Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-01-04
FRENCH HAZING.
The Practice Reaches a Fine
Art in the Army.
Some Of the Tricks Of the Tormen-
tiers Upon Recruits.
Compulsory Services Bringing French military
Lie Into Disrepuie.

III thic GUILTY. III tclit5SS
and military schools of late has been
brought much to the attention of the
public. with the result that. if not
abolished altogether, it has been al
most done away with, and what re-
mains of it is so modified as to be no
longer the scandal it once was. In
West Point and Annapolis hazing cul-
minated in the incidents which brought
about a Congressional inquiry and re-
suited in the abolition of the custom
in those institutions. probably forever.
Just as the haZing question ceases to
be burning" one over here comes
the news that it is making trouble in
France. where the practice is causing
great decentralization in the army.
In the French army the practice of
hazing has grown SO common and has
been carried to such lengths that it has
become serious detriment to the dis
cipline of the service as well as cause
of discomfort. which is having its ef-
feet upon the country. The young con-
scripts who return home to tell Of
what they went through when they
first Joined the colors. or who write
home of their sufferings and the indig-
mites put upon them. all have families
in which there are votes, and these
families form the people of France who
have overthrown in their time empires.
kingdoms. and republics.
IT has been the aim OF the French
government to inspire in the people of
Franc. a love for the "glory of the
army" but, instead of doing this, ev-
erything. from the Dreyfus incident to
the hazing Of the recruit in his iIl-kept
barracks. has tended to form in the
minds of the people a dislike and a
distrust of the army such as never be-
fore existed in the whole history OF the
nation. There We're indignities put up
on the soldier under Turrenne, there
were hardships and death to be borne
under Napoleon: but to counterbalance
these there We're glorious victories, and
on the whole. q healthy tone in the
service from marshal to private.
HARD TO KILL TIME.
But now it is different. Petty wars
in Tonquin and Madagascar, petty per-
secutions and privations when on duty
at home. no love of the men for their
officers. no regard of the officers for
their men. The military conscript duty
is duty to be gotten out of. if pos
sible way can be found. and when 1t
must be endured, endured grudingly
and with no hope except the hope for
the day Of release. The officers think it
is military" to treat their men with
harshness and contempt, and the men
give their officers as little service as
possible. In barracks the men become
reckless and more devoted to drinking
and playing practical jokes than to q
study of their profession. which to
them is not profession, but term
Of servitude. All serious consideration
of what he is there for is neglected by
the French conscript. and he gets what
pleasure he can out of his surround
ings by Selling upon any pretext for
skylarking or dissipating. The French
officers pay so little attention to their
men that things are possible in the
French army which would not be pos
sible in the barracks of any other
army.
One of the favOrite ways Of haZing a
young conscript in the French army is
to make him believe that he has COM
mitted murder. try him for his life.
and. after sentencing him to death, re-
veal the trick and make him smuggle
wine into the barracks The first night
a raw recruit sleeps in barracks he
generally awakes from his dreams of
invading "perfidi6us Albion" to find a
stream of cold water trickling down
upon his face from can suspended
above. The can has been placed there
l,ryh ~
Arranged what is to follow. The .,oung
man starts from his bunk and seeS the
trick at oTte.- He also sees his cPm-
radss Of Timing at him. A moment be-,
,nufa ~ mad, in his dreams. been plant
ing the French flag on the battlements
OF Windsor Castle while the redcoats
few through the meadows of the
Thames and his brave general accept
cd the homage OF King Edward. He
wakes from his dream of glory to see
his own comrades making a jest of
him. He expostulates, he is insulted. |
he is enraged. he strikes out at one OF
his tcrmentors. and the tormentor falls |
to the floor. You have killed him.
Fly" whisper his comrades.
The man he has struck down is one :
of the "old soldiers" he is told, and
the punishment is death. He tries to
fly, but is not allowed to &c far. His
comrades keep him in the barrack. tell
ing him that perhaps, after all. the
man il not dead. So he passes a |
wretched night. Just before roll-cali in |
the morning he is led past couch |
upon which is laid out the man he has |
struck. apparently cold in death. He |
Falls in with shaking knees. and after
the morning formation is over and he /
goes back to the barracks, where the |
horror is awaiting him. he is placed I'M
der a mock arrest and told that his
victim is really dead. and that he must
stand trial for his life.
At this point II the proceeding some
conscripts have been so |
overcome that they have tainted away |
Or gone into commissions. and their |
cries and lamentations have reached |
the e1rs of officers. who have placed |
them under real arrest for making sud1 |
0 racket. Others have had their ner-
vous systems permanently impaired,
and not few have been laid up in
hospital for long time after passing
through the ordeal But the officers
seem to have been Indifferent, and un-
ill 1afo1x- M pnf;o1 f~nc H~anv <ol,av> o<s