Show AN AMERICAN OF CAF THE FRENCH I. FOREIGN 1 LEGION READS READ'S HIS CIS OWN oBITUARy l' l I 1 Sergeant I Bouligny of New Orleans Whose Photograph as Killed Killed at Nava in Farm Was Published All Over America Tells o of the Surviving ing Americans of the Le-I Le Legion Le Le- gion glOn His Hs Life a Romance Though f Hel Knows It Not I GNK I French War Val Zone Zono C Dec U. U I U.-I I have hac had a n great deal dealto to do lo with an adventurous young American of the French Trench foreign legion le legion legion le- le gion who has been in the thick of the fighting from 1 the ilic he start He lIc was tat wound wounded d in the first month of the t war Ri at 1 t Charleroi and again at the I Battle of t the he Marne In n 1915 1115 he lie was I wounded for a iv th third ld time in the Champaign offensive c and in m 1916 he was announced all over o America as dead doad and anel his mother notified by some extraordinary mistake Edgar J J. J Bouligny b is is iser er very much notch al alive alie alive At this moment he is righting fighting in the trenches near Noyon or reposing reposing re- re posing g with lug his section in 50 some me ruined village of the front near yet et 11 he c continues to receive c belated American newspapers with the tho photograph photograph pho pho- and notice Sergeant Bouligny Bouligny Bou Bou- ligny of NC Neu Orleans one of th the tho c Americans in the thc Foreign legion ion M killed in in the thc fighting at t N Fa Farm The obituaries are flattering for any my boy to read rend about himself The s 's arc are of old Louisiana stock with a French marquis somewhere I hack among their great 8 I hut but in the memory of man moan they the h have we been heen Americans 3 of f the thc Americans me I building g up Louisiana and amul fighting I duels by bv life tl a way When Edgar was 14 he found city life prosaic so he heran heran ran a away from home borne shipped all allaround around the i-he Horn and grew to be a aY Y great t eat t. big bib fellow up and down the west coast Suddenly it struck him one lInc day clay I I I ought to be home and studying for college Ho He returned to N New dew Ti v Orleans worked with his books books' and teachers for three years years years- ears and caught the Klondyke fever feer His 1 people copIC let him He lie Hea a was G feet C G I inches tall t and his great strength needed action He went to Seattle by bj train and started to work his way as a sailor to somewhere near Skagway but he got into difficulties with a brutal mate because he would not drink and gamble away his bis money in a pestiferous hold The rhe mate went for him with a belaying pin Edgar dodged around a cabin bin waite waited 1 on tho the defensive and hit the thc captain a smashing punch between the thc cy eyes by mistake So they took him in irons to a port part where the United States judge came only once in six months to try c ses Fortunately C was OS there Would V you employ empy loy tl this is man after what he has bas done 1 the thc judge asked a big salmon packer Certainly Certainly Certainly replied the packer Well Yell then take him said the tho judge Alright All Al right said Bouligny So he worked eight months in the salmon fisheries forgetting Klond Klondyke c. c gold Grand days he lie says Then with a wad of money mone he returned ret home and began Ms Vs is college work in earnest Again the call of adventure got him bim He Hc joined the United States 1 nm army was promoted sergeant served three years ears was honorably discharged I Imd and md felt himself ripe finaU finally for tranquil civic ways Then came the Ji Var war in Europe in which his sympathies thies were all for France from where his ancestors had come ago Here was real re fighting at last He quietly disappeared from home and the next thing ho he was at the thc front with the Second d regiment of the hc Foreign Foreign For For- eign legion His height made him himan an exceptional target conclude the obituaries He evidently scorned to keep himself out of f range and hi his iron constitution began to fill u up p with lead lend h As a fact he lie has no metal in his body His worst wound a shell shel splinter ter in the abdomen healed beautifully beautifully beau beau- and when last Jast seen this typical t cal member of the adventurous ad Foreign Foreign For For- eign legion was eating fried eggs in inthe inthe the wrecked village e of Cl Choisy au Bac To get to Choisy au Choisy-au-Bac Bac au without enlisting you put in two weeks calling calling call call- ing g at at the tho foreign office in Paris Parts for news of your our permission to visit isit It is a red book with r. r your photograph and six seventy i I pages page of blanks for everything j I which become a biography j I Outside of the rickety r old en cal cab rocks rock over r bleak roads in the I drizzle You cant can't hire an automo antonto- automobile bile in b by military order The cue landscape is looking neglected and anel the roads empty empt of local travel peasants must take out a permission permission sion sion to go buy huy a calf in the next village The signposts are are ll all changed This way nay A motorcycle dashes clashes past in the mud A train of motor trucks goes over ocr the hill Many wayside houses are arc shut up Halt show your papers to a n nI I t sen sentinel t. t me