The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-02-22

goes, but it brings no cheese.
What's he saying anyhow; that
they have no cheese, that it's forbid
den to sell cheese at this hour. or
what?
A little pink comes up in the
cheeks of Jim.
Somehow he feels that his rights
as an American citizen and SOL
der are being infringed, so he
Strengthens, glares, and, with a
sweeping gesture of his arm which
saws plainly Bring II here" force
fully reiterates:
has been drilled into him: "S ii vous
plat"
"Oui, monsieur" agrees the
troubled waiter, and hurries away.
Time passes, minutes, seeming
hours days, weeks Across and
across, and up and down the cafe, go
swiftly carried platters of cheese, and
boards laden with many kinds of
cheese. Diners finish their wine and
their coffee and pay their checks, and
leave in chatting ease, until, just as
despair settles on the academician
and the hand to-mouther, the waiter
brings it; six kinds on a board!
1t is late that night when Jim fig
pres it out It's Jim, because Roland
is fiercely going over the top on a
list of adverbs and propositions.
81 have it!' says jim. '"rhat guy
was trying to find out what kind of
cheese we wanted. If we had told
him, he'd have brought it right
away, in place of waiting for one of
those buSv boards with the assert
ment on it."
So endeth the first lesson. This
thing of being in strange land,
amid strange people and strange
customs and strange language, is a
"circus" for the average American,
and accordingly you need have no
worry about your boy.
He's getting along;" and anyhow,
he's among friends
He likes the French people, and
they like him.
They like the way he carries him
self, his erect shoulders and his
well poised head and his free and
easy st,4de; they like the intelligence
and the courage of his eye; they
like his face, a good face, with no
habitual evil thought in it, and they
have an earnest conviction that when
enc -~h of our boys, with that sort
of stern eve and nose and chin and
jaw, get over here, we'll win the
war; and they like his good nature
and they like his manners. He's po-
lite, this boy of ours! He compares
most advantageously with the men
of any nation, in that fundamental
which is based on consideration tor
others. Add to these things the
fact that he is jolly and generous,
and there is small wonder that the
boulevard girls, when they are look
ing for someone to entertain, should
prefer these handsome, distinguished
looking boys of ours.
No you needn't worry about that
either, in spite of certain stories en-
anating from sensation mongers who
should be in a better business.
They'd have you believe that the
entire American army is plungine
headlong to TIE Old Nick, that
they're stepped in vice, sodden with
| drunkenness, and rapidly under
It's an Infamous untruth!
/ The fact is, the boys who have
taken FOSTERING advantage of THEN
opportunities, are only a drop in the
bucket, as compared with the great
body of the American army ir
France, which, as a whole, is self
respecting and we'll behaved.
And these boulevard girls, these
women of the streets of Paris. are
only a drop in the bucket as COM
pared with the true women OF
4 France, the fine, courageous women
who have proved their worth by the
wonderful sons they have borne anc
reared and torn from their hearts tc
lay on the altar of their country!
There is something in the French
patriotism which we, of a great free
country as yet unassailed, cannot
quite appreciate; for it takes ad-
versity to test and cement boil
friendship and love.
We love America because we are
on the average, good citizens with 6
high sense of responsibility, we love
America vaguely, as principle: but
an American will go very far indeed
for principle.
! A Frenchman loves France as i
she were person.
France is his mother, and his un
/ dying devotion to her is cementet
and sealed by the fact that for cen.
/ turtles she has been threatened BY
the foe which invades her now, anc
life itself is not too precious thins