swell an army that may bring back
Alsace-Lorraine. At the best. his path
leads only to the fever swamps of Africa
or TO guard the frontier. where he may see
Germany, or to be stationed among the reg
ular troops about Paris, wnere a few hours
leave means something.
EFFECT ON THE CONSCRIPT.
And from the standpoint {. the parent
the three years service seems quite IS
cruel. The mothers delicate boy is taken
from her; she thinks of the coarse food,
TO which he is unaccustomed of the chills
of early morning drill and cold barracks;
of his hot, impulsive temper, the r~ecollec-
ton of which sends a thrill OF horror
through her veins, for she has known of
many cases reported in small. insignificant
paragraphs in the paper of young soldiers
paying with their lives an action of rebel
lion against a superior officer. He may
| grow coarse and vicious in his mixed soci-
ETY.: he may be ill in the military hospitals;
he will undoubtedly return to her entirely
changed, and can she possibly hope the
change will be for the better? There is no
! prospect for glory, advancement or mill
tary rewards. and she can hardly feel that
ing his country. Yet. with all this, there
is little surface grumbling to be heard. and
there are very few cases OF a F~renchman's
emigrating to escape military duty. as is
often the case in other European countries.
1t is only when one becomes intimate in
French families that one learns of the re-
greet with which most men regard the three
years service they gave TO a country whose
taxes alone are sufficiently burdensome and
the anxiety with which they see their sons
enter upon the same career.
This compulsory military service has
much to do with explaining the system of
the dot" which seems so repugnant TO
the American point of view. 1t is really
not marry a girl who is not ''dottee." for
1t is nearer correct TO put II that it is only
i'm rare instances that he is able to do 9TH
tTW
Certainly both the system of the dot and
the military service make good fathers of
Frenchmen. and their. petty economies be-
come more dignified when one considers the
family burdens these customs entail. The
father knows that during the army service
his sons will be dependent on him for ev-
erything except their bare necessities, and
when they come out he must start them in
business. II a Frenchman marries young
he is naturally hardly in the position that
a man of his age would be in America. and
it is necessary that his wife shall do her
share. The accepted custom is that the
wife shall provide half; that is, If the man
has a position or business that provides an
income of $1,000 a year. she shall be pos
sessed of property bringing in an equal
amount.
This rule is by no means strictly adhered
to. for naturally a superior social standing
on the part of one family is taken into ac-
count. Moreover. Frenchmen do marry for
love, and often a girl who is lowered with
little save charm and beauty. but she is
pretty apt to have something. for a French
father is not doing his duty If he does not
provide for the daughters pretty much as
he does for his sons. and he accepts this
fact just as he accepted the fact Of his