The farmer and mechanic., 1915-09-28

most of his tune shaving. Inere was a
bit of Kidding and then the officer
asked:
What have you for the Boches?'
IL have prunes for them, my cap
tain," said he, promptly. That is
slang for bullets. His comrades pat
ted him on the back in delight. There
was nothing in that worth repeating,
but there was everything in the man
ner in which the men received the
little jest. Men who were hot fairly
running over with good spirits would
| not have roared in such entire ap-
proval Even a minor humOriSt is
certain of an appreciative audience at
the front.
My French is of the menu and
tram sort. So that as We tramped
through the trenches / sometimes fail
ed to understand an explanation The
| omission was always repaired by the
nearest man. This trench might be
remarkable for this or that. If 1 fail
ed to get the technicalties of the ex-
PLANTATION / was at least treated to il
luminative pointing and shoulder
Struggling. The general impression
brought away was, that these trenches
are quite the finest trenches in the
war The men exhibit the pride Of a
young father in baby's first tooth.
l am quite aware of the danger OF
generalization upon insufficient evi-
dence. 1t may be that the men on the
remainder Of the French froI-t are not
| so CHEEKY as these chaps. 1t is quite
true that the army of the Lorraine
has had comparatively little fighting
lately Now and then they shell tht
Germans or the Germans shell them
but for the most part they have only
Ito hold their trenches. Neither side
has undertaken a determined often
sive here since March. But there il
Ienough fighting to keep the danger O
sudden death prominently befor'
ones eyes. Somewhere guns were fir
ing continually. Some of our bes
jokes were heard in trenches wher'
the silence" sign was posted lest to-
great merriment stir the German
neighbor to bomb throwing rage.
Returning Soldiers Cheer.
; But l believe that same spirit anti
mates the entire French army today
When / reached Paris some week
ago 1 found the city rather quiet
rather sad, though infinitely NOR
lovely than when l last went to tn
t the fire trench Of the Gallo pessim
, ist. One can hear more bad new
, that isn't true in Paris than anywf1er
, else in France. 1t is a poor day tha
) does not reveal some disheartenin
t fact that would be infinitely NOR
disheartening if it happened to be
fact. After a little I noticed that tn
D city was beginning to perk up. Thi
: woful malaria was being dispersed.
What is it?" l asked. What ha
happened?"
e Men are beginning to get hom
t from the front on leave" was tn
e reply.
t 1t had made all the difference. Fe
I II months not one French soldier ha
:. been given days leave. Their won
Y en- folk and men folk did not knO
v what had happened to them. They di
: not know whether they were we'll {
g ill, we'll fed or ragged, starved {
" stuffed. It isn't any wonder tn:
= Paris looked down her pretty nos
It Anything might be happening b.
j. hind that screen of silence. One ca
not blame Paris for looking upon tt
,s dark side.
4, Then these lusty bucks came hon
n cheering. Everything was we'll wi,
y them in the best of all possible wal
IS The outlook was persistently brigk
1t The one man in France who nev
d repines and never doubts his fight,
ID ability and the most supreme con
< dence OF certain victory If II
spirit l saw in the army Of the Lo
g raine were not common to the who
ID front it would not have been reflect
le in that mirror Of Paris. But did n
ID realize the significance Of it until
IN came here. l had not believed it DO
l. sible that an army could be hapr
1t seemed against nature.
This is especially interesting to m
so because it shows that the spirit in t
I'd moral barometer Of the French pe
n pie has risen greatly in the last thr
Ill months. When I visited the Fren
s. front in May l was the first CORE
at pondent who had been with the c.
of man army to be permitted to $
in something Of the French army in g
mt ton. At that time the F'renchm
All seemed sufficiently confident to n
ne but grim. 1t was as though he WE
III determined to see the thing throue
IT
ng HADT NnA 0hnEh tn ~