THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
FRANCE AT WAR.
ON THE FRONTIER OF CIVILISATION.
[By Radyard Kipling in the Liverpool Daily Post.]
"It's a pretty park," said the French artillery officer. "We've done a lot for it since the owner left. I hope he'll appreciate it when he comes back,'
The car traversed a winding drive through woods banks embellished
"The Barbarian.
1
Again a big plume rose; and again the lighter shells broke at their appointed distance beyond it. The smoke died away on that stretch of trench, as the foam of
well dies in the angle of a barbour
a
EXTRA
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1915
so that wherever you looked you saw Goya's pictures of men at
orma.
The Sentinel Hounds.
a
pop.
"
Lesson from the "Boche. A abell must fall somewhere, and by the law of averages oc- casionally lights straight sa a homing pigeon on the one epot where it can wreck most. Then men must be dug out some mere- ly breathless, who shake their ears. whose souls have gone loose wear, and carry on, and others among terrore. There have to be
"What made the change?” "Tho Boche. If he had bean quiet for another twenty years the world most have been his-rotten, but all his. Now he is saring the world."
We were looking for a town (There is one quarter where you ing prisoners, naturally develops grounds, though no shell of this that lives ander shellfre. The can buy things.) There are many into a Sadducoe. It is their little! wer was over launched with more regular road to it was reported old people, too, who will not go aside to each other, the slang, and earnest prayers that it might do Every soldier has some of the unhealthy-not that the women away. They are of the place, you the half-words which, if one un. hort. " We see."
derstood, instead of blinking They talked about the lives of old maid in him, and rejoices in and children seem to care. all the little gadgets and devices took byways of which certs a
"And this bombardment hop drowsily at one's plate, would guns; what number of roundssoms give the day'a history in little, will stand and others will not; how of his own invention. Dosth and exposed heights and corners ware pens often ?" I said. wounding come by nature, bat lightly blinded by wind-brakes "It happens always. Would But tire and the difficulty of con one can make two good guai to lie dry, sleep soft, and keep of dried treetops. Here the shell you like to look at the railway sister (not a foreign) tongue cloud out of thres spoilt ones, and what yourself clean by forethought and holes were rather thick on the station? Of course, it has not everything, and one goes to billete crazy luck sometimes goes with a contrivance is art, and in all ground. But the women and been so bombarded as the cathe amid a murmur of voices, the rush single shot or a blind salvo.
of single care through the night, things the Frenchman is glorious-the children and the old men dral. ly on artist.
went on with their work with the We went through the gross the passage of battalions, and be atroets without hind all that echo of the drop Then a new voice of tremendous
Moveover, the French officera cattle and the crops; and where nakedness of
A house had been broken by people, till we reached the railway voicea calling one to the other volume lifted itself out of a lull seem as mother-keen on their men that followed. Somebody laughed. as their men are brother-food of shells the rabbish was collected station, which was very fairly along the line that never sleeps.
The ridge with the scattered them. Maybe the possessive in a neat pile, and where a room knocked about, but, as my friende Evidently the voice was known.
form of address: “Mon general," or two still remained ustable, it said, nothing like as much as the pines might have hidden children asid. "They are being waked up which our men oloke in other and window curtains
"That is not for us," a gunner mon capitaine," helps the idea, was inhabited, and the tattered oathedral. Then we had to orossat play. Certainly a borse would earth opens for yards around, and
flattered as the end of a long street down have been quite visible, but there between from-," he named a distant with little French position. "So-and-So is carter phrases. And those soldiers, proudly as any flag. And time which the Boche could see clear was no hint of guas, except a obalets of a rustic nature. At attending to them there. We go like ours, had been welded for was when I used to denounce ly. As one glanced up it, one semaphore which announced that Birat the chalets stood their full on with our usual work. Look months in one furnace. As an young France because it tried to perceived how the weeds to whom it was forbidden to pass that way, officer said: "Half our orders kill itself beneath my car wheele; men's war is the trace of God, as the battery was firing. The height above ground, suggesting Another torpilleur."
