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Show M OF NOTE DIE ON BATTLEFIELD Heroic Deeds of Picturesque Force Serving in French Foreign Legion. SON CF GORKY IS KILLED Poets and Novelists Give Their Lives for Their Adopted Country Squadron of American Fly-: ing Men Being Formed. London. Innumerable stories have been written about the doings of the French foreign legion, and the heroic deeds of the picturesque force have employed the pens of many eminent writers in fio'-r-n. ' m an article in the Dai'. Express H. J. Greenwall pays tribute to these famous soldiers of fortune. "All sorts of famous men have fallen fall-en on the field of honor while fighting fight-ing with the legion," he says. "Binet Valmer from the Argentine; the Luxemburg Lux-emburg writer, Sosthene Kurth; a son of Maxim Gorky; Camillo Ramirez Ram-irez from Venezuela; a Colombian poet, Fernandez de Bengoecha; another an-other from Ecuador, Rodolfo Seml-nario; Seml-nario; the novelist Sanchez Carrero, all fell for France on the battlefields of Artois and Champagne. , "The poet Ismail Urdometa was killed in the Dardanelles while rushing rush-ing a Turkish trench at the point of the bayonet, and the son of the Russian Rus-sian ambassador at Paris, M. Isvcl-sky, Isvcl-sky, was severely wounded while fighting beside Lieut. Alexis Com-nene, Com-nene, the great-grandson of the emperor em-peror of Trebizond. Bob Scanlon, the negro boxtr, is with the legion, and Francois Faber, from Luxemburg, the public idol who carried off many prizes as a professional cyclist, fell in action. So also did Alex Carter, the famous steeplechase jockey. . Refused German Money. "Winnie O'Connor, one of the best jockeys that ever crossed the Atlantic, Atlan-tic, joined after writing a letter to Walter de Mumm returning all the money he had earned while riding under un-der his colors. O'Connor wrote: 'I hate Iloche money; your gold burnB my fingers. I want to get rid of It.' "Fifteen young students from the Beaux Arts In Paris Joined the legion In a body. Not only all classes but all races are blended together In the wonderful won-derful First Marching regiment. When Italy went to war the Italians were transferred t(r their own army, but previously they fought brilliantly, and two grandsons of Garibaldi lost their lives In France. "The nucleus of the Second regiment regi-ment was formed on the evening of July 31, 1914, In a Parisian cafe. Some young Italians Issued an appeal, and as a result about three thousand English,, Eng-lish,, Belgians, Italians and Slavs attended at-tended the meeting to consider how they could best aid the country of their adoption. "In the early hours of the first day of August I was passing along the Boulevard Haussmann and saw thousands thou-sands of foreigners waiting in a line that extended for the greater part of a mile. "The British residents in Paris tried to form a regiment of their own, and as a result of the first meeting, held at the Imperial club, about 500 men offered themselves for enrollment. The authorities, however, were unable to accept the offer of a separate regiment, regi-ment, and the same reply was given to the corps of American volunteers, so it was decided that the British and American volunteers should be drafted draft-ed into the foreign legion. 35,400 In the Legion. "About four hundred of them began drill at once in the exhibition grounds of the Magic City. Every new recruit of the legion had to pass an extremely severe medical examination, which was held beneath the shadow of Napoleon's Na-poleon's tomb, and about 20 per cent were rejected. I believe the actual number accepted was So.-lOO. "After the first few months all the British members were transferred to English regiments, but not before they had been in several engagements and suffered losses. "Most of the American members pe-tiffoned pe-tiffoned to join the Flying corps, and France has so many American dying men now that a squadron of Americans Ameri-cans Is being formed. Dutchmen, Swedes, Danes and Americans, who could legitimately have remained lookers look-ers on, have cheerfully laid down their lives on the battlefields of France. "The pay of the men of the legion Is the same as that of the other soldiers sol-diers of France Eve sous per day and an allowance of tobacco and wine so there is no question of the mercenary mer-cenary spirit having Incited men who have thrown up good positions to fight for France." |
