Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1916-12-14
BY CASTOR RIoU.

Paris.-There are nearly 300 citi-
zens of the United States In the
French army. More than 100 have
been wounded and % have been
killed. May personal friend of sew
eral of them be allowed to present
this company of brave men to France?
Some-very few-have volunteered
| from love of war; for example, this
youth of seventeen, already wearing
a stripe, who confessed to a comrade,
Il love fighting, | love to make a
charge, but what bore the trenches
| are!" Others, perhaps a dozen, have
welcomed chance for adventures and
have taken service, far less to defend
cause than to escape from a peace
full, gray, monotonous existence, too
shut off into divisions by laws and
customs.
Why They Enrolled.
But the great majority of these
Americans, and it is their glory as
much as ours, have enrolled them
selves under our flag from love of
| France and right.
| have before me pile of letters
| that prove it. Those who wrote them,
| legionaries or avators, sleep now on
| the Marine, in Artois In Alsace, among
our own dead. Witnesses who fight
| till they are killed may be believed.
Almost all belong to the intellectual
! class. The father of Chapman, who
died for France at the age of twenty
| six, is one of the first writer's of his
country, and his great-grandfather
| signed the famous Declaration of
| Rights which founded the American
| republic. Kenneth Weeks, who died
at twenty-six, on June 10, 1915, at
| Givenchy, is the author of Five I'M
practical Plays" Science, Sentiments
and Senses" works of art and phil
osophy which give the promise of a
master thinker.
Norman Prince belonged TO one Of
! the richest and most esteemed fam
| lilies of Boston. Alan Seeger, died
on July at Belloy-en-Santerre, wrote
some of the finest verse that the war
| has inspired AS for Kiffin Rockwell,
that great soldier, whose loss his CHIEF
| of escadriIle, announced with the
words, 1.-THE bravest and best Of us Is
no more" he descended from ancient
Anglo Norman stock, the famous
Baron de Rockville, companion of
William the Conqueror, being his di-
| rect ancestor.
Refined and Loved life.
All these young men, the elite OF
Americas elite, were refined and loved
| life. They believed that the splendor
of life was to struggle for justice and
right. Sons of Washington and Lin
coin, they had the cult of democracy.
| They were modern In every accept
ance of the term, hating violence ana
revering the dignity of man and of
peoples. Above all they were men OF
conscience, Of pure and strong char
acters.
| An American who knows men said
to me- chapman and Kitfin Rockwell
are two of the noblest types OF men
have met in my life" And such Is
the phaanx whose love we have won,
love, body and soul, love to death.
Kiffin Rockwell wrote to his brother
who had been wounded: IF France
should be conquered | would rather
dier Why this sacred enthusiasm
among citizens of a foreign nation!
Rockwell often said: II am paying
for La Fayette and Rochambeau.'
But the reason for their sacrifice Is
more profound.
These young Americans gave them-
selves to France on August 4, l9I4'
| because France was in their eyes u
! knight, the knight of the highest hu-
man ideal that has illumined the ehr,n'
| So when a terrible horde loosened u
self upon her they crossed the ocean
as for a crusade They were IL.
| swashbucklers dreaming only Oh
wounds and bruises. No! They We're
free and peaceful men who knew the
price of liberty and peace. but tne
Teuton swashbucklers must be muN-
zled. The Huns from the Spree must
be beaten down TO save the Oeap's :"
/ living for all the world
| knew Kifin Rockwell. tall straight
and slender. fun of nerves. but win a
fierce will and something Of a falcon
| in his looks. When cured Of ms nrst
wound in August. 1915 ne wrote.
More than ever | want TO i've out
not for any egodst reason. This war
has taught me many things. want
10 live now 10 do all the good l can.
But should be killed during the war,
| have no fear of death. and feel
that there can be no finer death