now need not be given. Experi- and the fat old women who had come back and were well Boohes must have looked for that dealt with a their psychology Les-gardens in England. A little further they sank into the earth.
ence makes us think together." I crossed roade without warning; established the whole length, battery, too. The ground was deconads, and the French officer watched by the long perspective pitted with shell holes of all cali-is a good psychologist. One of "Our national pay- believe, too, that if a French and the specially desf old mon of till at the top of the ascent only
windows.bres-some of them as fresh as them said: empty open their solid brown roofs showed.
private has an idea and they are who slept in carts on the wrong
mole-casts in the misty, damp obology has changed. I do not Torn branches drooping across
full of ideas it rescues his 0.0. side of the road. Now I could
Copyright, 1915, by Radyard morning; others where the recoguisa it myself,' take off my hat to every single the driveway with here and there
quicker than it does with us.
aoul of them, but that one cannot Kipling in Great Britain and the piss had grown from seed to a scorched patch of nadergrowth,
flower all through the summer. The overwhelming impression traverse a whole land barebeaded. United States of America, explained the reason of their
[All Rights Reserved.]
"And where are the guns?" I wall, and broke out afresh half a was the brilliant health and vitali-The nearer we came to our town
demanded at inat. modesty.
mile lower down. In its appar-ty of these men and the quality of the fewer were the people, till at out laziness, in its awful delibera. their breeding. They bore them-last we balted in a well-built sat boldly on a terrace. Theretion and it quick speems of Holves with swing and rampant sabarb of paved streets where was nothing wrong with it except, wrath, it was more like the work delight in life, while their voices there was no life at all.... few of waves thus of men; and our as they talked in the side as verne high platform's geatle away and among the stands of arms were glide was exactly the motion the controlled voices of civilisa: the spread of the quick, busy defeated town, dodged a few miles onst is Rosalio, the virgin of Bay if a ship drifting with us towardation. Yet, sa the light pierced weeds between the paying-stones; dawn the roade beside which the onne; but the 75, the watchfal
the gloom they looked like that share.
"The anual work. Only the bandits dividing the spoil. One the air smelt of pounded mortar wonen tended their cows, and nurse of the treaches and little and crushed stone; the sound of dropped into a place on a hill sister of the Line, seeme to be always" Soixante-quiaze." Even usust work, the officer explained. ploture, though far from war, a footfall echoed like the drop of where a Moroccan regiment of hose who love her beat do not nearer this time than before, and
elaye with me. A perfectly- "Sometimes it is here. Sometimes bailt, dark-skinned young gisata pebble in a well. At first the many experiences was in billets.
horror of wrecked apartment They were Mabommedans baff. insist that she is beautiful. Harquister on account of the mist. above or below us. I have besu had pealed himself out of his houses and big shops laid openingly like half a dozen of our merits, are Fronch-logio, direot-Pick up the chain snywhere you hore since May.
blue cost, and had brought it
She is observation-poet, table, makes one waste energy in anger, Indian frontier types, though they peas, simplicity, and the supreme pleass, you shall find the same down with ly but not without diguity. Two trickon landscape and made ils shoulder of a half-stripped com. It is not seemly that rooms should spoke no accessible tongue. They gift of "oocaaionality."
of the moment. One ases and same always hidden, always ready clear fresh barks joined the obor chemical yellow look more foul. Trade who was knealing at his feat be torn out of the sides of build-hal, of course, taraed the farm equal to everything on the spur observer, and telephonist; the
ings as one tears the soft heart buildings where they lay into a , and a mon moved lazily in the A detachment of men mayǝl out bar with some foolgear. They out of English bread; that vills little bit of Africa in colour and studies the few appliances which gans; and the same vaxed fore- "Well. Suppose we come and French trenches, sad then vanish-stood against a background of roofs should lie aurous iroa gates small. They had been gessed in make her do what she does, sud shore of trenches, smoking and look at things a little," said ed at the foot of a little rise.acmi-luminous blue kaza, through of private garages, or that draw the north; shot over and shot one feels that anyone could have shaking from Switzerland to the commanding officer.
