The Opelousas courier., 1899-03-11
THE PRIDE OF FRANCE,
SHE CLoRlEs HISTORICALLY IN HER
MAGNIFICENT ARMY.

Would Be Hard to Pick in Advance
How the City of Paris Is Defended
The French army, to a who's
honor human beings are crushed lik
ants and justice smitten in the face
is really a noble organization, not
outstanding the corruption that ma,
exist among some of its superio
officers. The army is organized OF
laws passed by the national assembl,
Of 1872. These have been modified
enlarged and adjusted by additions
laws voted by various legislature.
from 1888 to 1892. To understand
the verydeep concern that is felt abour
the army by the French people
concern similar to ours about the vol.
unteers-one need only remember
that by law there is universal liability
to arms, and that substitution OF en-
llstment by payment OF money is for
hidden. Any French citizen between
the ages Of twenty and forty-fve whS
has not been pronounced unfit foA:
military service, may be called upon
at any time to become a soldier, either
III the active service OF in the re-
serves. Thus it will be seen how per-
sonal a matter the military becomes
for every Frenchman.
There is a law 1882, supplemented
by later laws, providing that the year.
~ contingent must serve three years
IN the active service, ten in the re-
serve pertinent to the regular army,
six in the territorial army and six in
the territorial reserve. The army in
active service is made up of all young
men-'the flower Of France"-who
have reached the age of twenty. The
reserve that is held Immediately be-
hind this active army consists of the
men who have served out their time
in the active army. These two
branches of the French army-that is,
the active and the active reserves
are drawn from over the whole of
France and are distributed over the
whole Of France. The territorial army
and its reserves, however, are as
signed to locations fixed by the ad-
ministration from time to time.
1t is freely admitted about France
and Great Britain that if the fighting
had to be done on land the result
would be in doubt.
The following figures will convey
. very correct idea of the present
strength of the French army: In in
fantry, France has 145 divisional reg
lments of the line, each of 8 battalions
and 4 companies. Every regiment
has 81 officers and 1894 men. There
are Is regional regiments Of tho
line, each with 81 officers and 1860
men, scattered in the various forts of
France. There are 80 b~attalions of
chasseurs-a-pied, each with 10 officers
and 552 men. Four regiments of
zouaves have each ~ officers and 1851
men. There are four regiments of
''tirailleurs, each with 1O3 officers
md 1882 men; two regiments "es-
rangers" and five battalions of Afri-
light infantry.
There are Is regular regiments of
and eight companies of "cav-
Iliers de remonte," of 229 men each.
II artillery there are 40 regiments of
mounted batteries, So horse
batteries, Is mountain batteries, and
z batteries, mounted ard mountain.
q Tunis and Algiers. For engineers
rance has six regiments of sappers
nd miners, of which five contain each
hree battalions and one company of
apper conductors, and the other four
and one company of sapper
onductors. There is also a regi-
tent of railway sappers. There are
lso 20 squadrons of train. :
The budget for 1898 shows that the {
eace strength of the French army y
mounts to 546, O44 men. Of this to- {
u number rs, 4O2 are officers. These 7
cures describe the home army alone, (
al means that the nation has that G
any men at hand in France. The q
my in Algiers consists of SIS, Oil t
Ell, OF whom 2197 are officers, and i
10 army in Tunis consists of 13, 45S t
en-, of whom 552 are officers. Add
70 number of the home army to that 9
the army abroad and the total will n
} 615,412, of whom 20, isl are II
ficers. Including all the depart a
ents, the French army has 142, O3S q
'rses in its service. If France were "
lied upon to engage in wal with any
1ropean nation at this time she s.
ould be ready to put into the field o
]. 1925 for the active army alone and O
!, 700 for the gendarmerfe and the b
publican guards. That is a pretty a
'od fighting force to throw into &C. 81
IN at once. We thought we were Il
ing capitally by raising our big -
lunteer army in the Spanish war,
It had our enemy been France in
cad OF Spain, what another story =.
would have been telling now. Il
ance, back Of her superb army, has D.
grand store Of men to draw on. The !
mber OF men liable to military ser le
e in France is estimated thus: The "
i've army and its reserves, all well pl
lined soldiers, 1850, 900; the terri W
'ial army (active), 900, 900, the ter pl
orial reserve, LOO, 600. These th
re a grand total of 1850, 900. Such a
tremendous force as this would not WI
course be available at once. But ID
France were called upon to put m
tn its best military strength quick IN
she could bring into action with th
trouble whatever an army of at WI
st 2 800, 900 men. at
The coast line Of France extends WI
20 miles on the Atlantic and 1856 on nc
Mediterranean. It's frontier on an
d covers 1875 miles, Of which 1855 no
:es stretch along the German, Bel cis
n, Swiss and italian frontiers and pr