"THE LEGION GETS NO PAY"
The money troubles of the Legion : Five centimes wages : The cheapest
soldiers of the world : Letters from the Legion : The science of
"decorating" : The industries of the légionnaires : What the bugler did
for a living : The man with the biscuits : A thief in the night :
Summary lynch law : Herr von Rader and La Cantinière : "The Legion
works--the Legion gets no pay!"
The poor fellows who enlisted because they had no money to buy a crust
of bread made the biggest mistake of their lives when they thought to
finish with their troubles by entering the Legion.
Without exception every man in the Legion had his money troubles.
Money was a thing of immense value in the Foreign Legion. The
possession of a few francs made an enormous difference and created in
the midst of the Legion's red-trousered equality the finest social
grades and distinctions. Not only the value but also the power of money
was enhanced in the Legion. Copper pieces meant a great deal here.
Copper pieces purchased a few "litres" of wine, or a nocturnal carouse,
or a substitute to help in doing hard work. The légionnaire with a
little money was on quite a different footing to the man who had none.
Rassedin, the wealthy Rassedin, was a prince in a surrounding of poor
devils. A wide gap parted him from the other men. They flattered him to
get into his good graces and accepted gladly his insolence, if there
were but a few sous or a few good cigarettes to be had. Of our quarters
he was the king. He reigned supreme. He was obeyed in all matters. It
was too funny to see how his comrades hurried themselves when this man,
the incarnation of the God of Mammon in the Legion, happened to express
a wish, and how they then went off with beaming faces to the canteen to
change the couple of sous they had earned into wine. The
self-confidence with which the Belgian bore the dignity of his wealth
(and what enormous wealth are a few thousand francs to a légionnaire!)
was, considered by itself, only funny. But many a time I suspected that
Rassedin, who knew so well what a frightful death was waiting for him,
despised the petty greed of them all from the bottom of his heart.
Money rules even in the Foreign Legion!
The pay is five centimes daily, which is about one cent or one
halfpenny. Exactly the fiftieth part of the daily pay of an American
regular. The twenty-fourth part of a British soldier's daily pay. The
comparison is grotesque.
When one considers, however, that the man who enlists in the Foreign
Legion sells his skin and is a "paid" mercenary, the comparison becomes
astounding. The average légionnaire finds out in a remarkably short
time that he has been a fool to enlist, that he is the victim of a
system very near akin to slavery, that he is a working man without
wages, a labourer without pay. An old French proverb says: Business is
getting the other man's money!
And very substantial values is La France getting out of the
légionnaire. With this poorly paid Legion, the French Republic protects
the boundaries of her territory in Algeria and conquers the southern
deserts step by step--in the everlasting wars in French Tonquin the
Legion's troops are always ready for service. Fighting is not the only
work of the Foreign Legion, however. Only one-half of the légionnaire
is a real soldier. The other half of him is workman, carpenter,
builder, road-maker. He works hard and he is so cheap a workman that no
Chinese coolie can compete with him. He receives board and clothes and
a cent a day--the cheap soldier of the Legion, this funny soldier of
"fortune." He can be made use of in the most terrible climates, for the
most risky operations, simply because nobody troubles his head about
him and because his officers have no account to render for his life or
death.
The sum of money which his work with pick and shovel, with mason's
trowel and carpenter's axe has saved the French Government in all these
years must be enormous. And if a bullet, or sunstroke, or typhoid
fever, or dysentery carries away a légionnaire, the only expense he is
the cause of is the making of a hole in the sand. So cheap! Truly,
France's Foreign Legion is a well-paying enterprise! Glorious soldiers
and successful workmen are remarkably cheap at five centimes a day....
Every five days the légionnaire gets his wages paid. He holds five
copper sous in his hand and must decide whether to buy cigarette
tobacco, or cleaning materials, or a bottle of wine. It is only enough
for one of these three. The purchase of a box of matches, which are
monopolised in Algeria and cost five centimes, is a very grave
financial problem. Therefore matches are scarce. Nowhere in the world
is one so often asked for a match as in the streets of Sidi-bel-Abbès
and in the Legion's barracks.
No wonder that the possession of a few silver pieces is something truly
great for a légionnaire; no wonder that men like Rassedin rule as
kings. Nowhere can the lesson of the value of money be so thoroughly
learned as in the Foreign Legion.
The money troubles of the Legion are, of course, ridiculously petty
troubles.
