Here is a delightful story from a correspondent in France:
“A party of British bluejackets were being entertained by their future
allies ashore. A middy came off with the leave boat at 10 o’clock. He
noticed some of the men were half seas over and all were jolly.
“One of the bluejackets he saw had a bottle concealed beneath his
jumper. He directed a petty officer to take it from him and throw it
overboard. This was done--and the owner of it promptly jumped in after
it. The next moment half the boat’s company had dived overboard; the
other half were restrained by the officers. Fortunately every man was
saved. Next morning there was a parade on the quarter deck. The captain
complimented the men on their exploit of the night before, thanked God
they were safe and expressed pleasure that he had such a body of men
under him. The men received his praise stolidly. Then one spoke out:
“‘Sorry we were unsuccessful, sir,’ he said, saluting.
“‘But--but!’ said the captain, ‘I understood Seaman Robert Hodge was
saved.’
“‘Yes, sir, but we dived after the whiskey, sir. We knew Bob could look
after himself.’”
“JACQUES DID HIS DUTY!”
Details of how his son was wounded have just reached the French Foreign
Minister, Delcassé.
Lieutenant Jacques Delcassé, his sword in one hand and a revolver in the
other, was charging at the head of his company when a German bullet
struck him down. Gallantly struggling to his feet, Delcassé again dashed
at the enemy, but a second ball placed him out of action.
To his wife, who arrived at Bordeaux to-day, the Foreign Minister said:
“I’m proud of Jacques; he did his duty.”
“THE SCOUNDRELS!”
In the hospital at Bordeaux a soldier of the Second French Colonial
Regiment was operated upon for a horrible wound in the thigh, caused by
an explosive bullet. The orifice made by the bullet on entry was clean
and narrow, whereas at the exit it was several centimeters wide, while
the intermediate flesh was a mass of bruised and torn tissues, which
were entirely destroyed. As the surgeon cut away the flesh the wounded
man remarked:
“The blackguards! To think that I served two years in Morocco without a
scratch, and now these German scoundrels have served me like this.”