which glimmered a pile of coping-room doors should flap alone do vn, and set up to be shelled invented her. Other man appeared moving to- pery atraw half covered by a red warde us with that concentration blanket. By divine accident of and disconnected between two ng sin; and their officers talked of of purpose and bearing shown in both armies when-dinner is at light and pose it was St. Martin emptinesses of twisted girders. North African wars that we had The eye wearies of the repeated vir heard of sultry days giving bis oloak to the beggar. tree worthy of such a park--the band. They looked like people here were scores of pictures in pattern that burst shells make on against long odds in the desert rather, sort of tree visitors are always who had been digging hard.
Blone walls, as the mouth sickens years ago. "AfterwardsTM is it general idea is after each and-anch these galleries-notably a rook- taken to admire. A ladder ran
"The same work, Always the
hown chapel, where the rad of of the taste of mortar and charred not so with you also ?-we get a system, the patent of which had "the officer said. it to a platform. What little same work!
timber. One quarter of the place our best recruits from the tribes expired, and we improved it; the пр
breach action, with slight mili the cross on the rough canvas had besa shelled nearly level; the we have fought. These men are wind there was awayed the tali
And you could walk from here top, and the ladder creaked like to the sea or to Switzerland in altar cloth glowed like a ruby: facades of the houses stood door-children. They make no trouble, fication, is somoly else's; the that ditch and you'll find the Further inside the oven, we found less, roofleas, and windowless They only want to go where car eighting is perhaps a little special, ball tinkled 50ft, overhead. Two same work going on everywhere- each inhabited by one wise, silent like stage Loanery. This was neartridges are burnt. They are of and so ie the traversing; bat at the trench is a bent line, stadded
bottom it is only an assembly
The chatona that commanded these glories of foreat and park
if one looked closely, a
Boratches or dents on its white stone walls, or a neatly-drilled hole under a flight of steps. One Each hole ended in na unexploded #ball. "Yes," asid the officer, they arrive here cocasionally."
Something ballowed across the folds of the wooded hills; ame- thing granted in reply. Some thing passed overhead, querulous-
direction of the guns.
the
Sight from a Tree. There was a specimen tres-&
a ship's gangway. A telephone
A little sacshios fooded the
on a roal which ran towards the
It isn't war
look at our children.
swish apon the
a row of little rook-cat kennels,
post:
that way:
A Wrecked Town. The stillness was as terrible sa
crossed a corner.
SECOND ARTICLE.
We left that strioken bat ao.
They were almost under one's hand, their ammunition in cellare and dugouts beside them. As far se one can make out, the 75 Toe buy- gunhas no pet name.
H
Famous French 75's
everybody-did.
The
"How?"
"Because he has abowo as what Evil is. Wo-you and 1, England and the rest had began to doubt the existence of Evil. The Broke is saving us.
登录
Then we had another look at the animal in its trench-a little
map,
sea. The handling of the war varies with the nature of the country, but the tools are analter- A matter of fact," sayeed. One looks upon them at last commandant, "anybody, with the same weariness of wonder na the eye receives from endless repetitions of Egyptian hierogly- phios. A long, low profile, with field-gun and its attendant am- stand for an observation-post:
of
a lump to one side, means the
manition-0889; a circle and alot
with vertical plumes of explosion; the great gane of position, com- ing and going on their motors, repeat themselves se scarabs; and man himself is a small blae emadge, no larger than a fore- sight, crawling and creeping or tobing and rauning among all these terrific symbols.
Tragedy of Rheims. But there is no hieroglyphic for
relative to the regularly spaced fruits are death, ripened and dis-It's the most superior of all the wort of chaat one hears in pristor was somebody's chauffeur with the bored contempt of the the stonework in places are burned
frm underground.
invisible gaus spoke forvently for
variations and arrangements.” favourite mark for the heathen. pleasure." half a minate, and broke off like "It's better than that," said dog. Their duties begin at night the cathedral, which is always the few races to whom fighting is
That, of course, is all that "And how long have you dealt terriers choked on a leneb. We another; "it's the eating up of a with the sentinels and listening They had gashed and ripped the
"And believe me," said a sides of the cathedral itself, so that with them?"
