Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-07-24
FRENCH A|RMEN
BEING TRAINED
ALONG SEACOAST

WASHINGTON, D. c., July "a
Less than so miles northeast OF Toul-
OH. where American ayiators are re-
ceiving instruction from French fiiers
experienced in the problems Of the pres
ent war, is the charming little sea
bathing and winter resort of st Raph-
ael. Here the French have an aviation
camp of their own, where they are
drilling the men who, in conjunction
with British and American alrmen,
must in the opinion of many military
experts. win the war" says a war
geography bulletin issued from the
Washington headquarters of the Ma
tional Geographic Society.
st. Raphael is one of the numerous
attractive watering places strung ike
beads upon the railway which skirts
the Mediterranean shore from Mar
settles to Genoa Twenty miles to tha
northeast is Cannes, and twenty miles
still further on is Nice. The town,
which has population of 5000 has no
architectural features of interest save
an old church which was once forti-
fed to resist the inroads of pirates
who frequented the coast in olden
days.
1.-TWO events of great historic inter
est have written the name of st.
Raphael large in Napoleonic annals.
It was here that the future emperor
landed on his return from his Egypt
ian campaign in 1899, and it was from
here. just Is years later, after causing
every throne in Europe to totter and
after redrawing the map of the whole
continent to suit his imperial will,
that he embarked for his brief period
OF exile on the island Of Elba
1.-TWO miles northwest of st. Raph-
ael is the smaller town of F'rejus, now
more than mile from the sea, its
harbor filled with silt from the River
Argens. More than nineteen hundred
years ago Frejus, under the name OF
Forum Julii, was an important sea-
port, founded by julius Caesar and
much favored by Augustus. 1t was to
this port that the latter sent the ships
captured at the Battle of Actium in
81 B. c., when Mark Antony deserted
his fleet to follow Cleopatra in ignom-
irious fight.
Several impressive ruins are still
eAtant to attest the one-time import
apce of Forum Julii. There is, for eX-
ample, the crumbling shell of the Ar
eres, and aphitheater which is said to
have accommodated from 5000 to
A12,000 spectators And there are the
remain of the great aqueduct, its
arches towering 60 feet, which brought
water to the town from the River
Siagnole, twenty-five miles distant
But Forum Julii has more imper-
shable monuments than the amphi-
theater and the aqueduct-the achieve
ments of two of it's native sons, Ag-
ricola and Gallus: 1t was largely due
to the statesmanlike qualities of Agri-
cola that Britain was finally brought
under complete subsection to Rome,
for during his seven years as governor
of the island he persuaded the natives
t. adopt both the customs and the civ
ilization of their conquerors. Tacitus,
the historian. has left highly eulo-
CYSTIC appraisal of craftsmanship and
military powers of Agricola who was
his father-in-law. POsterity is forced
to rely entirely upon his contempor-
aries for an estimate of the genius of
Cornelius Gallus, none of whose
poems has survived We have the tes-
tony of Ovid, however, that he was
first among the elegiac poets of Rome,
and Virgil was also great admirer
of this Forum Julii-ite.'
Among the modern sons of little
Frejus who hay won fame are Sieyes,
the French able and statesman Of the
Revolutionary period, and Desaugiers,
the gifted song writer who after bare
II escaping from the blacks during
the revolution in Santo Domingo, came
to the United States shortly after the
colonies had gained their indepeend-
ence, and earned his living here by
giving piano lessons"