The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-12-20
CHAPTER III.
in the FOREIGN Legion.

This time l was determined 20 er
asE So, when we landed at st. Na
Rafre, / drew my pay from the Vii
ginlhn and, after spending a weeI
with my grandmother, ! went out am
asked the first gendarme / met wher
the enlistment station was. l had t
argue with him some time before h
would even direct me to II. OF cours
Z had no passport and this made hin
suspicious Of me.
The officer In charge Of the station
Was no warmer In his welcome thar
the gendarme, and this surprised me
because Murray and Brown had M
trouble at oil In Joining. The French
pt course, often speak Of the Foreign
Legion as "the convicts," because 81
many legionaries r wanted by thu
police Of their respective countries
but q criminal record never had beer
q bar to service with the legion, and
GIG not see why 1t should be now,
they suspected me Of having one.
had heard there were not a few Ger
mans in the legion-later on I became
acquainted with some-and believe
nae, no Alsatian ever fought harder
against the Huns than these former
DeutSchlanders did. 1t occurred tC
me then that If they thought I was
O German, because / had no passport
j might have to prove / had been In
trouble with the kaiser's crew before
they would accept me. l 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 I was too young
% have been a 9. p. o. When they
challenged me on Thu point, I said ]
would prove It to them by taking an
examination.
They examined me very carefully,
On English, although l know enough
Wrench to get by on a subject like
gunnery. But foreign officers are very
proud Of their knowledge Of English
And most Of them can speak it-and I
ehink this one wanted to show off, as
Jon might say. Anyway, I passed my
examination without any trouble,
was accepted for service In the For
eign Legion and received my commits
sion ms gunner, dated Friday. January
4. 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 q wonderful rec
srd during the war. When I Joined La
legion, 1t numbered about 10000 men.
Today 1t has less than 5000. They
my that since August, 1914, the legion
aas been wiped out three times, and
mat there are only a few men still In
who belonged to the original
I believe IL to be true. In
january Of this year the French gov
ernment decided to let the legion die.
was sorry to hear II. The legion
naires were a fine body of men, and
Mnnderful fighters. But the whole
tayfiized world Is now fighting the
INNS, and Americans do not have to
with the French or the Limeys
my longer.
Bnt n thing about the legion, that
| Ind many people do not know, Is that
The iegtonnaires are used for either
and or sea service. They are sent wher-
they can be used. I do not know
shether this was the case before the
present war; think not-but In my
lime, many Of the men were put on
shipe. Most people, however, have the
ldeA that they are only used In the In
With my commission as gunner, I
geceived orders to go to Brest and Join
ne dreadnaught Cassard. This as
pasnment tickled me, for my pal Muir
ny raj aboard, and I had expected
trcnble In transferring to his ship In
eass I was assigned elsewhere. We
Nd framed It up to stick together as
long ~ we could. We did, too.
Murray W ~ as glad as ! was when
0AoC oOOokus uuu lac tOiu Iu6 u6 udu
Aanfd Brown. q other pal. had been
llA0s . sergeant In another regiment
= TIE legion.
No were both surprised at some Of
- differences between the French
m and ours, but after we got used
- We thought many Of their Gus
- improvements over ours. But we
oG06 not get used to II, at first. For
ueance. on an American ship, when
nSe pounding your ear In a nice
- hammock and It Is time to re-
- The watch on deck. like as not
Vim b awakened gently by a burly
~ armed with a fairy wand about
- slxe ef . bed slat. whereas IN
tesch ships. when they call the
vateA. you woald think You were in a
lRe1l hotel end had left word ut the
~. II was hard to turn ont at first,
,ffhout tho aid Of q club. and harder