New-York tribune., 1918-01-09
Czemenceau and His PoiZus
A Tribute to the Soldiers of France by the Prem;
Translated from "LHomme Enchanc' bu Harry Kurz

A te10 days before Georges Clcmenceau
Premier of France, avas called to poaver
lie returned from q visit to the Aisne front
and Published his impressions in "L'Homue
Enchaine,' mosO "L'Homme Libre." When
he became Premier, "LIuustratiou" re-
published his tribute, and it has since bee,,
'''dely Reproduced and admired through.
out Framce.)
watch our blue e-uniformcd men at war as
they pass with a friendly and serious look
generously covered with mud. This is the
artlllery-slow marching is moving
its cannon. under fantastic camou1agc. a
mockery Of reality. A glistening slope of
soaked earth set in a frame of shattered
trees, twisted into indescribable commissions
Of anguish with the gaping wounds inflicted
by the storm of iron. On their horses al
ready covered with winter shag the poilus.
souched in all sorts of positions, having no
suggestion Of the rigid form Of the ma
n1uvre, are going from one battlefield to
another without any other thought cxcept
that OF just keeping on going
In colorless and shapeless uniforms. inde-
scr'bably rugged out, and in poses of the
most p1easurable leisure, the soldiers of
France picturesquely slip from glory to glory,
less aware, it seems, of historic grandeur
than of serene gladness in impacable duty.
They are picturesque because nature will
have 1T SO, but without any romanticism or
sense OF posing-officers hardly to be dis
tinguished from privates by vague, soiled
stripes-all the men enveloped in a halo Of
splendor above anything known to ordinary
humanity.
Following the Biblical Column of Fire
The pugnacious pipe or the sportive ciga-
rette hlnders their expression of any per-
sonal reflection. Only their eyes are ami
mate' and these express things which cannot
t De told in words lest they be profaned The
line OF their lip is youthful under a silky
mustache or firm with age under grav brush
but the tire Of their look, framed in their
dark helmets leaps out with quiet intensity
TO meet the tragic unknown that no LONGER
can bring surprise. They are our soldiers
OF the year II who are following the Biblical
column of fire. They see something They
go TO it. Ashamed OF my humility should
ike to find words to say to them. But. were
poet they would have no need OF heark-
enlng to me, since the greatest beauty of
man lies IN them, and since, unwitting of
utterance which at best seems inept. these
men live on the SUBMITS Of life
And the cold classes" who prosaicallv
break stone at the side of the road or work
with the shovel, the pickaxe, the broom.
making the toilette of the road of triumph.
what an injustice if did not mention themt
How does it happen that the noblest soldier
Is always the one chance upon? That is the
miracle of these men; and when I tell Won
that on the battlefield OF the Aisne the "old
classes" not granting that il was necessary
70 wait to the cnd ct the battle be fore beaia.
ming TO clear and rebuild, went of into tl,e
hottest OF the action to fill up craters. to
break stones, to place tree trunks and beams
during heavy fire without vouchsafng thn
boche single hasty gesture, SO that thew
might the more quickly open the wav for
revlctualing and for the bringing un Of
artillery-when I tell you this you will ad-
mt that they do not deserve lesser greet
ing than their "young ones"
AND the lnfantryman--could commit the
supreme injustice Of forgetting him? That
Is impossible when one has gone over the
battle-ground where he has taken possession
OF the burrows OF the Boches amony heaps
OF munltion material. cases Of sunniies an
ndescrlbable debris. abandoned with their
desd and wounded in the haste of desper
ate Hight What we cannot understand is
tnat our little poilu can pass so quickly from
ene apathy OF the trench to the extreme fury