Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-31
ROUEN ANG[|C|zED
BY TOMMY atkins
French Language Is Largely
RELOCATED and British Gus
toms Prevail.
ENGLISH OVERCOMING
FIRST DIFFICULTIES
YIN. C. A. and Salvation Army Try
to Keep Soldiers of Expedi-
tionary Force Straight. o.

| Correspondence of the Associated Press.
| ROUEN. France, October Five
| o'clock teas. smoked fish. roast beef.
| boxing matches, cricket, golf. corned
beef. marmalade, pickles, Tommy At
! kins and the Salvation Army have so
completed the Anglicizing of Rouen
\ that Richard the Lion-hearted him.
self would scarcely recognize it.
Since the second week of the war
the streets have been full of khaki, and
from that time on the English Ian
| guage has encroached until French is
rarely heard excepting in the cafes,
from which Tommy Atkins Is excluded
by order of the general Even the on
clai communicate Is more English than
french In Rouen. Ask newsboy for a
paper and he will inquire Daily Mail,
! Telegraph, Times? Here and there a
boy has French paper. but seems to
\ consider it scarcely worth mentioning
If any one has building or an apart
rnent to let he advertises it in English
and it is promptly taken. officers, sub
alterns and privates of the auxiliary
service lodge in town. while the fight
ing Tommies are camped just outside
The censor forbids mention of the num-
Der, and discretion allows nothing
more than the hint that there are
enough of them to make a town of
10000 French population appear to be
English.
Second English Base.
| Rouen was the second English base
in France after Havre: it was aban-
doned for Nantes during the march of
the Germans toward Paris, but since
the battle of the Marine the quays
along the Seine, where coal was for
merly king, with wine as queen, are
| nned with piles of cases containing
crackers, cheese, marmalade, corned
beef and other essentials of British SOL
dlers' fare. Where there are no cases
there are focks of sheep and goats
freshly arrived from the slopes OF the
Himalayas to. feed the Indian corps
Quiet crowds of French people watch
the arrival and unloading of supply
ships with about the same curiosity as
that with which English tourists
watched the movement of vast cargoes
Of wine before they owned the town.
When the st. Patrick, the St Andrew
and the st. George steam into port
these crowds watch the ambulances
bringing wounded to the dock, and as
the hospital ships drop down the river
wave them a feeling adieu.
Here we take English money is an
nodnced in some piaces-unnecessa-
rily. for English copper and silver cir
culate quite as freely as French
money. Freely is the word, for in the
English were accused of Throwing
money out of the window" Their eX-
penditures were heavy. but gradually
the people of Rouen have learned that
| though the war Office pays literally, it
, is not without counting.
Regarded as Good Fellow.
| Tommy Atkins relations with the
French population have become famil-
lar II not cordial. He did manv things
! in the beginning to raise difficulties
The side" brought by English Of
| ficers particularly caused amazement
F; but that wears off, and the men of the
eXpeditionary corps have found many
ways Of dispelling first Impressions.
Two hundred of them saved the bulk
| of the contents of big warehouse
destroyed by fire and were thanked in
| an official order by the French general
! commanding the district On Sunday
afternoon many a Tommy may be
! seen showing the camp to a French
| family, generally taking charge of
younger members. He is not always
sober and is often overgallant, Kitch-
ener's orders notwithstanding and he
is so conspicuous that every peccadillo
| is magnified several times, but while
passing for a terrible charmer." Tom
my conducts himself generally so as to
do credit to the Anglo-SaXon race. and
is regarded as a Jolly good fellow
Try to Keep Tommy Straight.
/ The Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton, cooperating with the Salvation
Army, is trying to keep Tommy
straight. Its headquarters are the old
Folies Bergere. where, instead of girls
and liquors, there are now hygiene
drinks and high moral literature.
The organization of repose and pleas
ure in the British camp astonishes the
French people. There is circus tent
requisitioned for the troops where
there are moving pictures. acrobatic
performances and shooting galleries,
where the soldiers exercise their marks
manship on the silhouette of a Ger
man soldier a target. There Is no
social life in Rouen for the officers.
Every one is too occupied in hospital or
relief work. Some are even scan
dalized that at certain times in some
quarters the town has the aspect of
city of pleasure. for just outside in the
Saint-Sever cemetery there are 400
mounds, reminders of more serious
things. There is British soldier I'M
der each mound. with tricolor cockades |
attached to the cross or stone above |
and flowers constantly renewed by the |
French people of Rouen.