Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-18

Professor and Mrs. Oscar Brousse
jacobson arrived in Pullman Mon
day night on their return from
France. They had some very inter
esting and exciting experiences,
which are enumerated in the follow
ing article, which Professor Jacob
son has very kindly prepared for The
! Herald.
Friends have often asked us to re-
late our experiences and adventures
in France during war time, and our
impressions of the great tragedy, the
tragedy wherein seven million men
are engaged in numbering one an
other. Seven million men in the
prime OF life and high-tide of perfect
health, all of them parts of a mass
i've machinery of organized man.
slaughter, contending with all the
implements of destruction that mod
ern sicence can devise.
The first indication we had of I'M
usually strained relations between
the great powers was on July %,
while travelling near Geneva on the
Swiss border. Madam Jacobson
wished to telegraph our relatives at
| Grenoble. She was politely but
firmly refused the use of the serv-
ice, with the added information that
matters of grave importance to the
nation were preventing the use of
the telegraph to civilians. We did
not then know that the wires had
| been taken over by the military au-
thorities. After this date events
happened with such whirlwind ra-
pidity that they left us dazed and
Supplied.
On August l the military took
over all means of communication and
transportation. All cities were placed
under martial law and nearly all
business stopped. Bulletins were is
sued at the Prefecture and posted
all over the city advising all Ger
mans and Austrians to leave the
country within "a hours, free trans
| portation being placed at their dis
posal to several frontier towns.
Then the general m utilization be-
gan, and for three weeks we lived in
huge military camp of thousands
and thousands of French troops.
The efficiency of the French Off
GERS during the mobilization was
wonderful. There was no excite
ment no confusion, no noise. Every
man was uniformed and found his
regiment, his company, and did his
duty, like a member of crew of a
circus that comes and is going in a
night. This is all the more remark
able when one considers the colossal
size of the army. | noticed, for in
stance, among others, the $40 regi-
ments of infantry. The whole cOun-
try was practically raided for horses
for use in the cavalry, artillery or
transportation, and one of the most
pathetic sights was the thousands of
peasants leading their only horse or
two to the military headquarters.
Soldiers, everywhere soldiers.
They came in swarms and hordes,
settling in the parks, streets and
public squares. The colleges were
! full of them. In the boys and girls
schools, the art school, the museum,
the hospitals, the closed factories
and stores, everywhere, the troops
we're quartered. Grenoble, being a
strongly fortified frontier town, was
one of the centers of military opera
tions for eastern France.
We saw the French nation trans
formed into a colossal army; saw the
brave, but none the less pathetic,
! farewells of wife, mother and sister.
Every household was giving up some
near and dear one. 1t was the usual
thing to see a grim looking soldier
carrying his baby on his arm or bid
ding his old and feeble mother
goodby.
We saw the thousands and thou
sands of young Frenchmen gladly,
bravely, cheerfully, but quietly, de-
part for the firing line at the rate
of about 100 train loads day. We
saw the French girls run the street
cars and generally do a mans work
after their brothers had all gone to
the front. We heard the booming of
the distant cannons. We saw the
execution of German spies. We saw
the cream of the army of Great