Shakespeare ever got out of the climbed till the topmost platform people. They come and they fill
“A long time-a long time. I alphabet. The French artillery awared sickly beneath us. Here the trenches, and they die, and prou instructor, "my fellow here the birds flew in and out at will;
knows the difforonoa batween the one found a rustic shelter, always they send more and those die.nois of our shells and the Bothe they had smashed holes in the helped to organise the corps. I make their own gana as he made
roof, knocked hage canties out of om ons of those whose heart is in his plays. It is just as simple a of the tea garden pattera, a table, We do the same, of course,
11 shells.' map, and a little window wreath-but-look!"
When we came out into the the buttresses, and pitted and Africa." He spoke slowly, almost that.
"There is nothing going on for ed with living branches that gave Ho pointed to the large, deli-
eterred the paved square outside. feeling for hia French words, and open again there were good ane the first view of the Devil and barate smoke-hesda renewing
They were at work, too, that very gavo some order. I ahall not for- the moment; it's too misty," said opportunities for this stady. all his works. It was a stretch themselves along that yellowed Voices and wings met sad passed the cathedral was their objective buge, brown, Afrcedes-like Mas the Boohe, being, as a rule, meth-Rheims, ac blunting of the mind
afternoon, though I do not think get his eyes as he turned to a the Commandant. (1 fanoy that of open conatry, with a low sticks beach. "That is the frontier of in the air, and perhaps one strong for the moment. We walked to salmen hankering down beside odical, amateaza are introduced at the abominations committed on like old tooth-brushes which had civilisation. They have all civili- once been irees Towed a farm. eation against them those brutes Jag tar nodone the picturesque and fro in the silence of the strests is accoutrements. He had two to batteries in the Biche's intro- the cathedral there. he thing The rest was yellow grass, barten yonder. It's not the local victorias quite so far across the picturesque and beneath the wailing voices sides to his head, that hearded, vals. At least, there are hours pears upward, masimad and blind
young burned, slow-spoken officer, met healthy and unhealthy, which vary ed, from out of the utter wreckage overhead. Presently a to all appearance as the veldt. of the old wara that we're after.park drive when we first weat
with each position.) "But," the of the Archbishop's palace on the The grass in yellow because It's the barbarisa-all the bar.
"Oh yes," said an offivar, woman, keeping to the wall, and parted with in an hour.
An old woman The day closed (after an ames- Commendant reflected a moment, one side and dust-heaps of cramb they have used ghe," said an barian. Now you've seen the shells have to fall somewhere, opened a shutter-how it jarred!ing interlude in the chateau of a
"there is a place, and a dist-led houses on the other. They officer.
Their trunches Growhole thing in little. Come and and," be added with fine tolera-and spoke to her. The silence dream, which was all glassy auce: Let us say...' ย He gave abelled, as they still shell it, with You can see for yourself."
tion, "it is, after all, against ai The guns in the woods began
high explosives and with incendi- closed again, but it seemed to me ponde, stately treas, and vietas of a range. that the Boche directe them. Battat I heard a sound of singing white and gold ealoone; the pro
The gun-servere stood back ary shella, so that the statues and again. They seemed to have no
ecme you and look at my dug-out.
nightmare cities of voices crying at the front, and we drank to his professional for the layman who the colour of raw freh. The gar possible dug-out."
