Evening star., 1915-06-17
KING ALBERT DROPS
! WAR TO SEE SHOW
indians in Rear of British Front
Give Exhibition of Pig
Sticking.
HARD WORKED PEASANTRY
ENJOYS A DAYS OUTING
Hundreds of French Guns. Net Far
Away. Kept Busy Bo.nbarding
German Works.
BY FREDERICK PALMER.
Associated Press t"rre>P"Hd"ut al the Front

Associated Press Correspondent AT the Front ii
Frame
ERITgSH HEADQI ARTETS IN
FRANCE, June liking Albert of the
Eel3rianS, who has not had many after
Moons off during the last eleven months,
took ore off To see a show-a symklns.
He has stuck as close 10 his job in what
remains of his kingdom as has many a
desk-ridden business man who cannot be
induced to go to the mountains or to
the sedshore.
Whether living in their own houses. or
refugees whose houses i'll the fighting
zore haEe been demolished by shels. the
French people in the rear of the British
frcnt have not had many afternoons off
either The women the Old. the crippled
and every child who could hold a h,.e have
taken the places Of the ab.c-hGGied men
away al WAY. With The crops ali in and
the wheat rirening, word came that
Strange picturesque. mGrtair from some
where beyond the Arabian nights coUn-
try known as the British Indian troops.
who had been refriGerdtIug through a
raw Flanders winter in French barns and
outbuildings. We're going to give an eN-
hihition OF horsemanshIp
Everybody was invited and there was
no admission fee 1t was like a free
wild west show on the outskirts OF a
New England village, with a chance to
see heroic king, and if he really was
as tall as the people had said
The scene was 4 small plateau hard
ened hy hoofs of the cavalry drill. the
one space in northern France which
the industry of those too weak TO tiSnt
had not made green with cultivation.
Across the sweep of fields and groves
which hid the trenches and batteries
along the British front was an almost
rnhrokcn silence. but farther north a
section of the horizon was roaring like
d gigantic mutfied snare drum.
There French guns, hundreds of
French guns. were busy tearing away
at the German works known as the
labyrinth. There men We're being
killed or wounded every minute, but
those living near the front thought
nothing of that. They are as used to
1t as is anybody living in the neigh
borhood of Niagara Falls to their roar.
Joy in Indians Hearts.
Joy was in the Indians hearts. the
Joy of warming sunshine to children
of the sun fairly out of winter ice
box at last The joy was shown in
their dark eyes. it glistened on their
white teeth and it CLEANED on the for
est of their lances-
They were free of swaths, the cloth
ing which the king emperor had sup
piled to them to keep out the Flanders
cold Sunshine had oiled their mus
cles under their bronze skins Broad :
way and Kansas in dog days would not
be too hot for them. They would be
something like India and home And
white sahibs" said two more months
July and August-Which were warmer
still were coming.
Those who had survived the trench
warfare Were going to show how we'll
they had kept themselves through the
winter. Particularly, they were GO
ing to show how well they mad kept
their horses amid the mud and slush.
AS with the Cossack, praise their
horses and you praise them.
Contrast and picturesqueness if YOU
please. were in the trot past of these
easterns, bit out of Durham and Del
hi in an obscure corner of northern
France. as they were reviewed by this
giant. fair-haired king. with dropping
straw-colored mustache giving him a
viking air
Groups of Indian officers in the
watching crowd rubbed elbows with
French peasants. The French of diff
ferred 10 some comrade who had fallen
since they last met.
War and Its Horrors Forgotten.
Then the war and its horrors were
forgotten in the British love of snort
An indian. emitting 4 fierce. screaming
yen, galioped down the field and i'm
paled small wooden peg, stuck in the
ground, on his lance
Bravo. called the officers as he
rushed by at top speed. Another India n
tried the same thing and failed. Too
bad, was heard. but there We're more
hfaNos than too bads'' spoken in
the qniet way the British express their
emotions
These officers We're in India in spiri,
rather than in France They were the
leaders who had made soldiers out OF
the human clay of the east and had
held them fast in the face of German
shells as a part of the working of tba,
extensive plant called the British
empire.
When it came to demoastrativenes.
the French We're real fans Granular ther
mother and children were having fbe
time Of their lives. II heat the movies
in town and there was nothing to nav
either They liked the way the India ms
yelled That made them seem Iike
real. sure-enouch Indians Rritist
cayalryman would only pick IN a neg
He would not veil
AS four riders. looking as wild a.
any theatrical manager would desire
came tearing down the field abreast
their white teeth cleaning as they ut.
tered their screaming challenge. nick ef
UP four of those bits of wood at tn,
same instant and waved their lance
heads aloft. token Of their success. +,
the king. one old Frenchman said ''
wish II had been four Germans the,
had speared in a charge"
IL was a great day for the hard
worked French peasantry when the,
could soc both the hard worked kinl
of the Belgians and an Indian gym
Kama, and the roar kept coming from
that distant section of the horizon
where the steady hail of shells wa,
eating its way into the German
trenches with the mechanical routis,
Of steam shoveIs cutting into the sid
Of hill.