A Curious Exhibition.

Evening Star, Issue 7254, 4 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Curious Exhibition.

A very funny story is being related In Paris (says the ‘Daily Telegraph’) of an adventure that has just befallen a young recruit at Strasburg. As he was being examined by the military surgeons era entering the ranks, it was found that nearly : the 'whole of his body was tattooed over with the words “ Vive la France." The startled medicos twined and twisted : tire youth about, and discovered that there was only one exception to the inscriptions with which the Alsatian had adorned himself and this consisted of an equally brief sentence expressive of the utmost contempt for the Prussians. The individual on whom the art of the tattooec had been thus lavishly practised has been condemned, as a first instalment, to six months’ imprisonment, which will give him ample leisure for reflecting on the egregious folly of which he has been guilty* But it is to be feared that when he tit length rejoins his regiment his troubles will be by no means at an end, unless indeed , the military authorities arrive at the conclusion that a man who has deliberately made such a ridiculous spectacle of himself, and who baa moreover labelled himself with a treasonable cry, is unworthy to don the Kaiser’s uniform. At any rate the Alsatian recruit has now become acquainted with the fact—if he was not aware of it before—-that Qsrman officers are the last people in the world with whom it is prudent to trifle j and that, if he intended his little exhibition as a joke, it could not fail to be utterly lost on those for whose amusement it was destined. Worst of all, the marks can never be obliterated, as wiser, if not sadder men have, aftar indulging In their youth in this stupid practice, learnt to their cost.