excellent health) at a little village intrudes on his mysteries. Other goyles are smashed: in a twilight fall of the petrol of civilians had come that way be- and spires tumbled; walls aplit "Nonreneo," said an officer. many cars and the wholesome fore--had seen, and grinned, and and torn windows thrust out and Who should be singing here?" favour of healthy troops. There complimented, sod gone their way, tr cery obliterated,
Wherever We circled the cathedral again, is no better guide to camp than leaving the gaudere bigh up one looks at the tortured pile there saw what pavement-stones can do one's own thoughtful nose; and on the bleak billside to grill or is mutilation and defilement, and ing of sound like the race of ad Belial, let us say, for I could not out of the gloom to shake, and against their own city, when the though I poked mine everywhere, mildew or freeze for weeks and yet it had never more of a soul: flung heade of breakers spouting to belong to that terrific new hood in the woods. incoming ware, then the high-catch the gun's name. It seemed men nodded welcome and greeting all through that cheery brother white the face of a groyne, voice which Lad lifted itself for Suddenly a seventh wave broke and the second or third time. It ap: The voices and the wings were
a hundred folk, mostly women, It is dificult to keep an edgesbrag splend the shape of its foam like a peared from the reply that if Bestill busy after lunch, when the who knelt befor the alter of an after hours of fresh air and ex- shoulders; the empty case clang plurge overopping all the others list talked to long he would be car clipped past the tea-houses in unwrecked chapel. We withdrew periences; so one does not get the ad against the trail; the tops of "That's one of our sexpilleurs dealt with from another point the drive, and came into a country quietly from that holy ground; most from the most interesting to or three piges fifty yards away what you call trench sweepere miles away.
where women and children worked and it was not only the eyes of part of the day-the dinner with nodded knowingly to each other, aid the observer among the whis-
The troops Megame-downs among the crop were the French officers; that filled with the local headquarters. Here the though there was no wind. pering leaves.
see were at rest in a chain of large raw shell holes by the way toore. Then there came on old, professionala meet--the Line, the
"They'll be bothered down be Fomeone crossed the creaking saves which had began life as side or in the midst of fields, and old thing with prayer-book in Gunners, the Intolligetoq, with low to know the meaning of our platform to consult the map with quarries and had been fitted up often a cottage or a villa had bebe her band, pattering across the its stupefying photo-plans of the single shot. We don't give them ils rar gau: A blistering outbreak by the army for its own
nees. smashed us 4 bonnet-box in of white smoke rose a little There were underground corri- smashed by an umbrella. ThatAnd who are those women ?" the Staff, who collect and noto all somebody laughed.
anare, evidently late for service, enemy's trenches; the Supply; 000 Jole at a time as a rule," beyond the large plume. It was dors, ante-chambers, rotundas, most be part of Belial's work
We waited in the fragrant ail- sa though the tide had struck a and ventilating shafts with a when he bellows so truculently I aske •
thinge, and are very properly resí out yonder.
bewildering play of cross lights, among the hills to the north.
Some ara caretakers; people chaffed; and, be sure, the Inter-ence. Nothing came back from who have still little shops here. preter, who, by force of question- the mist that clogged the lower
Soldiers in Caves, We left that tall tree whose
bure of smoke along a little tributed at the tingle of small Smear in the desert earth two bella. The observed returned to 'No. Come and look at our thousand yards away-no con his maps and calonlations; the pection at all with the strong telephone boy stiffened up beside mese. It's the Ritz of these voices overhead coming and going. bis exchange as the amateura parte." And they joyously told It was as impersonal ae the drive went out of his life. Somens how they had got, or procured of the sea along a breakwater. called down through the branches the various ttings and the elegancies, while bands stretched Thus it went: a pause-a gather to ask who was attending to-
np
Work in the Fields.
In the Cathedral.
all-on the strike that vile betraying toint of voice was higher pitched, it seem these was singing after all. But in no place thon or later did it months. Then she spoke. Hor than it has torony other side of a little door in the underfed, unclosa men. And the ad, than care with a more shrew- Bank of the cathedral. We look- sama with the horses.
ish-tang to the speeding shell. Her recoil was a graceful as the Frenohwoman's
ed in doubting, and saw at least The Line that Naver Sleeps.
of a
statues,
Inside("Cover yourselves, gentlemen," said the sacricton, this place is no longer consecrat ed")-everything is swept clear or burned out from end to end," except two candlesticks in front of the niche where Joan of Arc's image need to stand. There is a French flag there now. And the last time I saw Rheims Cathedral was in a spring twilight, when the great weat window glowed, and the only lights within were those of candles which some peni tent English had lit in Joan's bon our on those same candlesticks.] (Continued on Second
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