Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-11
FRENCH GENERALlSSlMo
General Joseph Joffre is Known as Man
of Silence.


of Silence.
General Joseph Joffre, generalissi-
mo of the French in the war against
Germany, is a man Of silence. His
whereabouts today are a secret. He
is almost unknown to the public and
few of his soldiers would recognize
him if he motored by them.
Should France eventually win out
against her arch enemies, the Ger
mans it will not be another victory
for Napoleon, which was Joffre's
fondest dream.
Round and fat, silent and satur-
nine, Joffre is not unlike the great
Crosisan in build and characteristics,
and he is profound believer in Ma
poleonic principles, to strike first, to
hit the enemy in many places at
once and to cell his movements with
strict secrecy.
He started this war this way. The
French were not successful. The
Germans crossed the border. M.
Millerand has taken charge and de-
creed that no more Napoleonic poll
cies go. Joffre has been overruled.
Today the French army, instead of
being all along the border and in
Alsace, Lorraine and elsewhere, Is
concentrated to oppose the main Ger
man advance.
Joffre believes in making war in
silence. Indeed, that has been the
marked difference between this cam
paign and the one Of forty-four years
ago. Then, the names Of generals
were on every tongue; now none
knows who is the leader in any par
ticular exploit. When a French
brigade entered Mulhausen few days
ago, the public was not told who was
the brigadier in command for fear
it would prove valuable information
for the enemy.
1t is related of Joffre that he
never betrays his rank even to his
own men who do not know him.
When the troops were being mobiliz-
ed at the beginning of this war, the
generalissimo was at a railway sta
ton, but without any insignia to de-
note his station. There was a group
of reservists on the platform. All
were talking volubly Of going to war.
when do you join?" one youth
asked Joffre.
II have already joined" was the
quiet answer.
Where do you come from?" was
asked.
Paris" was the laconic answer.
Whats your name" persisted the
rural reservist.
1T is best for soldiers to have no
names,' the generalissimo said with
one Of his rare smiles, and when an
officer who recognized him would
have reproved the reservist, Joffre
forbade him.
To strike rather than to be struck
is one of his axioms He believes in
a forward policy, policy Of attack
Gen. Joseph Joffre, though great
strategist, has won his greatest fame
as a builder of forts and roads. He
is a man of fine intelligence, with the
steel gray eyes of a dreamer, but the
ease with which he has manipulated
two million French troops since the
war began shows that he is a practi-
cal man as well.
"Jore the taciturn," as he Is known
to the general stoffe, is scarcely
known to Parisians. In times of peace
he is retiring to a degree and shuns
public recognition.
He entered the army in the war OF
1870 when only IS years old, and was
promoted for gallantry on the field by
Marshal MacMahon. Immediately
after the war he was entrusted with
rebuilding the forts around Paris, the
forts that today are being prepared
again to defend the capital against
the Germans.
Made a captain at %, Joffre was
sent into east France to build up the
proved of such value in resisting the
invaders from the north.
Afterward he spent many years
raising impenetrable Notifications at
Tonkin, Island Of Formosa, and Mad
agascar. His next brilliant achiev-
ment was the crushing Of the uprising
in Dahomey. There, with a small
force he utterly crushed the natives
after a short campaign marched into
Timbuctoo. Since that time Joffre
has been at the head of the French
war college, where officers are train
ed. In addition, he has been the su-
preme organizer Of the French army
and when war loomed on the horizon,
there was no debate about placing
Joffre in the field as generalissimo.
Nobody else was thought Of. He is
the Lord Kitchiner of France.