I Ao Now we wc come t to 0 a rain lain washed signpost of old touring days Noon Noyon eleven miles The rIlle Germans are at No Noyon on There is a continuous low 10 thunder roll of great guns We e take a n mudd muddy lane where soldiers loaf Y We c cross a canal just pa packed with empty boats b by way of a new v wooden bridge where still stillmore stillmore more soldiers loaf and turn into that relic of the German visit visit the the he wrecked town of Chois Choisy The Germans Germans Ger Ger- mans scientifically fired it and aud gutted rutted it t wit with h dynamite h by mere caprice in their retreat from t the he Marne in in 1914 they spared p Senis Sen- Sen lis is the they wrecked And so on Choisy town of ruin is ii inhabited mostly by soldiers on repose from the trenches about about eight miles away rom From up and down clown the fighting line they hey come It is by mere chance that one meets an American The mass massof massof of the Americans are with the Canadians Canadians Canadians Cana Cana- further urther north Horth II I I cant can't invite ite you OU he lie says II I I sleep leep in a 3 stable with plenty of hay Oh Oll no its it's great The nights are cold but the hay i is i comfortable We Wedo Wedo V c cdo do doCI CI very little drilling here and enjoy a n. complete rest which we deserve e as W vo we were dodging shells by the thousands thousands thousands thou thou- sands last week in the first line trenches Fourteen days hand band running running running run run- ning in the trenches I Are Are f t there here man many Americans here lere I asked What has become of those who joined the legion legion- with you oU at the beginning 1 He made a vague gesture ge The war is big Of the original Americans who joined the Foreign legion with me in August 1911 there remain only four of us us Lieutenant us nt Sweeney Casey and myself One of my good friends Dennis Down who was in my company over o a year was wa killed at Buc Bue as an aviator Alan Seeger the poet met his death two months ago while in the Seventh com coin r pany pang Russel Kelly of New York YorkI I and Harman Edwin Hall of Chicago i were killed at in 1915 and II Kenneth Weeks and Henry Farnsworth Farnsworth Farns- Farns I worth orth bot both of Bos Boston n fell almost at tic he the same time and place I Wounds V and sickness s got others When I was convalescent con at Lyons says Bouligny I saw a a. lot lotof lotof lotof of men from the First and Second lc legion don all wounded and some in a pitiful physical condition who could never return to the trenches Above all however there was an American exodus from the legion in 1915 Some of the mo mote a ambitious ambitious went into aviation Thaw of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pitts Pitts- burgh the two Rockwell brothers of Atlanta Kiffin killed 35 as aviator and nd Paul invalided from the legion Bert BertHall BertHall Hall of Bowling Green Victor Chapman Chapman Chap Chap- man of or New York killed as aviator Elliot Cowden and other old hands bands of the American had their war ar training in the Foreign legion The exodus to French line regiments regiments regi regi- regi-I regi t ments was almost complete The first boys who remembered Lafayette flocked to the legion then b by an unprecedented unprecedented un un- un- un act of frien friendship ship th the e French government go adopted them them them- transferred them to French I re regiments regi ments otherwise composed only o of f the native o born Tf If YO you l ask Thaw or Bert Hall the they will tell you O 1 that it was the cooking too too Algerian Also surel surely th the e r ji Kf r. 4 y l J I 7 Y y r I Is m 8 W Ws s my 1 At the The chi chief t lop top Tlc ot of Q of se company n with nUh 4 S t ii bandaged tJ hend who ho ho wits WILI struck i 34 f t k C. C 4 n It hell meat and rho though hi hie f ft t j pierced did dill not Dot kno knor anti onel t t ft I gr fl r t ent cn about hin hie work ori only to drop dead i. i t t l three C da 01 e 0 t ly f MI y V. V u the photograph published h d thron throughout hout H t. t th the United States State's fT by jr ItI Edgar ar y n rend of oP t hl hU hi i o own v t F It r chows him In the 1011 uniform It ht Sergeant In the t trenches 3 J G near thin ihie 3 cur r nhon showing IuM l t 1 the lat hey of or the Foreign n legion v I f Y r v y t. t Hr- Hr V A R n H c r rt t rr 4 t t i ix r x 4 i t Foreign legion has ms the name of being being being be be- ing mixed mi unpractical impractical and Such is its charm for certain certain certain tain adventurous t types pes They sa say that there is a former bi bishop in it two brothers of reigning or presumptive e princes half a dozen millionaires' millionaires sons and bankrupts broken men and men with broken hearts and roughs roughnecks roughnecks rough rough- necks s from all lands adventuring ad to to- to gether Innumerable arc are the tales told of the Legion My I lieutenant have ha the tho bounty bounly to inform the doctor that Don Luis grandee of Spain lint but t I French of heart desires to take serf serf- ice ce And Arsene Lupin lit his ci cigarette cigarette ei- ei garette and waited They are modern mod- mod enl ern ni d' d incapable of conforming con con- forming to strict forms not being built milt on the usual usual pattern but many manyan an excellent American