Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-03-20
.2ERNCE IN TRENCHES
ROBS WAR Of ROMANCE
e In The Trenches Is Full Of Danger land Mud--Says
Member of Foreign Legion -- Americans Celebrate
Thanksgiving and Invite GuestsDeath Becomes So
Common That Pangs Of Hunger Mean More to Soldier
Than ThrOes Of Pain

i"hSeu leusu III our nut. Jose Amer,
an Argentine, heard that we had
picked up some chickens and had shot
goose, and that Jacobs was cooking
them for some sort of banquet, and he
invited himself, saying: II know
what Thanksgiving Day is, and Pm
South American, so / think / ought to
Gomez
The other twelve men in the squad
didn't know what Thanksgiving Day
was, but they knew chicken when they
smelled it, so we invited them ali.
The chicken was served out Of huge
magnificent old china bowl, which we
had found in the deserted house of the
mayor of small town nearby. Chan.
man, whhO knows antiques when he
sees them, said the bowl was at least
three hundred years old and that he
was going to take it home with him
when he left the trenches, but one day
when we permitted five infantrymen
of a newly arrived division to sleep in
our hut, shell struck the rough roof.
broke the bowl and killed five men.
We left the men and bowl buried in
the eaved'in' hut and built q new
house.
French Foreign Legion.
My comrades and I, in the French
foreign legion, went to war under its
folds and as we marched out of Paris
about the middle Of October and start.
ed on our $50 mile tramp to the front
the French cheered the Stars and
Stripes with huge delight. When Ouida
wrote under Two Flags she was
telling of my regiment the famous old
French foreign legion in which every
man fights under the French flag and
carries in his heart the thoughts of his
own country's banner.
OF the 1900 men ! started out with
only 3S5 were alive February |. There
are strange men in the foreign legion
men whose lives have been twisted in
one way or another; men with pasts,
men with dark secrets; men who want
to die but who have stopped at suicide.
You never ask man in the French
foreign legion who he really is,
Intended to Join Flying Corps.
l had joined the foreign legion be.
cause | had been told that, if | got
INTO the French flying corps, which |
wished to do, | must first become a
member Of the legion. | didn { intend
to go to the trenches but the first thing
| knew we were under way with our
American flag flying over us, bound
for the from.
MY arrangements for entering the
itlying corps had gone glimmering and
mere was, only an ordinary private,
carrying a rifle and pack weighing
w pounds, We marched for six davs,
~ hours a day, for 40 minutes at a
stretch, with five minute rests. Al
last we reached little town which
they told us, was three miles from the
trenches. We had been all aglow ia
get into the fighting.
"lt'll be just our luck to be held in
reserve. We won't 90 to the trenches
for a long time" Il hope they get us
into the fighting right away. -
Ordered Into the Trenches.
We had made these remarks hun.
dreds Of times during our long march
An orderly came up to the position
where we were standing and said:
we are to go directly to the
trenches It was like douse OF
cold water. Wash I this just little
bit too sudden2 We thought.
Then terrific chatting broke out
among us. Every man was trying Ia
prove how ready he was. Men always
do that IN pinch found. Jokes
were made in unnatural tones. Loud
laughs were high pitched Men slapped
others on the back boisterousy.
didn't know that all these things were
unfailing signs that fear was tugginp
at our hearts. / had hundreds OF
chanees in the days to come to study
myself and other men In the period,
Of danger and I've learned that feal
always comes.
The brave man isn't the man who
mas no fear He is the man who ha.
IT and conquers il or who fears tho
lloes Of his mates more than the bul
lets Of the enemy.
Grim Relics of Struggle.
We marched a few miles more that
afternoon aud at last found ourselyc,
IN deserted little town. Our path
had been strewn with relics Frencl
caps French knapsacks, broken French
rifles, French graves. I found myself
wondering why we saw no German
relies. began 10 understand that
evil things could happen to US as wei
as to the Germans. We were going
to kill the Germans, but, in the mean
time, what were they going to do to
usl was an average man, straight
from the sidewalks Of San Francisco
aud what was happening TO my mind
could have happened to the mind OF
any man | know. We could heal
shooting now; distant rumbling. ouI
YContinu,J ON Para Threal