The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-16
By EUGENE X. CAMPBELL.

VIZ GOD luck, my soldier. You
binary people. You are
complex. We have thought we UNDER
stood you. but we have not. We
never know what you will do next"
II was thus chat his French landlady
replied to John Bowe when he In
formed her that he had Joined the
Foreign Legion.
TN the earlytdays Of the war" she
went on, when the Germans advanced
Upon Paris ut the rate OF thirty kilo-
meters O. day. driving, our French
people before them. pillaging the coun-
fry, dealing death and destruction;
when our hearts were torn with grief.
then the Americans who were In Pstis
ran about like chickens With their
heats on.
| They could not get their checks
cashed; they had lost their trunks;
they thought only of their temporary
discomfort: they had no sympathy for
our misfortunes.
"But the same ship that took these
people away brought US other Amer
leans. Strong and vigorous, they did
not remain In Paris. Directly to the
training camps they went, and to-
day they are lying In mud in the
trenches with our poilus. Now what
we would like to know is, which are
the real Americans? Those who ran
away in time of trouble? Or those
who came to help us in time Of need? ?
Are you goers or comers?"
Legionnaire Bowe does not tell u.
what rejoinder he made, but explains
that he entered the service Of France
toric structure on the banks of the
Seine, built by Napoleon Bonaparte as
a home and refuge for his worn out
soldiers.
d He has produced book. Soldiers Of
the Legion, which he describes as
Strench etched" and has selected or
ftt upon one Charles L. MacGregor as
collaboration.
: He is fortunate in his choice or
chance, for individually to judge by
the way he has put up those portions
of the book in which obviously Mao
Gregor had no hand, Bowe himself
having said he joined the Legion,
whether or not he had ever known
soldering or any hardship before.
MacGregor gets us away TO a good
Atart by telling these facts In n fore
word. He explains that before he be-
came Legionnaire Bowe. Bowe was
John Bowe, of Candy, Mimi, that he
went to the Spanish war with the
18th Regiment of his State, and to the
Philippines, and was present at the
capture of Manila on Aug. 13, 1898
He supplies picture Of Bowe as
frontispiece and admonishes us, in a
footnote, to observe the bullet scar
above the legionnaires left eyebrow.
The military history OF Bowe is
written all over his uniform coat He
wears the United States service
medals denoting participation In the
Spanish war and the Philippine inylr.
rection. and. TO denote that the par
t.clpation was energetic. the Congress
sional Medal Of Honor. He has the
-Eroix de Guerre with a star upon the
ribbon, showing the individual cita-
stion of John Bowe. and the Serbian
medal, of which n limited number
were presented by the prince regent
of Serbia to President Poincare fol
distribution 10 officers and meh fol-
distinguished conduct under fire. He
wears the fauragere of the Legion
and upon his left sleeve the device
which marks the grenade thrower Of
TWO years trench service. The ores.
cent and bomb on his cap indicate the
Legion's Moroccan division.
Legionnaire Bowe does not hamper
himself with too connected a story
What he saw, what ne thought. HI
set down then or subsequently,. Bos
we'll MacGregor connects the nara
tive loosely by telling us that Jacl
Bowe served altogether In five differ
-ent regiments OF France. and that on,
of his experiences was twenty day
and nights under continuous German
shellfire.
Briefly. Legionnaire Bowe recite,
the history Of his unit from tho tim,
sof Richard Cpur de Lion down.
me other nation in the world ha
q fshting force like the Foreign
Legion. Here in the finest unit II
France the real red blood OF all PEG
pies unite. Men from fifty-thre
countries, every land and cline. a
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