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Show JOFFRE CULM UNDER London Newspaper Correspondent Corre-spondent Describes Demeanor De-meanor of General. HAS HOURLY REPORTS Plans Battles Without Emotion Emo-tion in Face of Victory or of Defeat. LONDON, Sept. 23. The special correspondent corre-spondent of a London newspaper draws the following interesting pen picture of General Jo'ffre, who is believed to be su- preme head of all the allied armies, as , he appeared at general headquarters: ' It waa in a small room, 10x15 feet, furnished with quiet taste, that Joffre ' foretold the doom of the Teutonic 1 armies. 1 His kepi, adorned with gold braid, J hung on the back of an armchair, sec-! sec-! lion maps were on the walls and tables, marked at different points j with penciled arrowheads, each of I which had been the signal for launching launch-ing hundreds of thousands of shells at the corresponding point of the actual line. It is with a stubby pencil lying on . his desk that the generalissimo decrees de-crees 1 lie hammer blows wherewith the French and British armies are. wasting German man power. Gentle and Paternal. Nothing seems easier than to pay General .loffre a call; in reality he is the most difficult man In Kurope to approach at this moment. The efficiency effi-ciency of the precautions taken to safeguard him is demonstrated by their unobtruslveness, yet his safety is as perfect as human ingenuity can make it. Vastly more interesting than his surroundings, however, is the man himself. Gentle and paternal, like an old .village priest, he in no way con- ; veys the Impression of a superman to whose supreme care the lives of millions of soldiers are intrusted. This crushing responsibility he lias carried for two years without faltering. falter-ing. He is the same Joffre who began be-gan to move his millions in August, ll'H, and an officer who has been in constant contact with him assures me that neither victory nor reverse seems to affect the steel nerves of this great war chief. Is Always Cool. His low-pitched, voice never rises above conversational level, his slow-moving slow-moving speech never accelerates under un-der excitement, because he never appears ap-pears excited. His snowy head, on the well-set, burly body. Is that of a thinker. His gray eyes reflect none of the horrors of the Titanic struggle of which an hourly report has reached him for two tragic years. And. though for this period he has borne the most tremendous weight of responsibility that ever fell to a single man, without a day's rest, his health remains perfect. The secret is that he does his ,iob without worrying. His ambitions are two tirst, to win final victory; then, to retire for life on a houseboat on one of France's beautiful, streams. |