The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
TROOPER 1909.
| A Vivid and Timely Book of Expert
ences in the French Army.

! a NlVld ana timely BOOK OF Expert
ences in the French Army.
Trooper 5000. BY Lionel Decle. Illus
trated. scribner's Sons. For sale by
Putnam, Davis & Co.
At this moment, when the French
army is brought into prominence
through the Dreyfus case, and not only
the unfortunate Alsatian, but the ar
my as well, has been on trial, the pub
| LEGATION of this volume of personal eX-
perience is not only interesting, but
peculiarly pertinent. The author en-
tered the French army in 1879, as a
trooper He was young French gen
tleman, a graduate of a university, and
was thus enabled, upon the payment OF
$500, to serve but one year in the army,
instead of three, before becoming ma
Bile to that CONSUMPTION which Hes IN
wait for every Frenchman who is not
invalid. During the next four years,
however, he belonged to the active
French army and was liable to be call
ed at any time by decree of the war
minister. Such young men are official
ly known as engages conditionnels, but
commonly termed volontaires dun an,
or by abbreviatiOn, volontaires.
M. Decle who was not of age when
he enlisted, was enrolled in the Ninth
dragons and served as a dragon 70
months, for by a technicality his year
was increased eight months, and the
book in question is filed with his ex-
periences. In his preface the author
distinctly states that it has not been
written for the purpose of attacking the
French army, as represented by its otf1-
GERS, but merely as a faithful record of
the hardships endured by him in the
ranks, hardships which he asserts every
Frenchman has still to bear. Referring
to the Dreyfus case, he says: Those
who believed in the guilt OF, -Dreyfus
Fbased their conviction upon their blind
belief in the infallihility of half dozen
officers who had passed judgment up
on the condemned man. Trusting to
unworthy subordinates, the highest Of
ficers of the general staff made Of
Dreyfus guilt matter on which they
staked their own honor and reputation,
and when they discovered that they
had been deceived they found them
selves in the position of having either
to acknowledge that they had been be-
| fooled, or else of having to stand by
those who had led them into their awk-
ward predicament. They chose the lat
| ter alternative, and their friends and
supporters played into the hands of
those who had so fiercely attacked the
army, by refusing to admit that there
could be a single black sheep in it,
and thus linking together the whole
body of French officers and making
their collective honor dependent on the
honor of every individual member"
NJ Decle believes that Dreyfus has
been the victim not so much Of the
malice of individuals as of a faulty sys-
tenn, for, Sin regiment, the colonel
to- int Of a 70 11n
character given him by his corporal or
sergeant" and 1.-THE mere fact of ap-
peal!ng against punishment is consid-
cred an act of INSTRUMENTATION. 1t is
always the same principle-(t uphold
ing Of judgment. without considering
upon what grounds or evidence it has
| been delivered)"
It must be admitted, however, that
M. Decle's narrative does not always
receive the readers sympathy nor his
conclusions the readers acceptance.
There is his story, for instance, of one
Sunday before Christmas" when the
two artists and the two music hall
stars of the day." came Ito visit him,
thereby involving him in an uncom-
Portable contretemps with the regimen
tai major" In another place he tells
one Of his adventures in detail, how,
being unable to obtain permission
through the proper channels to go up
to Paris on important business, he TOOK
the trip through the connivance of a
friendly adjutant disguised in a false
beard. blue spectacles, a silk cap and
long blue blouse. What was his dis
gust after successfully dipping his SUI
periors to be given away by a friend
Elsewhere he tells of losing nearly $50
in less than half an hour at baccarat
According to his own account he was
forever bribing the poorer troopers to
do his work for him.
Whatever was hard or disagreeable he
shirked until it is not surprising that
his officers called him a shirk and were
suspicious whenever he asked for sick
leave. Martin and Platte. two of his
comrades, were as pretty pair of
rogues as ever walked the streets of
Paris, yet M. Decle accepts their stories
with emotion; has he shown the same
Judgment in his observations of the
army?
1t cannot be, however, that NJ. Decle
was mistaken or deceived in what he
writes of the methods that thus pre-
vailed in the army. His descriptions of
the hardships that the men endure are
scarcely overdrawn. During the first
mounted drill in the riding school. one
poor fellow tainted from exhaustion
while three others dropped off their
horses. With 100 en- In the division
there was not a lavatory, although this
is not a privation to the average French
soldier who, according to the author, re-
main all the year round except in the
summer. when they are sent in patches
TO the swimming baths, without taking
single bath or feeling the want of one.
The French conscript is called swine
and treated like one. He is fed on the
poorest of scanty food; is given i'll fit
ting garments and clumsy accoutre-
ments sleeps on bed too small for him
in over-crowded apartments; the sanl-
tary provisions are unspeakable; he is
bullted by brutal officers and worked.
like a slave M. Decle's deliberate con-
clusion, based upon his own experience,
ia that in the event of a foreign war,
the French army would he found to be
mot a body of well trained fighting men
leayened with veterans, and relying on
their leaders with glad confidence--but
crowd of half-taught lads, lacking in