The luckiest man (considered from the Legion's point of view) is he who
has kept up some sort of communication with home. The most appalling
letters are then written to parents and relations and friends. Usually
the poor devil of a letter-writer exaggerates a little, and his
descriptions of famine and hardships are most moving. They must be very
hard-hearted people indeed who do not acknowledge the receipt of such a
letter with a small postal order. Then there is joy in the land of
Sidi-bel-Abbès. For a day, or a few days, or even a week, the prodigal
son with the postal order lives like a king. He has his boots cleaned
for him, and would not dream of making his own bed as long as his money
lasts. A comrade does that for him, and in reward is graciously
permitted to share a drink. C'est la Légion! To play the "grand
seigneur," if it is but for a day, is the average légionnaire's dream
of happiness. He thinks it the finest thing in all the world to play at
having a servant, if it's but for a day.... And this is the surest sign
of the légionnaire's abject poverty. These lucky ones who receive a
postal order occasionally represent the crème de la crème, the élite of
society in the Foreign Legion. The others have to help themselves. They
must "decorate themselves!"
This "decorating" is a fine art in the Foreign Legion. It is a mixture
of work, cunning, brains, and theft.
"Decorate yourself!"
That is the sum total of an old légionnaire's wisdom, and these two
words are the only advice that he gives, or indeed can give, to the
newcomer. Make your life in the Legion as easy as possible is the
meaning of this advice; take care that your tobacco-pouch stays full,
that your uniform is in order and your kit complete, that you have as
often as possible the three sous necessary for your litre of wine.
The way in which this "decorating" is carried out is a purely personal
affair....
My friend the bugler used to make gaudy "ceintures" from coloured
pieces of cloth and old leather-work, belts with crests and buttons of
the Legion. He found good customers for his belts amongst the Arabs and
occasionally amongst Spanish workmen in the little wine-shops of
Sidi-bel-Abbès. In his special methods of decorating the old
légionnaire developed an extraordinary business instinct. His
transactions were not at all simple. An Arab never parts with hard
cash--after the time-honoured manner of his kind. So the bugler had to
"trade." He would exchange his gaudy rags for a pair of pretty
golden-bossed Arabian shoes, or a grotesquely carved Arabian stick, or
a morocco purse of fine leather-work. Then Smith would constitute one
of the légionnaires on orderly duty in the officers' mess his agent.
Paying customers could easily be found amongst the young officers. The
final result was always the same: many litres of the sweet heavy wine
of Algeria into which all the copper coins of the Legion invariably
change.
A légionnaire of the fourth company was generally known as "l'homme des
biscuits!" His speciality was to gather in all the companies the
biscuits given out twice weekly to complete the bread ration. They were
like ship's biscuit and extremely hard. Most of the men would not touch
them. So the biscuit man had a capital gathering ground, and in some
cunning way, which he carefully kept secret, he took sack upon sack of
these biscuits out of the barracks. In the market-place of
Sidi-bel-Abbès he found plenty of customers. Others, less inventive,
confined themselves to cleaning and washing for comrades better off
than they. In some way every one tried to "decorate himself."... The
main object in a légionnaire's life is the getting together of a few
coppers.
Decorating meant also occasional theft.... In matters of stealing the
Legion draws the line very sharply. The theft of equipment, to replace
lost or stolen parts, was considered absolutely respectable and
gentleman-like. There was no other remedy, as the man who loses
something is punished severely.
Thieving "decorating" is a very simple thing and quickly learned.
"I've lost a pair of trousers!" cries the recruit in despair.
"That's nothing," says the old légionnaire.
"Curse it, what shall I do then?" wails the new-comer.
"Decorate yourself, you fool," says the old hand.
Whereupon the recruit (after receiving detailed instructions from the
wise old soldier) walks into the back yard, where the washing is
hanging out to dry, and waits in a dark corner with great patience for
an auspicious moment. A lightning snatch and a pair of somebody's
trousers hanging innocently on the line are his. He has decorated
himself. It's immoral, of course. It's theft right enough. It's
deplorable ... but it is most convenient. The Legion does not worry
about small matters of right or wrong. The Legion says: Each for
himself; why didn't you keep an eye on your washing, you fool!
Now such a single theft of a single pair of trousers naturally is but
the first link in a long chain of trouser-stealing. The man who has
been robbed has no other remedy than doing likewise. And so on.... In a
very few days hundreds of pairs of trousers change owners, until
somewhere in the long chain some one is struck who buys himself a new
pair. Somehow or other it all comes right!
