New-York tribune., 1919-03-01
The Miracle of France
Thoughts, Words and Deeds of
a Great People
LIE MIRACLE FRANCAIs. Far Victor Graud.
ovo -02 pp.. FArs. L.DrairIe. LacneLte el CIe.

LIE MIRACLE FRANcAIs. Far Victor Giraud
Svo. 4J2 pp.. Paris L.Urarle HacneL,e ct Gle.
To any one who has lived in France
during the last twenty odd years and
has been familiar with the elements
that enter into the composite psy-
chology of the people, this book brings
confirmation of impressions antedating
the war by many years. 1t voices the
protest against a materalistic reading
OF HE and strikes the keynote of the
moral essence Of people alarmingly
declmated by the slaughter of the last
four years. Had the German profes-
sors taken pains to study the spiritual
quantities of their neighbors as assd-
uously as they did the material pos
sessions, the world might have been
spared tine horrible tragedy under
which all humanity is groaning That
they considered the republican France
OF 1914 the same as the imperial France
OF 1870 is proof Of that self-centred
short sightedness which secs only What
1t wants to see, and by underestimate
ing the adversary has been responsible
lor the curious deusions of the leu
Ton supermnd. OF paramount interest
at the present time are the chapters
directly dealing with the war, the end
OF winch, let us hope, has forever de-
hvered humanity from tho Prussian
menace.
The first chapter, with It's backward
look ever the first three wears. con-
tains not a few incidents deserving to
be moro widely known. There is the
story OF Marchand, who in the Battle
OF the Marnc said to his general: "Thc
day OF our attack the farm of Navarin
VIII be ours In an hour" and who when
the time came, set out smiling, his pipe
between Al l;..l,o
purpose. but at the end became q vic
rm Of Icutcn shrapnel. There is the
heroic Battle of Vcrdun, "the duel Of
two us" when Teuton megalomania
hurled n vain the flower Of the i'm
perlal armies against the modest quiet.
but spiritually exalted soldiers of
Petaln and Nievclle. There is the story
o. the English family whose members
on hearing the name Vcrdun never fail
to rise, and that of Lloyd George pick
ing up some chestnuts within the
shadow Of the impregnablc walls to
plant an Avenue of Verdun on his
estate
Two German versions of the Battle
CT the Marne bear witness to the men
dacity O the Hun. 'Une geste Fran
caise" records the heroism of the
French sharpshooters at Dixmude
There Is Quartermaster LaborCne. who.
wounded in the head. escapes from the
ambulance and returns to his post to
die. There is nineteen year-old Fran
cois Alain, who stayed Al his observa-
ton post four days without food or
drink among seventeen corpscs. and
who returned to his lines with cant
urea German officer undcr rain Of
Hhrapnel. Another has known no slecp
IN fortnight, has stood all this time
to his knees in icc-cold water, and vet
he says "Still have COURAGE" The
smile with which the Fronch went into
battle IS moro illuminating than vol
umes on racial Psychology laborously
co'nplled IN the laboratories and IL
braries Of that Germany which made
the world believe she was the mistress
of nll science. Verify the degenerate"
and "supe ricial" lTtonchman knew his
adversary better than the Tcuton sttpcr-
man. For certain November events
which history will not record without n
touch Of irony have borne out the
statement Of M. Giraud in "Lo derncr
quart d'heure," which was written in
October, 1917:
THE German is incapable like
the frenchman to rebound after
disaster and to supplement ma
tefial force by the energy of moral
resources"
Under the ttc "solda's dc In grande
guorre' the author pays tribute to
Ernest Pschleri. tho grandson of
Ernest Renen, to Pierre Maurice Mas.
neon, whore religion do Jcnn Jacdues
Rousseau" was finished IN the trenches
and crowned by the Academy nftor his
dent b and to jacques porcurd, whose
"Dobout les Mortg'" in the bnttle Of
Bois- Rr0ld" is likely to rank with
"Thcy shnll not pausl" in the worlds
treasury of words wrung from the
soul in the anguish Of n crucial mo-
ment. in the chapter on pan German