The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-12-06
THE RELIGIOUS SIDE OF THE
GREAT FRENCH GFNERAlISSIMO
Compare the Spiritual DevotiOns of
Foch With the Staggering, Sa-
ber Rafting Ex-Kaiser

ha1Sef was HuCu III CNIuOhSS NNAiiS
the war the modest but none the less
deeply religious nature of the man
who had most to do with his downfall
becomes interesting.
The secret of where Marshal Foch
used to go for strength and magical
powers to bring home the marvellous
victories" was surprised by Califor-
MIA boy. says the LIS Angeles Times.
The following account was not pub
lished by any newspaper of France to
show how religious her leader was:
"a California boy, serving as sol
der in the American expeditionary
forces in France, has recently written
letter to his parents in San Bernar-
dino in which he gives, as well as any
enc else could give, the answer to the
question we ask This American boy
Evans by name-tells of meeting
General Foch at close range in
France.
evans had gone into an old church
to have look at it, and as he stood
there with barred head satisfying his
respectful curiosity, a gray man with
the eagles Of a general on the collar
of his shabby uniform also entered the
church. Only one orderly accom-
panied the quiet, gray man. No gilt
tering staff of officers, no encourage
of gold-laced aids, were with him, no.
body but just the orderly.
"Evans paid small attention at first
to the gray man, but was curious to
see him kneel in the church, praying.
The minutes passed until full three
quarters of an hour had gone by be-
fore the gray man arose from his
knees.
"Evans followed him down the
street and was surprised to see sol
diers salute this man in great excite
ment, and women and children stop
ping in their tracks with awe-struck
faces as he passed.
at was Foch. And now Evans, of
San Bernardino, counts the exper-
ience as the greatest in his life. Dur
ing that three-quarters of an hour
that the Generalissimo of all the al
lied armies was on his knees in hum
BILE supplication in that quiet church
10000 guns were roaring at his word
on hundred hills that rocked with
death.
"Millions of armed men crouched in
trenches or rushed across blood
drenched terranes at his command,
generals, artillery, cavelry, engineers,
tanks, fought and wrought across the
map of Europe absolutely as he com
manded them to do, and in no other
manner, as he went into that little
church to pray.
"Nor was it an unusual thing for
| General Foch to do. There is no day
that he does not do the same thing
| if there be church that he can reach.
He never fails to spend an hour on his
knees every morning that he awakes
from sleep; and every night it is the
same.
Moreover, it is not a new thing
with him. He has done it his whole
life long.
"If young Evans could have fol-
lowed the general on to headquarters,
where reports were waiting him and
news of victory upon victory was piled
high before him, he would doubtless
have seen a great gladness on the
generals face, but he would have seen
no look of surprise there.
"Men who do that which Foch does
have no doubts. When Premier Glenn
enceau, the old Tiger of France, stood
on the battle front with anxious
heart, one look at the face of Foch
stilled all his fears. He returned to
Paris with the vision of sure and GER
tain victory.
"The great agnostic statesman
doubted, but the Gray Man of Christ
did not doubt.
"The facts, then, in the case are that
when the freedom ofthe world hung
in the balance the world turned to
Foch as the one great genius who
could save it against the Hun; and
that Foch, who is perhaps the great
est soldier the world has produced, is,
first of all, Christian.
"Young Evans, of San Bernardino,
just an everyday American boy from
under the shadow of old San Gorgo-
MO, spent nearly an hour with Foch
in an old French church, and not even
one bayonet was there to keep them
apart.
"They represented the two great
democracies of the world, but there
in that old church they represented,
jointly, a far greater thing-the de-
!