New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-28
THOSE WHO COME BACK
By ANNE UELAND TAYLOR

Paris, Jan. 15.It is very human, and per
hsps it is especially very French, TO endure
tragic hours with stoicism, but to grumble
great deal at small inconvenience. Parsians
who faced the drive of Won Kluck and the
visits of the Taubes with such superb seren-
ity, now groan, quite humanity, about the
lack of coal, the cutting down OF gas and
electricity, the crisis in sugar and all the
other niggling vexations they are having to
endure.
Perhaps it is not as surprising as at first
it seems, therefore, that the spirits OF me
civilians are being kept up by the solder
who come back from their particular hsds'
at the front rather than the other way
around. Queerly enough, the morale" o.
the men at the front seems to be sturdler'
healthier, than that of the people at the
rear, in the "entrenched camp Of Paris
They are the ones who come back 10 disPe'
our gloom.
Take, for example, little Busquet, the
twenty-year-old boy who came back blind II
both eyes and with both hands gone except
for one mutilated finger. He isn't q fool
Sometimes he lies across his bed face down
and won't move or speak or eat or drink TO-
two days. Yet he is the fun maker IN ne
hospital. He had slit made in his msnsIed
eyelids SO that glass eyes could be put H.
and when they asked him what color his '!s'
had been he said gayly, "Tri-color'"
Take Andre, who passed through the care
du Dome in Montpanasse with such toa''
heart-warming effect that for two whole days
after people there stopped grumbling s00O'
their vanishing creature comforts.
It was few nights before Christmss'
Four of US were sitting at one Of the ta0es
against the wall in the inner room. Inc 81
was thick with smoke and there was rstus
of cups and glasses and checkers and DOM
noes, and rain on the window. A di'm''
unenlvened place Most Of the men sno
women there had come because there was Do
other place 10 go.
We were looking on, slipping dreadful Olae1
coffee and "grog American" when ] 50" .
soldier standing in the doorway looking esq
orly around the room. He was a man Over
forty, in stained and faded blue un1i0"'
without his helmet. His clothes we're ve'
shabby, but brushed, and his lean, wes'h"'
beaten face was FURNISHED with recent so'P
and water.
lie was hunting for some one. Sudden'
he saw one of the men at our table, -
American war correspondent, and went
him eagerly. bon soir, M'sieu," he sac
and held out his hand little timldly. Inv
American stared at him second. o'N
soir, monsieur he returned politely, IN"
roared out, "Andre Why it's Andre!"
He got to his feet and had the soldier "
both hands. 1.-THE good old Andre! What s,s
you doing here? On permission? Where "
you come from-Verdun? Lord! hei'
have a cigar. Sit down with US. say WV
people, you know Andre don't YOU"
"You don't know Andre? Why he was '.'
gsrcon at the Dome for ten yesrs-he's v,
one that used to pull the students 0u. q
scrapes. Everybody in the quarter owed NV
money--do still, expect. Gave me i0'"
francs once when was down and out-0n
watch that wasn't worth ten
Presently it became an ovation. All kin''
Of people were pressing around him, snskans
hands with him. and some were embrae'n'
him, kissing him on one cheek and then w
other There were soldiers, painters, "rits'' /,
American ambulance men, ayiators, disnineo
old gentlemen wearing Legion Of Honor III
bons-a whole motley crowd OF old friends
and debtors no doubt--glsd TO find him SUI
alive.
We left him in the midst Of them. speee'
less with emotion and the strain Of unseeu
toned Joy after the habit Of misery.