South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-11-23

Lens. while at the same time the French
driving the enemy through the dust or the
Champagne, there we're some who really under
stood Cor the first time that the understand
.ng with France" was fact in practice as well
as sentiment
1t seems extraordinary enough that such
news should be to anyone; but it was The
chief organ of our pessmist press had actually
suggested, in all seriousness, that the heads OF
hi allied commands should take counsel-to'
?ether; but shook its head over the improo-
stinty OF so bold a suggestion being accepted.
II might well have urged, with equal approprl-
ateness that trenches be provided TOT the
protection of our troops. that the recent 1nYen-
tion known as the bayOnet should be attached
T., rifles during handtO-hand conflicts, and tnat
map Of Northern France might be very usetuI
u our Generals at the front We should De pre-
Jared not only TO agree with our gloomy jour
Ialist upon these points, but even to Tighten his
gloom by assuring him that these things had
occurred to other great minds, and even been
partially carried out.
But there was one part of the news which
would STILL in some corners of England, cause
a deeper if a more subcOnscious surprise. IL Is
the repeated report, by all Observers, OF the
calm" Of Paris after the victory. We had be-
gun dimly to realize that Frenchmen are cool
il. defeat We shall know great deal more
about them when we understand how and why
they are cool even in triumph.
I believe our false notion of the French
character was very largely founded on the
French cabman. And believe that being to be
n subtle, If not sensitive spirit who is much
misunderstood. Not all English travellers, per
haps fell into the merely verbal error o. the
ole lady who observed a certain cOldness IN the
cccher she had tremendously addressed as
cochon The type las been better appreciated
In the admirable mystery tale OF "Trents Last
Case" Mr. Bentley's hero did justice to the
French cabman's cultured vocabulary, safe-
81 arrnar l~QF 10 nnnf nf
from Keats: Happy is England, sweet her art
less cabmeD; enough their simple loneliness for
ne" That deep-minded democrat, Mr.. Dooley,
said that if he we're a Frenchman he would be
pfraid OF nobody but the cabdrivers; land
wouldn't be afraid of them long, for I'd be a cab
driver meself" But it has not yet fallen in the
way Of any social philosopher to analyze the
French cabman; if any had done so, he would
have destroyed many taIse IDEAS ABOUT the
French citizen.
For instance, the three main impressions
formed by the poor old woman about her cochon
probably were: Cd that he drove wildly;
or that he shouted, cracked his whip, and
kicked up a general shindy; CD that he was
rude The old woman reported this to the
other old women who write authoritative books
~, foreign policy and imperial travel, and the
result was picture of the Frenchman as mere
ly excitable and undisciplned, so that to speak
of the French calm still seems like paradox.
But in truth our old mistake about France
falls under three heads which exactly CORE
MANY differences are accidents. They are men
tnUv unfamiliar but morally coorless Thus
much of the impression of wild driving Though
lot alb comes from the fact that the rule Of the
road is reversed, and he who is on the right Is
IN the right This mere unIamllarlty mas nad
many hCtions.
Ali kinds of tests criticisms, suggestions OF
vanity looseness, stinginess, slackness, gaudi-
ress have been deduced from the French
soldiers red trousers. Even Mr.. DOOley had a
puf there COul1
he a very profound spiritual chasm between the
soldier who wore a blue coat with red trousers
and the soldier who wore a red coat with blue
trousers Or again, It is a French custom to
keep the windows of a restaurant mostly closed.
do not know the reason; very likely there is
nc reason But certainly the reason cannot be
q clustered terror of the mere open air, for the
same Frenchman will take his whole dinner and
6Inner-table bodily out into the street. at which
the English old lady while untravelled, might
POSSIBLY faint man cannot be hiding behind
windows when he can do without walls Much
~ the misunderstanding, then, is mere local
custom like the rule OF the road.
NEXT comes the matter of noise To some
n will seem a paradox: but the noise does not
come from the Frenchman being ruffled, but
rather from his being unrunled. He has no
nerves as we say when mean that he has
very good ones His amazing bowls do not
amaze him Noise Is the normal like the
murmur of breezes or the roll OF the distant
river His sigh is hullaballoo. his whispers
6 horrible yen. His fathers have followed ths
cannon In 4 hundred campaigns.
II Is true that there mingles with this neI-
vous immunity a touch OF nerceness that is
not so much emotion merely impatiencs.
Often IT is an intellectual impauence-one
might almost say a cold impotence. 1t is the
Impotence Of a chess-player who cannot be
bored with long game when he already fore
sees the last But this abruptness.
sometimes approaching 10 brutality. has less
10 do with the noisinsRs than that other ele-
ment OF invulnerability In the nerves The
streets OF Paris do not solely primarily
prove what a racket the French can raise:
they prove even more what racket the
French can endure.
And IN the matter OF politeness the truth
will again appear paradoxcal. What makes
poor Frenchman uncivi is the same thing
that makes him civil. II is the civil, or civic
idea-the idea Of human equality. Many rich
old ladies from more aristocratic countries
do really talk as II cochon were pretty much
the same as cocher. IL the poor man strikes
back Il is not 70 destroy the social structure
but rather 10 preserve IL He keeps his end
up. OF course since human nature is imper
feet that the combination OF the democratic
instinct I describe with the temperamental i'm
patience l have already noted does produces