Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-05-02
FRANCE UNIFIED
AS NEVER BEFORE
No Longer Is Republic Split Into
Jealous, Quarreling
Factions.
NATION Is FULLY AROUSED
From Wars Horrors It Will
Arise Greater and More
Vigorous.
NATION IS FULLY AROUSED

PARIS. May Just as France as a
country will go out of this war greater
than ever, SO the French people. r. few
months ago split up into number of
Jealous. quarrcling political factions,
VIII emerge greater, more vigorous
nation than ever, conscious of the great
tasks that lie before them. but con-
scious also of their own strength and
ability to solve these problems
Writing on this subject, Maurice
Barrcs says in the Echo dc Paris:
Nine months OF war and OF service
with their regiments have cngendered
among our citizens who yesterday were
peasants. workingmen. or bourgeois,
but who arc now soldiers, tho pro-
1oundcst and most elevated feelings.
They have awakened dormant qualities
In their souls. When you have to face
every day the question OF life or death,
your Feelings cease TO remain vague,
and take up the task which nature has
assigned to them and the original vIr-
tees from which every society arises,
come into evidence again.
1T is grand subject this! The
French In the trenches. The one who
teaches us to understand them helps
us TO anticipate what they will desire
In the future. 4 clear UNDERSTANDING
OF the transformation We have under
gone during this war Will teach us the
main clements OF what France is going
10 be after the war.
1T is the men who are now nGhting
30 patiently and hcroicany in the
trenches who arc going to mold the
future OF France. and IL could not pos
sibly be In safer hands"
That the change In the character OF
the French people Is even more evident
to the casual visitor than 10 one who
lives among the French is apparent
from the words OF a prominent Dutch
government Official
What struck me most during my
trip through France" nc writes, was
tho seriousness OF all classes of the
people. absolutely inconsistent with tho
general idea of the French as CAV.
superficial and spiritual race Here is
whcrc the Germans committed n grave
error. In Germany before the war
everybody spoke OF French frivolous
ness. OF Gallo superhciality, OF the
ever-present menace of revolution.
and everybody believed that as soon MS
the German eagle raised its wings the
French republic would crumblc into
dust.
GERMANS LED ASTRAY
ny TOURIST OPINIONS
The mediocre German psychologists
had allowed themselves TO be led astray
10y the impression which the average
German tourist had OF Paris. as a city
OF vice, and thosc who read the pers
from the other side OF the Rhine firmly
in ta
calculations.
German officers imagined that as
soon as the war broke out many ON
GERS and men in the French armies
would refuse 10 march against the
enemy, and that a revolution would
break out in Paris. They expressed
the utmost contempt of the French
army. which was weakened by social
Ism and radical attacks, and they have
not yet recovered from their astonish-
ment at the splendid French discipline.
1T is not from It's political theology
that one must Judge race II is true
that the French arc easily charmed by
beauty. originality of thought and elo-
qucnce, brilliant colors and morbid per-
fumes. but at the bottom Of his char
actcr the Frenchman is Ingenious
serious, energetic and industrious, and
emotions effect him only superfcially
me Germans made the great mis-
take or founding their opinion on what
they read in French newspapers. but
to form an idea of what Il people Will
do In moment OF danger when the
tocsin alarms the whole country and
the horizon Is red with the flames of
burning villages. You must study their
history, for at such times they are not
governed by newspaper writer's, hut
soul is subject 20 atavistic influences
and the history OF a race follows their
profound laws. No people in the world
mas SO often appeared to play with its
future and vocation MS the French but
no nation has ever given such splendid
proofs of its powers of rapid trans
formation. At such critical times great
personalities have come forward rs ~
by magic such as Joan of Arc, Napo-
leon and General Joffre."
TELLS OF BEHAVIOR
OF GERMAN GoURMaNDs
In the Bulctin dcs Armecs, Able
Wctterle, the former representative OF
the city of Colmar in the German Reich
stag, writes of his former colleagues:
THE chancellor and his collabora
tors generally hold Il reception in the
official salons at In the evening. After
paying their respects to the host, who
as n rule stands near the buffet, the
guests began to plumber the latter
This has always been n most amusing
sight to me. Looking at these people
you would really think that they had
not seen food for n week. Judging from
the stacks Of eatables they piled up on
their plates. They crowded together
around tho big table. on which were
displayed all kinds of delicatesscn
from West phRlian ham to Bcrliner
HoIzkuchon.' and each guest consci-
entiously sampled every single DISH
placing without scruples on his plato
n leg Of chicken next to a cream roll
when it was impossible to pile any
more on the plates the members sat