The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-11-14
HOW FRANCES BLACK MEN FROM
AFRICA FIGHT THEIR BATTLES

with yellow braid, his bright red sash
and his cap like fez without tasseL
His Moroccan campaigns, he said
were mere practical jokes to the pres
ent butchery, and he told me- this
story OF the trenches, from which he
had just returned:
I'VE have a hard time making the
men stay down under cover. They
want to see what is going on They
want to jump out and wave their guns
and shout insults at the enemy oc-
casionaIly as they used to in Mo
rocco, Our captain, who was, OF
course, a Frenchman, was as bad as
any. Except to sleep, he absolutely
refused to descend into the trenches
He would kneel for hours on the
ground little to the rear watching
the enemy through his glasses and d.
recting our fire. When we remon-
strated with him he merely said, like
any Mohammedan, that a bullet would
! find him when his time came-neither
sooner nor later. But so many Of
our men paid for their temerity with
their lives that he, too, finally con-
scented to come down out of the hail
Of bullets which had never ceased
| day in the trenches. About three
| O'Clock in the afternoon shell burst
overhead. A piece of it hit him on
the crown and killed him instantly"
So you think it was because his
time had Gomez"
What else can one think? He had
found safety in the midst Of death,
| but death had found him in what
should have been the midst of safety
The captain was right. It is written"
Think "Ail's Fair in War"
I do not know the origin OF the
| proverb, "All's fair in love and war"
but it has an ancient, oriental SAVIOR
and I suspect the Turcos thoroughly
subscribe to it. These African fight
ers are the only ones among the
allies whom 1 have heard speak open
" in praise Of German ruses-
They're sly ones!" say the Turcos.
and wag their brown heads and grin
appreciation. They think it a very
good scheme of the Germans not TO
make any effort to bury their dead
before retreating from one position to
another, for thus the pursuing enemy
must either bother to do the job him
| self or else run the risk Of discomfort
and even disease. They especially
admire the German trick Of standing
up their dead, helmet on and gun in
| hand, along a deserted trench, so that
the French will think the trench is
still defended. And the wonder to
them is, not that the Germans have
| they have not done so more frequent
".
SenegaIese Worship Fetishes.
The SenegaIese t1rail1eurs, although
resembling the Turcos in certain Of
/ their military ethics, are beings Of
I an altogether different order. There
| is but one Allah, and Mohammed is
/ his prophet" means nothing to them
| They worship fetishes They are
| black men of Timbuctoo and the
Ivory, coast, where the fiery harmat-
! tan blows southwestward on the Sa-
hara toward the sea
Knowing that the forefathers Of
many Of our own good American ne
| grOes had been captured by English
and Portuguese slavers in precisely
these regions, expected to find some
thing familiar in the aspect Of the
! Senegalese rifiemen. was destined
to disillusion. Three days ago on the
road to Reims, overlook an entire
regiment They stood or squatted or
sprawled for several hundred yards
along the grass at the edge of the
winding road, resting under the pop
lars, their rifles stacked, their white
officers withdrawn into groups, al
ways at some distance from the men.
Save for a red sash under their tu-
mics, they were uniformed entirely in
dark blue, even to their cloth caps
and their putties. I walked past
them slowly, fascinated. Most wore
shoes, some we're barefooted in sand
dals, but I had to look very closely
at the dark feet to distinguish this
difference. They seemed very tired
under the weight of their haveTsacks.
Their eyelids dropped like those Of an
exhausted animal or Of a man who has
been drugged.
Their Look Causes Shudder
| It may have been this, or 1t may
! have been the blodshot whites Of
their eyes which caused me to shud-
der slightly when one looked at me.
| They scarcely spoke. Some sat star
ing into space, bent forward over
their long, thin legs. which extended
like poles in front OF them A num-
Der were bearded-that is to say,
| they had across their Upper lips and
under their chins a circle Of black
hair, the center of which was a pair
Of thick lips. When one Of them took
OF his cap to mop his brow 1 was
amazed to see a headdress like the en-
| cravings in the anthropolgy text
boOks-a shaved head with a tuft on
top from which descended on all
sides little kinky strings. Some, too.
had earrings.