OCR Text |
Show he French Foreign Legion and Its Traditions : : : By Edwin Tamsse ; : French Foreign Legion has always " a favorite with novelists and ;..:- ' oI D'-'tion generally in search of a isque background. Since Ouida wrote . .. . I Two Flags" probably dozens of 111 -"oes in fiction have donned the blue t , flQd red trousers of the legiouary, . : fter suffering incredible hardships aud punishment, have at last emerged ' . iantly to the music of wedding bells, their names cleared and the legion 5 lit a memory. Now this plan was .deal from the fiction writer's point of - ' No one knew much about the legion, r that matter, did the novelist. Al-as Al-as a long way off, the surroundings . picturesque, and, given a certain A :- t of imagination and a fluent pen, the E;- 13 aero could be made to have quite " ' tactorily bad tijne before be came into c.: : ; a again. British officer, an ex -legionary, who - ine time was attached to a British - i: - 7 ndssion in this country, assures us here is very little romance indeed French Foreign Legion. Ruined acre are, always, but, the possessors talk about them, and as a rule ouly 0 bl! forgotten and left to themselves. r,,at majority, of men. it appears, filtered the legion because of some offense against the laws of their own - 'es, or else from pure love of soklif- 1 adventure. (t? '" e years ago the Britisher mentioned i;fP man in Paris, a journalist, who had , ' 0 the Rriton's company, and in tho ff-' f tbcir conversation the journalist 'i ' '; fc he "ad joined the legion for no i; v all except that after finishing his : compulsory service in 'the ' 1 army he did not like civilian life, l.i'- would be glad to repeat his r 3,. "perieuce. J S The life aud the discipline in tbe legion are bard, necessarily so, but not hard enough to break either a man's spirit or his self-respect. The legion is, above all, a fighting force, aud cowed or broken-spirited men would be the very last material in the world to do the work which the legion requires re-quires of its members. THERE are many men of good family in tbe legion, and occasionally a letter bearing bear-ing a historical uame arrives at one of the legion's stations, and is eventually claimed, but the majority of the men are much the same type as used to rill the Cape Mounted RiBes and Matabeleland Police in the old days, that is to say, military adventurers -pure and simple. Still, when one has served in the Foreign Legion Incidents come under one's notice sometimes humorous aud sometimes Iragicj-and it may be of interest iu this connection to set down a few. First of all. it must be borne in mind that the cause of nine-tenths of the unusual un-usual occurrences in the legion b le cafard, ur, iu other words, unbearable ennui with one's surroundings. When a mau has been for some time in a place, seeing the same faces day after day, and with a dozen palm trees and miles of sand for his sole outlook, he is more than apt to develop cafard, and it depends entirely ou the man's nature what form the cafard is going to take. It may break out in the shape of what virtually amounts to homicidal mania, or it may ex-press itself in the form of more or less elaborate practical jokes.' Men have been known to arm themselves, for no apparent ap-parent reason, with rifles aud ammunition and maintain a fusillade on every one within reach, finally ex-plaining, when captured and disarmed, that they were bored to death and simply desired excitement, ,1'here have becu numerous cases of this character iu the legion, and uulcss it is absolutely necessary to kill the viotUn of cafard before he will allow himself to be captured, he is usually treated more as though he were in need of medical attention than as a criminal. Almost Al-most all the long-service soldiers of the legion are cafards iu one form or another, and so long as their cafard does not bring them into direct conflict with authority they are treated with great forbearance. Some years ago the battalion of the First Regiment stationed at a town which we will call S was notified that a certain Commandant Command-ant M, from the Second Regiment, would arrive on a certain day to take up command. com-mand. Now- Commandant M (a stranger to his new battalion) possessed what every officer iu the legion had, au ordounancc or soldier servant, and also what every officer offi-cer did not possess, that is to say, a reputation repu-tation for extreme austerity of life aud conduct. con-duct. On the day that he was supposed to arrive al. S to take command. Commandant. M, not feeling very well, decided to stay at n small station about forty miles up the line, and sent on his ordonuauce with his belongings to take over his quarters. This man was an ex -officer of the Austrian army, and bad seen about fifteen years' service iu the legion. Ou arrival at S be took his master's belongings to his quarters, then deeded himself in the commandant's uniform aud proceeded into the town. Ou his way down he passed several officers, and, ns he looked just as n commandant ought to tor rather more so) was saluted punctiliously by them. This was at ten o'clock in the morning. At luucheou that forenoon in the 'licutenauls' mess au officer offi-cer arrived from the town in a state of intense in-tense excitement and asked the assembled officers generally. "Have any of you seen our new 'old man'?" (the word used iu the legion among juniors for the commanding officer). Two or three men said that they had seen him that morning and that there seemed to be no noticeable difference between be-tween him