The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1914-11-13

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 q 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'
casionally as they used to in Mo-
rocco. Our captain, who was, OF
course, 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 a 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 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-
sented to come down out of the hail
Of bullets which had never ceased
about him. Yesterday was his first
day in the trenches. About three
o'clock In the afternoon a 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. 1t is written"
Think "AlI's Fair In War"
do not know the origin of the
| proverb, "Alls fair in love and war"
but 1t has an ancient, oriental SAVIOR
and l suspect the Turcos thoroughly
subscribe to 1t. These African fight
ers are the only ones among the
allies whom have heard speak open
ly in praise of German ruses.
They're sly ones!" say the Turcos,
and wag their brown heads and grin
appreciation. They think 1t 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 deserted trench, so that
the French will think the trench is
still defended And the wonder to
them Is, not that the Germans have
burned and shelled towns, but that
they have not done so more frequent
ly.
seneeaIese Worship FetIshes.
The Senegalese tirailleurs, although
resembling the Turcos in certain of
their military ethics, are beings Of
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 off 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
ND I'D
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. walked past
them slowly, fascinated. Most wore
shoes, some were barefooted in sand
dals, but had to look very closely
at the dark feet to distinguish this
difference. They seemed very tired
under the weight of their haversacks.
Their eyelids dropped like those of an
exhausted animal or Of man who has
been drugged
Their Look Causes Shudder.
1t 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
off his cap to mop his brow was
amazed to see 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.