DOG OF FORT VAUX.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1917, Page 2

DOG OF FORT VAUX.

THE ONLY GEILMAN LEFT

The only tenant of ruined Fore Vaux when the French troops ma relied iu waa a dog, say;; tile Js'ew York. Sun. lie was not willing to surrender: hi.: bans rang out like a dial Icnge. There was no guardian oi' the case.-, of cait ridges and boxes of ration* the Germans had abandoned but this mongrel with neither food nor water. To him, Untitling in the breach, may be adapted the lines : '".Such a meagre troop, such thin chapped starvelings, Their barking iitomacbs hardly could refrain From swallowing up the foe etv they had .slain him." 15m the .defender of Fort Yanx wasnot da>nger<>us. Surrounded by meat ration-', he wa« hollow as a drum. With 150(H) bottles of mineral water piled about him like cordwood, theru was; not a drop to drink. His tongue was parched and furred. It was no "deep mouthed welcome'' that ho sounded, but a hoarse falsetto of mingled defiance and distress. The one mongrel wasi neither of form iior color io attract novice. He had the pedigree of the gutter, which is> none. Ao doubt he was half deaf from the din of bombardments. Lack lustre of eye, unkempt, and soiled of cat, the dog of Fort Vaux was a true s tidier of the trendies.

To the "poiluh" all clogs look alike; none is too low in degree; to be taken to their hearts. Common perils and privations; make all dogs comrades. iSe.iides, this one. was the only German holding the fort. He deserved decora. tion. And he had been left to perish, too! So the dog of Fort Vaux was greeted with a clamor of delight, and then and there, as the tricolor went, up, lie was eudisted to serve for France until the .end of the war. His captors waited upon him as if ho were a dis tinguished ally. Food was set before him, and he lapped his iill of water. lie joined the mess with a tail wagging joyously.. Henceforth this, deserted dog will bury his bones in soil never to pass to the Germans again ; be will fetch and carry for Verdun's herpes; the wouluded whom he succor;, will bo

"poilus" ; all lib company tricks will bo French, and lie will be called by a French diminutive; and he will wear a collar with a brans plate inscribed ''The Dog of Fort Vaux." Of course he will alwaysi march at the head of the battalion as its mascot.