Soldier

Heat, dust, fever, mosquitoes, mud towns, mangy camels, the hot ever-blowing harmattan, absinthe, loneliness, monotony, forced marches through the desert sand, Africa, loneliness, loneliness, is the dirge of the legionnaire. "J'ai le cafard," announces the soldat and he is amok with a little beetle running round and round in his brains. Sometimes he slices off his sergeant's head, sometimes he wets his jowls with his own red blood, oftener he deserts.

Word came, early in June, that one Bennet J. Doty of Memphis, Tenn., legionnaire, had left the French lines in southern Syria where the Foreign Legion is campaigning against the Druse tribesmen. He had deserted his post before armed rebels. Last week Damascus courts martial eyed the facts that M. Doty's attitude was defiant, that his offense was so grave that its penalty is death, that desertions were becoming all too frequent in the Legion, that "home-sickness" is an insipid plea.

The court then felt a little tug from Tennessee. M. Doty's father had persuaded Senators Tyson and McKellar of that state to intervene at the State Department in Washington. The Department had instructed Ambassador Herrick, friend of the French, to intercede with Premier Briand. The Premier had negotiated with War Minister Painleve. The Minister had telegraphed to Damascus. Iron must give a little under pressure. Of course M. Doty had on occasion been brave, had received the Croix de Guerre. So, although he had sacrificed his citizenship and the U. S. Government had no recourse against any decision it might render, and though the law of the Legion is unremitting, the courts martial considered it advisable to sentence defiant Deserter Doty to but eight years at hard labor. "His record of bravery. . . ."

Why should a youth volunteer to die in the burning heat of the desert, fighting for five centimes a day in a corps which has left the bones of its soldiers strewn in every quarter of the globe from Indo-China to Mexico? Flotsam recruits never explain their presence beneath the knapsack of the legionnaire, but it is not insignificant that while fighting for the far-flung Tri-color of France these romantic, scarred gentlemen rankers are protected by that banner from all extraditions. Glamorous traditions, adventure, protection?

During the War the Legion achieved its greatest glory, but in the muzzle-loading cycle of years before lies its romance, its incredible reputation for hardiness and courage: in Mexico under Maximilian 60 men were surrounded by 2,000 Mexicanos. All day the battle surged, five times Mexicans called on the legionnaires to surrender, five times the answer was a defiant hoot. When the relieving party arrived not a legionnaire remained. For ten hours 60 had held 2,000 while the convoy they were escorting had gone on to safety. In Indo-China a force of 390 had beaten off an entire Chinese army 7 times during a 32-day battle. General de Negrier once remarked: "Some soldiers can fight--the legionnaires can die."

That is why Defiant Doty shrugged his shoulders at the court, received the sentence with, "Well, that's tough." For eight years the handsome legionnaire will sweat at hard labor building roads through Africa, not at all resembling the reckless swashbuckler who once fought for France; unless, perhaps, the Legion feels another little tug from Tennessee.