The Washington herald., 1920-08-01

lens by walking them out OF hrs system
The general abhors brass bands. clanklng
accoutrrmCnt show, dress, ceremony, fuss
and feathers, red tape and routine. Give him
a knOtty problem or a real battle OF some
kind to get away with and he is COntented;
give him dress parade and he wants to
get it over with as soon as possible.
GENERAL LEJEUNE is family man
VI and a very devoted one. His wife was
Nirginian. While he was stationed at
Quantico, before he went overseas. the gen
eral Travelled back and forth from his Wash
ington home every day. Mrs Lejeune was
up every morning to get him breakfast By
O'Clock and waiting for him for dinner
at $50 O'Clock at night. The devotion of
the pair is one of those little known facts
The Lejeunes have three daughters the old
est the wife of a naval officer, the son of
Rear Admiral Glennon.
when folks have beer married thirty
years and are as happy together as General
and Mrs. Lejeune theI you may we'll talk
about ideal marriage" was the comment
| heard from one of the generals friends.
'Old Indian" is a great chess player Just
like Napoleon and other famous generals,
the marine corps leader is a devotee of the
checkered board and the symbolic wooden
men, For hours he will sit engrossed in the
game and then, when he has achieved
notable victory by series of strategic
moves, dash off to liyen up a bit with a
walk through the Mall 1t is well to speak
about strategy. for this particular general is
paragon of strategy. Every general is sup
IN hp ST hnt IF
have a super sense in this direction, and
that's what makes them good generals And
that's why General Lejeune is so good
general as to have landed at the top of
the heap.
Napoleon is his favorite of all the famous
generals who have fought the worlds most
decisive battles. He has studied them all
He knew Won der Goltz and Won MoItke by
heart before he went abroad, and from his
general knowledge of Prussian military tao
tics knew pretty well how to anticipate the
moves of the Hun and to combat them.
You may remember what Happened at
Blanc Mont, on the Champagne front. The
French had been in there, hammering away
at intervals, but most of the time repeHing
German attacks and exerting every means
to hold their position in front, of the Hin
denburg line. Under Petain and Geuroud
they had just about given up hope of ever
being able to make an impression at that
point. Then came "Old Indian" and the
Second Division of the United States army.
At first they were held in reserve for the
Third French army.
Gouroud one day asked Lejeune if he
thought he could do anything with the Sec!
ond Division. ''Old Indian thought he
could in fact, he felt sure the Second Divi-
sion could take the ridge. To worst the Hun
at this point would mean a general German
retirement of thirty or forty kilometers to
the east bank of the Aisne and a general
evacuation of the Rheims massif. Lejeune
wanted to try it. Go to it, was the re-
joinder of Gouroud. And Lejeune and the
Second Division did. Lejeune engineered
the whole thing himself. The French were
stalemate. But what "Old Indian" did was
ITO evade the main point of resistance and
go in from two sides on the tanks. When
the big barrags had lifted, the men of the
Second Division were in back of the. Ger
mans, and the latter forthwith began q pell-