has haH felt their charm Ambassador dor Rockhill of the thc Cadwallader family of ot Philadelphia hin educated at the French military tary Academy of St. St C Cyr r and nd who of very recent years rears ears distinguished himself as as' United States representative in China Russia and Turkey di did five fire years in the Foreign legion Yin ill h his s young adventurous ad time and ud has bas defended defended de de- fended it in public against German crit criticism All the same some legionaries arc are archard archard hard nuts I myself applied for a transfer to the infantry when I was convalescent at t L Lyons ons says Bou Bou- ligny A lot of Americans went into the and saw a Il lot of Vel Verdun fighting Musgrave l who was Wets reported report report- ed once as being a native nativo of or New v Orleans Orleans Or Or- leans was captured d and andis i is now a R prisoner r of or the fhe Germans Another American named l Ganz Jam Janz of Kentucky was wat killed outright outright outright out out- right b by a shell and anel of California died in hospital ital from wounds If you YOU want to I know knots now about the tho legion 1 read the article in the the u Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic At At- lantic Edward Edwa d Morlac 1 Monthly l by or I hi his book A Sol Soldier ier of or orthe of the Legion I I He Hc was a good friend of mine and nd has returned to California There is I said a public rumor i that Morlac just quit No official record exists to prove proe and and it answered the legionary 1 wrote me from the States that t he had been invalided im I 1 Iwas Iwas was wag with him for a year and he lie was recognized l as h being n one oe of or tl the most I courageous of ot the legion it If ne he del um pull pun out Im I'm Im I'm quite sure that it could only have haye been from not having been heen promoted as he lie justly deserved I myself applied for a transfer but hut now I Im I'm m glad I stayed in the legion Several Severd Americans l fresh flesh from the states have ha just joined boys hoc who've evidently roughed it One is a ayoung ayoung young oung mining engineer from Virginia by the name of Mack who came cante directly di directly directly di- di from fram Peru highly educated I and well bred t 1 The typical legionary laughed His Hip life lie is a rom romance t though h ugh he knows knows knows' it not H Last Mack laek and self Saturday m myself in ill company with an Irish American named Ball Barry went to the town of X X- X over the canal nal to feed up First nt at the butcher shop we bought four wei weighing hing two pounds each and a bucketful of potatoes Next at the village inn we ordered the proprietress to do o them for us like in the United States We 1 e made mada i Barry oversee oer the cooking cookin as he be I claimed to be he he 11 an ex from a n nI I kitchen sh shack tk in an Or Oregon gon lum lumber er camp Cahill At 2 p. p In in we wo sat down at ht table B By We c had bad cleaned the dishes bright ht and shinin shining an and had music music Barry Barry bro brought ht his harmonica When hen Mack lack asked the proprietress ss 18 o for the bill she glee handed out ont a slip with francs 26 marked on it Now that aint so bad for a triplet of starved cil soldiers is it 1 Mack l arrived arrived ar ar- ar- ar rived rh-ed from Peru with a a. large supply of yellow lucre and is making hopeful hopeful hopeful hope hope- ful headway in getting rid of it I asked him if the they were such hard rd nuts in the legion rhey o just got hard constitutions constitutions ho le laughed My fy adjutant a a. splendid fellow brought up rich let lets let's 8 say soy in Genoa was chief of Bom Bom- In practice with a new trench mortar a fragment of shell flew back and hit bit him just above hoe the eye It pierced his skull but he lie did not know it just it-just just bound hound up the wound and went about his business The ne next t da day I took his photograph Two days later he lie fell unconscious and died lied The new weapon is is a n beauty beauty beauty beau beau- ty very ery simple but terrific at its short range throwing range throwing the torpedo not above yards ard extreme limit Like blowin blowing each other up across the thc street hey 7 It is made of steel tubing tubing tubing tub tub- ing so light that one man can carry ij ar r r. r L i f 1 r r w 6 t H i w r 4 12 y 1 f J j Y tr i. i r r y 7 M N V dry r MJ I J. J l v t. t 4 k M y aa a. a y 6 r it and run with it It throws two kinds of projectiles one a casing with for demolishing demolishing demolishing demolish demolish- a high explosive e C ing earthworks the other a nell that contains steel halls balls of great use against infantry attacks as ns it sprinkles the ground thoroughly thorough thorough- ly in a fanlike manner I asked him hum about the silly story o of criminals taking e refuge in the thc Ice le Ic- Ic gion glon Nonsense he answered No Nomore Nomore No Nomore more than elsewhere but they take a aman aman aman man as they find him ask no questions questions ques ques- and ond every man has a chance to tc prove his mettle mettie There was an escaped escaped escaped es es- es- es convict from Cayenne who enlisted enlisted en en- I listed with me at New Orleans and crossed the ocean on the beau u about the same date as ns myself Someone I turned him up |