The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-15
THE FRENCH CONsCRIPr.
Dramatic Scenes when Boys Draw
Their Army Numbers.


In France a little boy looks forwarl
with longing to the time when he shan
serve in the army. Military service is oh
Iigatory and each citizen must do his ser.
vice unless he be a cripple. All men draw
their lot for the army when they come ~
age, and when their term of service il
over they are still obliged TO serve thirt,.
days out of every year, until they reach
the age of forty. This one yearly month
of military drill keeps them in training for
a possible war. There is no favor shown
and each man enters the higher or lower
branch of the service according TO the
number of the lot he draws. The low
numbers, from one up, allot the conscriD
to the marine corps, and TO the regiments
liable TO be sent to countries like Tonkin
AS the tirage au sort-or drawing the To-"
approaches the excitement is intense
throughout France.
In Paris at the Hotel de Vile as they
stand in line, many of the boys are almost
in tears from anxiety and nervousness Tn
many cases friends accompany them and
sit upon benches in the rear of the con
scripts benches waiting to hear the mum
bers called as they are drawn from the
box.
A low number means almost certain
death TO the delicate ones. 1t means Ton
kin. torture fever and savage enemies
The foreigner VINO by some occult inal-
ence has been able to effect an entrance
into the Hotel de Vile at such time,
finds it impossible to resist the emotion
existaut i'm the atmosphere, and he offers
an involuntary accompaniment of tears 10
the subdued sobbing Of the conscript's
friends whenever a number below 40 Is
drawn from the box
The Mayor, girded with his red sash
if the Mayor cannot be present the place
is held by one of his adjutants-stands
at the box. The conscripts step up proud
", their eyes suspiciously bright, their
faces flushed with fever, one by one they
plunge their hands deep In the box. Each
one draws from it a paper, and the May
or or his deputy reads out the number
in a loud voice which echoes back from
the ceiling, and then the boy-man is i'm
mediately passed through swing door
into another room to make way for the
next in line, and also to avert the noise
of exuItation, of compassion or of sorrow
which would inevitably burst forth were
he allowed TO go back to his friends.
Three or four republican guards, with
long horse tail plumes in their brass he'll
NETS with polished lance-like implements
that look like spears in their hands, look
ing very much like the Pope's body guard
stand in line to keep order. They turn
neither to right nor left. They are as i'm
movable and apparently as lifeless as
statues, though doubtless they are neces-
sary, for among the hundreds of men who
draw the lot there are many who, after
all their dreams of glory in which they
figure as Chasseurs de Vjncennes or as
something equally petted and desirable,
draw a low number, and RELOCATED to the
army dregs and fling the swinging doors
behind them desperate, ready for any
thing. And whether the numbers be low
or high, the audience roout is full with
excitement and the audience is nervous
and unstrung-as is natural.