As much as the German atrocities have done to destroy our confidence in
the divine origin of the human soul, the French soldiers have done to
vindicate the majesty and beauty of a soul made in the image of God.
I have seen French boys that were so simple, brave and modest in their
courage, so beautiful in their spirit, as to make one feel that they
were young gods and not men. One day, into one of the camps, came a
lawyer from Paris. He brought the news of the revival of the Latin
Quarter. For nearly three years a shop near the Beaux Arts had been
closed. During all this time the French soldier had been at the front.
When the first call came on that August day he put up the wooden
shutters, turned the key in the lock, and marched away to the trenches.
Said the lawyer: "I come from your cousin. The Americans are here in
Paris. Your cousin says that if you will give me the keys and authorize
her to open the shop she will take your place. She can recover your
business, and perhaps have a little store of money for you when you have
your 'permission' or come home to rest. She tells me that she is your
sole relative." The soldier shook his head, saying: "I never expect to
come home. I do not want to come home. France can be freed only by men
who are ready to die for her. I do not know where the key is. I do not
know what goods are in the shop. For three years I have had no thought
of it. I am too busy to make money. There are other things for
me--fighting, and perhaps dying. Tell my cousin that she can have the
shop." Then the soldier saluted and started back towards his trench.
"Wait! Wait!" cried the attorney. Then he stooped down, wrote hurriedly
upon his knee, a little paper in which the soldier authorized his cousin
to carry on the business, in his name. Scrawling his name to the
document, the soldier ran towards the place where his heart was--the
place of peril, heroism and self-sacrifice.
This was typical of the thousands of soldiers at the front, for French
soldiers suffer that the children may never have to wade through this
blood and muck. The foul creature that has bathed the world in blood
must be slain forever. With the full consent of the intellect, of the
heart and the conscience, these glorious French boys have given
themselves to God, to freedom, and to France.