Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-09-03

of course, often speak of the Foreign
Legion as "the co1victs," because so
many DICTIONARIES are wanted by the
police of their respective countries,
but a criminal record never had been
a bar to service with the legion, and
did not see why 1t should be now-n
they suspected me of having one. L
had heard there were not few Ger
mans in the legion-later on l became
acquainted with some-and believe
me, no Alsatian ever fought harder
against the Huns than these former
Deutschlanders did. 1t occurred to
me then that if they thought l was
a German, because had no passport,
l might have to prove / had been in
trouble with the kaiser's crew before
they would accept me. do not know
what the real trouble was, but solved
the problem by showing them my dis
charge papers from the American
navy. Even then, they were suspicious
because they thought was too young
to have been a G. p. o. When they
challenged me on this point, l said l
would prove 1t TO them by taking an
examination.
They examined me very carefully,
In English, although / know enough
French to get by on subject like
gunnery. But foreign officers are very
proud of their knowledge of English
and most of them can speak 1t-and
,l. ~ chnxxy of oS
you might say. Anyway, passed my
examination without any trouble,
was accepted for service In the For
eign Legion and received my commits
sion as gunner, dated Friday, January
l, 1915.
There is no use In my describing the
Foreign Legion. 1t Is one of the most
famous fighting organizations In the
world, and has made wonderful rec
ord during the war. When l Joined La
Legion, it numbered about 10000 men.
Today it has less than 5000. They
say that since August. 1914, the legion
has been wiped out three times. and
that there are only few men still in
service who belonged TO the original
legion. believe it to be true. In
January of this year the French gov
ernment decided to let the legion die.
i was sorry to hear 1t. The legion
naires were fine body of men, and
wonderful fighters. But the whole
civilized world is now fighting the
Huns, and Americans do not have to
enlist with the French or the Limeys
any longer.
But one thing about the legion. that
find many people do not know. is that
the legionnaires are used for either
land or sea service. They are sent wher-
ever they can be used. do not know
whether this was the case before the
present war-I think not-but In my
time. many of the men were put on
ships Most people, however, have the
idea ehat they are only used in the In
fantry.
With my commission as gunner, !
received orders TO go to Brest and Join
the dreadnaught Cassard. This as
signment tickled me, for my pal Muir
raw was aboard. and / had expected
trouble In transferring to his ship 10
case. 1 was assigned elsewhere. We
had framed 1t up TO stick together as
long as we could. We did. too.
Murray was as glad as was when
came aboard, and he told me he had
heard Brown, our other pal. had been
made a sergeant In another regiment
of the legion.
We were both surprised at some OF
the differences between the French
navy and ours, but after we got used
to II. we thought many of their GUS
toms improvements ever ours. But we
eould not get used to it, at first For
instance. on an American ship when
YOU are pounding your ear In nice
warm hammock and it is time to re
Heve the watch on deck. like as not
YOU viii be awakened gently by burly
rarby armed with a fairy wand about
the size of a bed slat, whereas In
French ships, when they call the
watch. you would think You were N
swell hotel aud had left word al the
desk. 1t was hard to turn out at first
without the aid of club. and harder
sill 20 break ourselves OF the nabi'
~ calling our relief In the gay and
festive American manner. but. as
cav we got q like it after while.