Show LIFE IN THE FOREIGN LEGION it all races go to make up worlds Fight ingest army warped and crooked bodies and spirits stra strengthened inc strict discipline tempered with kindness 4 U M r 0 04 it 1 av I 1 i 0 M 1 A 7 olt TZ R 44 M s 1 rai I 1 lim l im ar tv 4 W VA V A M au 41 1 the legionnaires must march or ale but some absolutely physically cannot kee p up inset foreign legionnaires in camp photograph ed by richard haill burton by RICHARD author of the royal road read to romance etc IF F I 1 were twenty one again and if the term of enlistment were e limited to a year instead of five id join the french foreign legion I 1 am perfectly aware that le gionna ires frequently get shot by arab bullets or tortured to death by arab women but the gambling chance ot of escaping Is worth taking it if there were no danger there would be no adventure its the danger that attracts fully halt half the new recruits that come to bel ab bes each year only recently I 1 went to the railroad station to watch one trainload of these recruits come in these unequipped bleus were of every race under the sun poles turks negroes spaniards italians russians rumanians belgians and above all germans derelicts born again yet however much their languages differed they all looked alike they had been traveling a week in their civilian clothes and were now a grimy army of tatter dem allons unwashed unshaved ragged and exhausted As this hopeless and disreputable column slouched down the road leading to the barracks I 1 joined them was this the famous legion la brave I 1 legion that had conquered africa for france that had brought glory upon glory to their flag that could outmarch and outfight any army in i the world yes the very same this grime will be washed oft off these rags will be burned and a smart new uniform issued to replace them these miserable bodies will bo be straightened by exercise these unhealthy faces aces tanned and toughened in six months this pack of starving vagabonds will go marching back up the boulevard behind the stirring trumpets clean erect shining dangerous more than 70 per cent of the recruits tire are german usually peasant boys who have run away from home because they were ill treated or hungry one also finds many german ex soldiers out of 0 jobs A good 10 per cent will always bo be french who get in by saying they are belgian or swiss the remaining 20 per cent are truly international but whether german or non gorman german they usually come from the lower orders exceptions however meet one at every turn in bel abbes as the legion calls its home there Is a military band of no pieces every member of that band is d a good must clan and every member is a legionnaire glonna gion lre at the other extreme one finds the infamous compagnie de discipline the penal prison for the legion where murderers bandits ban fits criminals incorrigible have been CO collected elected they too are le gionna ires but the average le legionnaire glonna lre Is neither musician nor murderer and unfortunate just an unhappy outcast a gauvre malheureux ma ina lheureux seek geck ing forgetfulness from the past and shelter for the present ha 11 loses his name when he be joins up and finds a no new v one he cynics similes and dismisses all 1111 he was he is born again of a mother who understands and forgives but in payment for his rebirth he must sacrifice all else for her and acht for her and suffer and hunger and thirst for her and die for her and a lone alone booze god of the legion before id been tn in del bel abbes an hour on my first visit I 1 learned what next to loyalty Is the most important thing in the ufa life of a legionnaire liquore their favorite drink because it Is cheap Is a raw red Al algerian algerdan wine called pinard pinard is the raison detre for the average lo 10 glonna lre pinard has always been his god it Is now it win be till the legion perishes pinard has welded the legion together preserved its morale won battles conquered africa bottle brothers legionnaires on the first legion payday pay day I 1 was in town I 1 wandered into the barracks canteen the legions high altar to this great god booze the place was an in ini lerno erno with scores of soldiers brawling laughing singing and shouting in ten languages tobacco smoke thickened the air oaths turned it blue bottles and bodies were strewn across wine splashed tables or under them benches were overturned drink drink drink a madness a frenzy a demoniac worship of the idol alcohol As the night advanced those who were too paralyzed to lift another glass were stacked in corners comers while stouter drinkers held on and poured it down till dawn one for allahl for one next day found a good percentage of the most savage drunks in prison and scarcely anyone in tile the whole barracks really sober As a rule however the officers are wonderfully der fully patient and overlook most of these little binges I 1 saw one legionnaire who lay prostrate in the gutter rise to his feet at the approach 0 of an officer draw himself to rigid attention salute with a smartness that was inspired and then plop back into the tha gutter he collapsed the officer just laughed and passed on but drink is by no means the legions only diversion in bel abbes as in most of the smaller towns where legionnaires are quartered there is the village neave too the street of the women on a holiday the women put on their most bizarre gowns and heaviest jewelry gross neg regresses will cry shrilly at passersby passers by painted white women reach out to seize one from the crowd arab girls with raucous voices shriek insults at each other across the oley alley A few french filles too old for paris compete with their native als sisters striving in this last outpost of degradation to postpone the end another year another month with so many desperately gay soldiers wandering about the streets at night fights are frequent at Ws this the aleglan excels and woo to their the ir opponents for every legionnaire in sight will come to the aid of a fellow legionnaire and regardless of where justice lies iles fight like a demon tor for the uniform sing in scorching sim in order to have close contact with the legion in the flad I 1 chose to accompany on foot fool legion caires who had to march miles across desert country in five days we had 30 nilles miles to do that day land and id not walked that many miles in a month I 1 soon began to regret it the moment the pas do de route order was given the legionnaires broke step took a reel reef in their and moved my god how they could marchl the kilometers rolled behind me like knots behind a battleship smoothly steadily itea dlly mercilessly ci the pace was never less than four miles an hour As soon as the sun rose the heat began to torment me for I 1 was waa wearing a light sweater but what of the legionnaires in overcoats they dripped for far worse than I 1 did but while I 1 struggled to keep up they sang lusty german marching songs always always german next day we had to cross 30 miles of sand without abree a tree or a stream the officers drove their men more and more ruthlessly they must march march ou creve march or die but some absolutely physically could not keep up they preferred to creve cleveand and so did 1 I falling back in ignoble defeat I 1 persuaded a kitchen wagon driver to let me board his steaming stove ile he had been ordered to follow the column to pick up stragglers so our strange ambulance was wag soon loaded to capacity but still the limping stragglers multiplied As a lastre last resort ropes from the wagon were tied to the exhausted soldiers belts not so much to compel them as to assist them but it worked both ways before we reached the me end of our allo desert march I 1 heard enough legion stories from my comrades both riding and walking to fill 1111 a book one stands out vividly in my memory some time before considerable excitement had developed in colomb bechar one of the desert outposts over the remarkable case ot of a certain austrian whose name shall we say was young had fallen heir to a huge fortune in vienna left him by his fathers will and the tha executors were trying to find fand the beneficiary whom they knew to lie be for or some unknown reason hiding in the legion they had succeeded succeed id in tracing down his regiment even his co company ills his assumed name however baffled any further identification not tor for a million bl illion As a last attempt to find the missing man the sergeant major to whose company the authorities were sure belonged announced the bequest publicly at assembly all the details were described so that there here could be no mistake the sergeant major ordered to step forth and receive his legacy there would be no penalties no questions just a paper to sign and a million dollars to spend nobody moved A million dollars foell the examiners exa minera eye swept the ranks blazing with impatience at the stupidity of the secretive austrian who preferred to remain unknown at the price of a million dollars but all his pleadings and threatening were of no avail his search was a failure A failure until two years later when himself discharged honorably frol n me legion appeared in vienna to claim his fortune chantz 9 was the sergeant majora C bull syndicate service |