Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-09-28
oUTCASTS FROM ALL LANDS
HUMAN DERELICTs MAKE Up
FRANCES FOREIGN LEGION.
Mysterious Medley of Men Who Seek
Oblivion In Algerfa-Mauy Are
Unusually Gifted.
From the London Telegraph.

but chiefly from Germany. In this cosmo-
politan corps are to be found rubbing Shout
ders together noblemen and gentlemen who
have lost caste, disgraced officers broken
down bankers and notaries. artists and stu
dents who have failed in life, deserters
from various armies, escaped convicts,
thieves. pickpockets and men who have
managed to cheat the guillotine or the hall
ter. The latest contribution to the infor-
nation already possessed about the legion
is by George DEsparbes. a Partisan liter
airy man, who spent a month in Algeria
studying this subject. He has reproduced
as faithful reporter what he saw and
heard while In Algeria, and his book is Gu
riously enhanced by the pen-and-ink
sketches made for him by two soldiers of
the legion, who do not assuredly draw fiat
tering portraits of their absinthe-polsoned
comrades.
In an early chapter. headed Lies" the
author deals with the question of the ma
tionaiity of the men of the legion. Accord
ing to the figures given, which are by no
means trustworthy, there Were fifty-six
Englishmen or British subjects in the
corps when NJ. d Esparbes was in Algeria.
It is feasible to suppose that some of these
British subjects were Maltese and also per-
haps Irish. Nearly all the recruits, how
ever, tell lies about their nationalities, as
well as about their antecedents.
Many Men of Talent.
1t is certain that there are numerous Teu-
tons, and especially Alsatians. in the le-
gion, but. then, many of the Austrians also
put themselves down as Germans. while
Frenchmen who desire, for reasons best
known to themselves, to remain utterly I'M
known. inscribe themselves as Belgians,
Swiss and sometimes as Italians Among
the adventures and castaways there are
men who are to be heard discussing Kant,
Leibnitz. and. in another connection Wag
ner III their barrack rooms or along the
free, shaded principal street of Sidi-bel-
AbbeS. There are common legfonaries who
know five or six languages, and who can
quote ancient and modern writers. Others
are marvellous musicians actors account
ants. When they die in the colonies or in
battle they are thrown into a hole and
covered up, but, as M. D'Esparbes relates,
there is generally prayer said over the
dead comrade by somebody who plays the
priest for the occasion.
In such collection of men vice is natu-
rally rampant. The greatest vice in the
corps Is love of drink. A legionary would
laugh at the apostles of temperance or tee
totalism, who are fairly successful among
British soldiers and blueJackets. In Alge-
ria ten bottles of wine can be had for a
franc and ten glasses of absinthe for so
confines. In these circumstances it is not
surprising that course of Algeria is det-
rimental, not only to the legionary, but
also to the ordinary French messman. The
Iegionaries, however, seem to be the hard
est drinkers, and take absinthe until they
work themselves into the "cafard,'' or
cockroach stage, as NJ D. Esparbes de-
scribes 1t. The symbolic cafard creeps into
the absinthe drinkers brain and makes
him alternately erottc, quarrelsome. muffin
Gus and stupid The cafard also excites
them to desert, as in the cases of the two
former officers of the Austrian army who
after drinking bout, tried to escape to
Morocco, but were caught by the gen.
darmes.
Each Soldier a Mystery
he NJ
good account. Many of them are, of course
''rankers," and all are as brave as their
men. Their isolated life makes them studi-
Gus, and they are not above taking lessons
from DICTIONARIES possessing more erudition
or technical knowledge than themselves
They have appointed as one of their Iect-
urers corporal who had" been a colonel of
engineers in the Austrian army. Although
the DICTIONARIES do not read MANY newsTa
pers echoes of far-of events reach them
from time to time and they occasionally
call each other by the names of men ia
nous in the world beyond Sidi-pei-Abbes
Thus German-Alsatian named Kirchner
was usually called the sirdar in allusion
to the post formerly held in Egypt by the
present English commander-in-chief In
South Africa.
One of the most noteworthy cbant.-s
written by the author is that headed Il es
Mysterious" Those mysterious men of the
legion enter it one fine day and as soon as
eiiSy tbiO SiotHcu III S6QulOuSy
ceavor to forget their pasts. They never
speak OF themselves, and they die as they
lived in the legion-human eniemas Moth
ing can ever be known about them or their
al.eceoen.s; rev nave been identified or
found out by the officers One. for in
stance. has been a leading tenor In the
opera house of great European capital
A Prussian who was killed in Tonquin was
found to be a genuine count and the son
of a high military official In 1897 ono
AIbrecht Friedrich Joined the I'd Battalion
OF the legion. He was about twenty-fiye.
OF distinguished manners, reserved and ST.
lent about his past. He died at Fort Gerry
Vile, Algeria. and three days afterward a
party of German official persons came for
his body. which they took away with them
on board their special steamer, bound for
dead legionary was a cousin of Emperor
William of Germany.
Always Ready to Fight
NJ. D'Esparbes suggests that some fine
soldiers could be obtained from Poland and
Ireland for the foreign legion, and with
these could be Incorporated the men of AL
SAGE and Lorraine, who Join for the pur-
pose of serving France In this manner a
corps delite" could be formed, the more
objectionable men being kept In the older
battalions Service in the foreign legion is
however, hard and 1t can only be very few
persons who remain long in 1t through
sheer love Of soldering. There are MANY
young Belgians and others who are an
nually enticed by the notice affixed to the
recruiting depot in Paris to the effect that
those who aspire to the honor of serving
France can do so in the foreign legion"
The aspirants enlist and soon after their
landing in Algeria they find that to be a
soldier Of the legion means hard work in a
hot climate, iron discipline, small pay.
scanty rations and the post of greatest peril
In battle.
All, however, who have had any expert
ence of the DICTIONARIES attest that there
can be no question Of their bravery They
are always ready and willing to fight and
they gladly forget their sorrows, troubles
and privations amid the din OF battle, and
when the bullets are flying which send so
many of them to the roughly-made grave
wherein their crimes and their follies are
buried with them forever.
Water Curtains Against Fire.
From Casters Magaxine