The Legion considers this sort of theft sportsman-like and gentlemanly,
a thing permitted, and it is a "point d'honneur" to be smart enough not
to get caught by the rightful owner.
But woe to the légionnaire who should ever extend his decorating
operations to tobacco or money or even bread. The whole company would
form a self-constituted detective corps and find the culprit out very
soon. The rest would be--silence and hospital!
* * * * *
During one of the very first nights an ugly scene took place which
showed only too well how a thief is treated in the Legion. In the
middle of the night furious shouting made me jump out of bed. Sleepily
I looked about me. Around Rassedin's bed stood a group of cursing and
gesticulating soldiers. I went up to them. Smith and three others were
holding in grips of iron a fourth man who could hardly speak for
terror. His face was white as chalk. Rassedin stood there in his shirt,
staring hard at the man caught.
"You're from the tenth company?"
"Yes," stammered the man.
"What in hell are you doing in the eleventh then?"
"Been drinking--got into the wrong quarters--let me go----"
In the meantime all the men in the room had gathered and were standing
around the group.
"Nom de Dieu--what a dirty fellow!" said Rassedin. "Listen, you chaps.
I had my money in my trousers and my trousers were under my pillow.
Just now I felt something moving near me, jumped up and caught hold. Do
you know what I caught? This chap's hand. What do you think of that?"
"Voleur!" cried the bugler. "Thief!"
The word acted like a signal. All at once fists were clenched, a
bayonet gleamed, a struggle arose, and a dozen men rolled on the
ground. The scene lasted for perhaps a minute. Then all was still--the
man from the tenth company lay there gasping and covered with blood.
His face was black, so terribly was it bruised. A blow from the bayonet
had split his cheek and a stream of blood flowed over his blue jacket.
The guard came up and the fellow was carried into hospital.
"He wanted to steal my money! He wanted to decorate himself!" said
Rassedin grimly. "For the present we've decorated him!"
The man lay in hospital for weeks. That was the end of it. That night's
lynch-law in our quarters was not inquired into. The punishment of the
thief rests in the hands of his comrades. So decrees the custom of the
Legion....
* * * * *
When it came to "decorating," Herr von Rader was in his element. The
Legion's little ways had nothing mysterious for him. In a week the
whole Legion knew him and respected him as a man of brains and
resource. Every evening he went across to the canteen. Money he had
not. But he juggled untiringly with empty wine-bottles, performed the
most difficult conjuring tricks with absinthe glasses, and used to tell
Madame la Cantinière (who understood a little German) the funniest
stories. Very soon he succeeded in making a deep impression on that
worthy lady, the queen over so many desirable wine-casks. She found the
clever Herr von Rader amusing, and she did something that she had never
done before in her life. She gave the man of many tricks a gratis
bottle of wine every evening, and into the bargain the change out of an
imaginary ten-sous piece. Madame's Portuguese husband had no idea of
this little secret of his wife's kind heart. Anyway, he need not have
troubled himself: Herr von Rader had not the slightest intention of
endangering Madame la Cantinière's conjugal fidelity--he only loved her
wine....
Thus did Herr von Rader decorate himself with his glib tongue and his
clever fingers. The soldiering part of his work was easy enough for
him. Herr von Rader got on better under the flag of the Legion than all
the other recruits. Sometimes, however (when Madame la Cantinière was
in a bad temper or her Portuguese husband kept too sharp an eye on
her), even Herr von Rader would fall into a thoughtful mood. Then he
would rub away angrily at his leather equipment and propound practical
philosophy. Something like this:
"Nom de Dieu!" (Herr von Rader was already quite at home with the
curses of the French language.) "Nom de bon Dieu! This Legion is no
good. Nix good. Now, for an intelligent man like me there is a bottle
of wine and a cigarette easily to be had anywhere in the world. You'll
admit that! Is it easy here? It is not! I've got to waste a lot of
thinking and fine art just to keep in cigarettes.... This Legion's
rotten. I've been had. They've swindled me! I'll tell you what, mein
Freund: I'm going to skin out. This boy is going to run away...."
He did "skin out," some time afterwards. For it the cheerful Herr von
Rader was to suffer the whole immeasurably hard punishment system of
the Legion.
Even this cheerful fellow, who knew so well how to help himself, and in
consequence was far better off than the other men in the Legion, was
troubled by the simple problem of the Foreign Legion! A problem which
so many of the Legion's soldiers have tried to reason out with so many
head-shakings. A problem which once an Arabian Spahi put very plainly
in a few scornful words:
"The Legion works--the Legion gets no pay!"