and other officers commanding battalions. But the newcomer was still excited. "Well," he said, "you had better mind w hat you're about. He's in, the town now putting every noncommissioned officer he sees under arrest for being druuk or improperly im-properly dressed, trr something, and he swears that this battalion is the slackest mob he bas ever seen and that he'll bring it uuder discipline if he bas to break every officer iu it!" THE officers were much impressed by the keenness of their new commandant and departed in various directions to worry their conipauies up to the required pitch of smartness. smart-ness. The uext heard of the new commandant command-ant was that he had been retrieved from a low cafe iu the Village Xegre at 3 a. m. while performing a triumphal dance among ' the debris of tho furniture over the bodies of the proprieor and cusomers, whom he had scientifically knocked out with a chair. The man received a term of imprisonment, but Commandant M's reputation for austerity never recovered. He was reduced to a state of frenzy for months afterward by various undesirable characters presenting bills, etc., which his understudy had incurred. Eventually Even-tually he exchanged into another battalion. The ethics of the legion arc peculiar to itself. The theft of tobacco, money, etc., will be punished summarily by the thief's comrades iu such a way as to disqualify him for service, sometimes necessitating his stay in hospital for some time. But to decorate one's self that is, to take any articles of kit. etc., which may happen to strike one's fancy, is regarded as bciug rather meritorious meritori-ous thau otherwise. There is told the tale of a recruit taken to the canteen by two old legionaries and tilled with wine, which he discovered too late came from the proceeds of a pair of white trousers of his own w-ith which bis hosts bad "decorated themselves" and converted into cash. The idea seems to be that some one has to pay for the "decorated" articles, and that so long as it is not one's self, it is all right. A legiouary would be shocked if this practice prac-tice was referred to as stealing. "Decorating "Decorat-ing one's self" is a regimental custom, and, like many other customs, has grown respectable respec-table from autiquity. There are three methods of obtaining a commission' in the Foreign Legion. An officer may be seconded from his line regiment regi-ment after three years' service in France, and joiu the legion with his full rank; or a noncommissioned officer may be sent to the infantry school at St. Jlaixent, aud after a period of instruction receive his commission as second lieutenant. The third class is that of foreigners who have beeu officers in their own armies and join the legion iu the same capacity. This is fairly easy to do, provided one cau make a certain impression at headquarters; head-quarters; and there are many foreigners serving iu the Foreign Legion who obtained their commissions in this way. For ex-officers ex-officers who wish for a commission, aud who cannot make the necessary impression, or for various reasons may be under somethiug of a cloud, it is necessary to join the legion as a private. If a mau can prove that he has been au officer iu his owu country he is made cleve caporal (pupil corporal) almost at once, aud if he is efficient and well behaved, be-haved, is sent to St. Maixcut. in due course. One lieutenant colonel was a Russiau peasant pea-sant who found himself stranded iu Marseilles Mar-seilles duriug the Franco-Prussian War, and joined the legion as a private. A great mauy of the older men took part iu that struggle, iu which the Foreign Legiou suf fered very severely, as it did also during the world war. In tbe officers' mess at Sidi-bel Sidi-bel -Abbes is a chassepot rifle with a strange history. Duriug the Dahomey expedition in 1S95 a certain Captain Poudreau was tired at by a Dahomeyan marksman ensconced in a tree, and returned the shot with his revolver, re-volver, bringing his man down. On examining ex-amining the Dahomeyan's rifle tbe captain was astonished to find by the number on it and by certain marks that it was the identical identi-cal rifle which he had carried as a private in the Franco -Prussian AVar. The rifle had passed out of service and found its way to Dahomey, aud had narrowly missed killing its former owner. Captain Poudreau obtained ob-tained permission to keep it, and it is now in tbe regimental museum. The officers' mess at Sidi-bel-Abbes, where tbe museum Is situated, ws built and designed de-signed entirely by legionaries. It is in the form of a Chinese pagoda, and is one of the most striking buildings in Algeria. The mural paintings, which are very tine, were executed entirely by two legionaries, oue a captain aud the other a private. There is hardly auy trade or profession which is uot lepresented in the legion. After a fight iu the desert it is nc uncommon occurrence to call for men with medical knowledge to look after the wounded, and to find two or three highly qualified surgeons in one company. The great majority of the men are of the ' class of which a professional army is always formed; but, on the other hand, it is absolutely ab-solutely impossible to discover what social grade a legionary may have occupied iu his former life. Some years ago a private of the legiou died, aud his body was claimed by the (ierinau Coverument and taken hack to Germany in a warship with the honors of a royal prince. All that was ever known of him in the legiou was that he was a Gcr iiau, uud a very smart soldier., i |