The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1911-04-07
French Foreign Legion a Unique
Military Body.
CRIMINALS FILL ITS RANKS.
Il Gathers Recruits From the Social
Outeasts Of All Grades of All Other
Countries-lron Discipline and Bru-
tai Punishments.

then newly conquered colony or AL
geria. The officers are French officers.
of course. but the ranks are made up
of outcasts OF all social ranks OF all
other countries. IL Is understood that
recruits are simply seeking refuge
from the arm of the civil law. The
corps has done excellent work against
the Arabs and is always placed In the
forefront of the fight.
The Foreign Legion exists but to
march, To this one end It's whole
training is devoted. To fall out on
the march is the one objectionable
sin in a leglonnaire. The system OF
marches Is brutal. No matter what
the distance, 1t has to be completed In
one stage. Forty miles, fifty, sixty
no matter-it is done straight off the
reel, with, OF course, brief halts for
rest. But there Is no general halt
until the whole distance Is completed
If legionnaire faints on the march
he Is tied TO baggage cart which
rolls on. He then either has to march
or he Is dragged along. Seeing this
brutal, but later l learned to under
stand the reason for It," said one who
had served in its ranks.
The legionnaire who straggles In the
desert is lost. Hundreds OF men have
died a dreadful death in this way. The
Arab women pounce upon them, lying
helpless in the sand, and, with shrieks
Of fiendish delight, proceed to torture
and mutilate them before killing them
outright
A legionnaire's pay is only a half
penny a day. True, wine In Algeria
costs only a penny a quart, and tobac-
co threepence to fourpence a pound
But-a halfpenny a day!
His rations, too, are Of the scantiest
Two meals a day only are served
breakfast at 10 o'clock in the morning
and supper at in the afternoon
Each meal is exactly alike, consisting
of a thick soup made up Of meat and
vegetables, with bread, and every 9th
er day small quantity Of wine.
The discipline is ruthless In its sever
extreme. For grave offenses, like de-
sertion, insubordinatfon or striking
superior officer, death is frequently In
flicted, or, falling that, the offender Is
sent to serve I'm the penal battalion on
the edge of the Sahara desert. This
nearly always means slow and pain
full death in place OF quick and com
paratively painless one.
Minor offenses are punished with
from twenty to hundred days In
prison or with "cellule," which is soli-
tary confinement in the dark plus star
vation. | have seen strong. robust
men so reduced after doing thirty days
cellule that they have hardly been able
to stand, yet they had to resume their
ordinary duties nevertheless.
Not long since two other dreadful
forms OF punishment were In vogue
the "silo" and the 'crapaudine." The
silo was just deep hole In the ground
shaped like a funnel, into which the
victim was cast. He was given no
blanket or other protection from the
weather.
The sun beat upon him by day; the
cold night mists penetrated to the mar
row OF his bones He could not lie
down, for the bottom OF the silo sloped
to point. He just crouched, hud-
died heap, until not infrequently death
mercifully relieved him from his suf-
ferings.
The crapaudine consisted in trussing
a man as fowl is trussed, his hands
and feet being tied together on his
back In such manner that they form
ed n sort OF semicircle.
This resulted In such frightful
cramps that the pain sometimes drove
men mad. Both the silo and the era
paudiHe, however, have now been
abolished. But In the field and on the
march an offender is still punished by
being 'spreadeagled" and bound to
four stakes driven into the ground.
To escape from these tortures men
mutilate themselves, usually by cut
ting Off one or more fingers, or they
will purposely make themselves ILL.,.
One favorite trick Is to take n drink
from the sewers under the Arab pris-
on. This loathsome draft almost I'm.
variably brings on an attack Of ty-
phoid OF a peculiarly malignant type.
Others, more enterprising. try to de-
sert, but they rarely succeed. Most
ly they meet with dreadful deaths at
the hands OF the wild Arabs OF the
desert. The only class OF recruits who
are treated with special favor are
those who have previously been OFF,
GERS in some other army. These are
usually made corporals on enlistment
and afterward sergeants. But even
under the most favorable conditions
life In the legion Is the life Of a dog.