The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-07-26
CHAPTER III.
gn The Eoreian Legion.


This time I was determined to en-
xtst. So, when we landed at st. Ma
zaire. l drew my pay from the Wiz
gilman and, after spending a weel
with my grandmother, / went out ant
asked the first gendarme met where
the enlistment station was. / had tt
argue with him some time before he
would even direct me to it. OF course
I had no passport and this made hin
suspicious of me.
The officer in charge of the station
was no warmer in his welcome than
the gendarme, and this surprised me
because Murray and Brown had nc
trouble at all in joining. The French
of course, often speak of the Foreign
Legion as "the convicts," because SO
many legionaries are wanted by the
police of their respective countries,
but criminal record never had been
a bar TO service with the legion. and l
did not see why it Shout. be now-if
they suspected me of having one.
had heard there were not few Ger
mans in the legion-later on / 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 1 was
Il German, because l 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 c. P. o. When they
challenged me on this point, l said
would prove it to them by taking an
examination.
They examined me very carefully,
I'm English, although l know enough
French 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
think this one wanted to show off, as
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
i, 1915.
There is no use in my describing the
Foreign Legion. 1t is one of the most
world, and has made a wonderful rec
ord during the war;. When 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. l believe it to be true. In |
January of this year the French gov
eminent decided to let the legion die.
r was sorry to hear it. 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. l do not know
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 that they are only used in the in
fantry.
With my commission as gunner, /
orders to go to Brest and join
The dreadnaught Cassard. This as
signment tickled me, for my pal Muir
ray was aboard, and I had expected
trouble in transferring to his ship in
case I was assigned elsewhere. We
had framed it up to stick together as
ong as we could. We did, too.
Murray was as glad as 1 was when
came aboard, and he told me he had
heard Brown, our other pal, had been
made q sergeant in another regiment /.
If the legion.
We were both surprised at some of
he differences between the French d
lavy and ours, but after we got used b
o it, we thought many Of their Gus a
oms improvements over ours. But we Y
ouId not get used to it, at first For v
on an American ship, when t
ou are pounding your ear in nice S
warm hammock and it is time to re- b
ieve the watch on deck, like ,as not
GU will be awakened gently by burly Ii
arby armed with fairy wand about Y
he size Of bed slat, whereas in t
'rench ships, when they call the f
atch, you would think you were in r
we'll hotel and had EFT word at the
esk. 1t was hard to turn out at first, s.
fth0ut the aid Of a club. and harder c
Ill to break ourselves Of the habit a
/ calling ov relief In the gay and Il