Evening star., 1926-11-07

W
/. Born and raised in
New York, he had entered
the French army early in that first
terrific year and had risen to be a
second lieutenant. Next Thursday,
Armistice day he can, if he chooses,
wear the CroiX de Guerre on his
breast and a regimental decoration
on his lett shoulder. Also a wound
stripe on the sleeve.
Well" remarked at last. you
were glad when the war was oVer?"
NO" he said Il enjoyed it,
You enjoyed it?" / exclaimed.
Enjoy isn't just the word" he
answered. but for three years war
was my work my aspiration and my
education. And you can dwell all
you like on the ugliness, the hideous-
ness. the wreck and deSolation and
horror of It. but there is a glory, a
thrill. a wonder to the C,angor of
arms nothing else can give.
You see, I was a freshman at Co
lumbia when decided to come over:
Just a beginner at life, with no par
ticular responsibilities and with only
a boys outlook on things. Then
war, 1t was to take the place in
forming me that college and home
and society and business would
otherwise have occupied And SO
far AS I am concerned. war. as l said
before. has been my education. And
man. what an education!
I'm civil life how much do YOU
gee Of the naked soul of man? Well
l believe | have seen it, l believe
have seen the naked soul of a nation
France. And I. boy of Il when
I joined the French army. have been
q part of Nerdun-Nerdun. where the
French lost 100000 dead to stop the
German advance; where | remember
-'aiting one night when things looked
their darkest, listening to the roar
of the German guns, and wondering.
wondering whether the lines It our
right. which we knew were being at
tackled had held. Then ] felt the
silence as the German barrage ceased
and in tho little pause chilled to my
toes-as did all my comrades-to
learn whether our lines We're chit-
Grated or still holding. Suddenly out
of the night came the ripping staCCa-
to, vicious speech of TIE 75s and the
cracking sound of rife and machine
guns and we knew they'd hold and
that the Roche once more had found
No Thoroughfare.'
II tell YOU that was glory. rather
because of what il cost to hold than
in spite of it. We Americans gave
the final impetus that won the war
we bore our share as an army in the
fighting which ended It: but If You are
really TO know war in its full sweep
and horror and stark spendor YOU
must have been with the French
army.
$40 You know the Foreign Legion?
OF course you do It's made
up of daredevils. adventures. glori
Gus madmen and crazy bad men of
every speech and every land, with a
bulk of Frenchmen who are paying
by service TO their country for some
rotten thing in their lives past. There
isn't In the world an organization
equal in numbers which could stand
against it. l don't believe there is a
body in any army which has lost SO
heavily.
And was next 10 them when they
retook L'Homme Mort. L'Homme
Mort was the hill which dominated
Nerdun. and if 1t fell. Nerdun fell. The
Boche had stormed it after days and
days; the Legion captured it in
single charge. I climbed that hill
soon after. before the dead were
to put my feet on the ground. 1t was
awful. but il was magnificent.
Il wonder if you know the story
some FrenChman wrote of the grand
view he aeined taking place after
the war He pictured the Cuira ssiers
riding with sparkling helmets and
waving plumes down the Champs
Elysees. showered with flowers and a
target for thrown kisses: the sturdy.
coCky little chasseurs-a a pied Swagger-
ing after them. cheered by the crowds
and clustered about by worshiping
women and hundreds on hundreds of
veteran poilu regiments greeted with
all the enthusiasm Of which the
French are capable.
And then-the Legion. Silence. No
flowers no cheers. no kisses, no en-
braces from women or men. They
look about, hurt; little angry, won
dering what is the matter. And they
see-the people are on their knees.
"I was in the Champagne, too. II
was there in 1915 that / saw one of
those relics Of past warfare-a huge
cavalry charge.
1T was folly; sheer romantic an6
lavish waste OF life: for it failed and
I see now was bound to fail. But,
Lord. What sight TO see those ranks
on ranks or horses, those waves on
waves of flying plumes, those tiers on
tiers Of pennoned lances sweeping
over the plain When 1 think of 1t
err now l tlngle to my bootheels.
for though the snrapnel crumpled up
horses and men and the remnant
came back broken and sick at soul.
the surge and thunder of their ad
vance still linger in my memory with
A vividness that submerges the hor
ror OF their return.
ITO have been a witness of a thing |
hike that. to have been a part of the |
> rn1v OF France. which is an old army |