Evening star., 1918-02-03
: 'J0YEUX GET REVENGE
BH PAUL AYREs ROCKWELL.
(Speetnl CeFFesPoadeace Of The Even
tag Star and Chicago Daily HeWs.l

BIZ PAUL AYREs ROCKWELL.
(speefal CeFFesPoadeace Of The Even
inG Star and Chicago Daily Sews.)
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES, De-
cember ee--Henry de Forge tells in the
Excelsior a touching story of the .Batail-
lon d'Afrique. that heroic corps of beard
less youths who made mistakes in civilian
life. bat are wipins clean the slate of
the past by fighting and dying gallantly
for their country. like this story SO well,
because it is SO true to life. that trans
late it here:
This calm and gentle man, whose
young face. smoothly shaved as the vis-
age Of a priest, smiles from under snow
white hair, this man. who is the chief.
nevertheless, Of violent troops, the most
terrible to lead that are, spoke of them
with pride. a sort OF pride of a father.
"'Yes. rascals. robbers, assassins, OUT
casts he said 1t Is a battalion of ae-
cursed ones. but hard fighting battalion
i assure you. II is difficult to manage
them when they are at ''repos." for when
they are not occupied they commit a
thousand stupidities. Thus they almost
never have rest. But under fire there
are no finer troops in the world and
love these men. whom I know how to
make listen to me-
Points Out the Groups.
THE officer. commandant H, point
ed out the groups:
Look al their faces Are they bad
S,oking? The uniform. fortunately. sets
n little these lads. But in what state
/ ey come back each time from the COM
$it! One would say they have home
pckness to be badly dressed What's
dinerepre' har h<
pride OF their poverty. One can depend
hpou them -
Listen This is the latest adventure
OF the 3D. Company. l find 1t singularly
symbolic OF the state Of mind of these
ticity:
\ This company was in line. at forty
Z meters from the German trenches
II pleasing TO put in line troops of the
kind that he has before him; dragons
agafrst dragons, chasseurs against
chasseurs troupes d'elite" against
p "One morning we relieved the AL
pins. 1t was not long before the enc
my found out who was facing him. and
my men were not delayed in seeing
near. placards with insulting inscrip-
tfons written in French:
Beware of pickpockets"'
Lads Are Exasperated.
And other friendly remarks of thi,
kind exasperated my lads. Therefore
we had a deviiish trouble in holdins
them back. and each night they Slipped
out and prowIed around the wire en-.
tanglement of the Germans, who
lodged showing themselves
a new placard notified US:
talk TO-" o"' :
Three days later, surely enough
L Information was given us that we haf
facing us a battalion of the guard
".Acelamations greeted this news
For one time the enemy had not souSh
to pair off his troops with ours.
"'In face of the vagabonds. the nov
erty-stricken, the undesirables, wa
the fine flower of the Teuton nobility
We were going to laugh.
"'AfteF several DAYS of calm an in
scription appeared above the Gevma,
trench in red letters. very readable
upon a white board. 1t bore this sting
ing phrase:
"'"We have before US the scum o
France. II is not with rifles that W.
twill come to seek you. it will be witt
flasbes."
my men. shrugged their shoulders
But they were nervous. I felt that an
other propagation Of that kind was go
Ing 10 he dearly paid for.
".All The night. from one part to an
other. the trench engines did not ceas