LITTLE PICTURES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11282, 9 January 1915, Page 6

LITTLE PICTURES.

VIVID RASHES OF WAR. 1. SCENES IN PR-ANCE. Awn t Y from the busy, populous, centres, it takes some time to get accustomed to the idea that France is at war at all. There are young men wearing medallions, and flowers, and huge tncoloured rosette*, and patriotic inscriptions on their breasts, to bo seen in every village; but you see them once in every year—at the time of the drawing of lots under the conscription —when all is peace. Near every railway bridge there is, in the countrv districts, a little encampment—a rough hut, or a shelter of branches that looks like tho work of gipsies—and two or throo men, in their blouses amd their sabots, huddled around a fire within it; but it is only when you notice one of them walking up and down with a, rifle and a fixed bayonet over his shoulder that you realise that they are reservists oil all-important guard duty. It is unusual, perhaps, to find the man behind the grocer's counter, or the "Suisse" at one of the churches in military uniform —and to see women at every "guishet," where men. are usually employed; but they all go about their work with so little self-conscious-ness, and so placidly, that_ the reason for all this is not, in an instant, obvious. There is even another difficulty in connection, with the working of the railways that does not at once suggest its own interpretation. Tho trams that are attending to their ordinary work of carrying passengers are very few; and to make up for their lack of numbers, practically all of thepi stop at every station on their line of route. A ■journey of forty miles made in three hours may be regarded aa well made, just nowl But as the trains are few they have to carry heavy loads, -and yet at busy stations only one small '"guichet" is kept open to supply a mob of people struggling for ticket*. I—being in a hurry—protested against this at one place; but it was # whispered in my ear by an apologetic official that, this was done with the insidious design of -making it impossible for all the crowd to get thoir tickets in time, lest there should be more paisseugors than the train could accommodate]

Little things like this, arid the fart that everywhere many women are to be seen wearing the garb of deep mourning, are the only indications of war in many places; but there is one other in districts to which, the tragedy of the time has been brought home more forcibly. Farther east than I am at present the walls of factories, of barns, of barracks, and pxiblie buildings look, as though they had suffered some strange malicious damage. They are roughly broken—perforated—in a more or less regular manner. They were loopboled, in fact, three months ago, in case the "Boches" should pass t»hat way; and in many cases their loopholes were of some slight service. But to-day—a crisp, bright November Sunday— «ven in little towns that have broken walls as a memento of the new " Annee Terrible." there are football matches being played, and the gatemoney is being put aside " pour les blasses militaires (for the wounded soldiers) —" Westminster Gazette."

A LOAD OF BUTTER. A butter dealer of Normandy, whose acquaintance I made, among many others, during the present war, tells me a quaint story, which shows that in the midst of the turmoil of battle business is not altogether forgotten. He had sent a railway waggon full of butter, some five tons, in fact, from Normandy to Lille at the beginning of October. The waggon was shunted somewhere in the station, and he learned from a friend, who sent him timely wire, that the Germans were expected any day. That was no time to lose a consignment of such a valuable household article, and my friend hastened to Lille, which place he reached on October 4, whilst the first bombardment was in progress. In the midst of it all he persuaded the stationmaster to have the truck containing the butter brought out from the sheds, and a drummer was sent into the streets to call the housewives. Quite a number of them responded, and in less than an hour, while shells were being hurled into the town, the butter was auctioned off, and, to his_ surprise, the sale actually brought him profit of 6000 francs. A few days later my friend wss standing in "front of the Hotel de Bretagne, near the post office, when a Taube dropped a shell, which demolished the upper story of the hotel and sent splinters of wood and glass into his face. That day he left the town, with his face and hands badly cut, and joined a long procession of refugees, who finallv made their way to St Pol.— ("Daily Telegraph.")' *■ '..:■■'■ in. -. SPY CAPTURE IN ENGLAND. The work of the German spy, in England has been the cause of many excit> ing adventures since the outbreak of war. A letter received by a Melbourne resident from her sister in Strood, Kent, bells of the bravery of her son of fourteen, who helped in the red-banded capture of a dangerous spy. The kt> ter reads as follows:—".Horace would ■ lore to bo a soldier, but he is not old I enough. Still he did his share last Friday night. He was coming home when he passed a gentleman. He j thought he looked, suspicious, no fol- j lowed him, and saw him go under the I railway,arch, put up a rope ladder and j climb up. Horace rushed off and fetched a soldier. They both ran back, and the soldier gave him a. lantern, and told him how to signal, sending him up the ladder to signal to the soldiers on guard up the line. Up Horace went and showed the different light. The other soldier came along the line and told Horace to crawl about quietly and look for the man. He did so, over the lines too, and presently a tram rushed past, and Horace saw the man crouching in a corner. Then the soldiers—there were two by this time—- : told Horace as soon as they whistled ! he was to shine the light right on the man, so they crept closer, then whistled, and Horace'shone the light on him. The man jumped up and fired two shots. a.nd before he could fire again the soldiers rushed at him and killed him with their bayonets. Horace said ho had plenty of money in his pockets, a piece of steel over his left side, a rubber waistcoat about two inches thick, knuckle-dusters on his hands, two belts of cartridges on and two loaded pistols, so he wa ; s well armed. Horace carried the pistols when they carried the man down the ladder; he said it felt creepy, crawling about in the pitch dark, looking for the man. He was a German spy, and had set the bomb to blow up the railway. So through Horace the line was saved—the main line to Dover. The man must have been there before, for the place was all ready, and Friday was the time he went to set the bomb. It is a mercy Horace was not killed, for be was only two yards away when the man fired. The soldiers gave him sixpence, and told him not, to tell anyone about it. On the Saturday an officer went to see Horace; he told him he was *. very brave boy, and would do for the secret service, and gave him two shillings, Horace said the spy looked quite a gentleman, but he thought be ought to follow him."—(Melbourne " Age.") IV. BRITISH IN FRANCE. Wherever there is a railway centre, or a town of any size between the coast and I he fighting line, however, nothing but war is in the air; and the most curious impression it creato§ ig that - the, "little British

Army" must either be of enormous size or have a remarkable, habit cf spreading itself out. At the front, everybody who has boon there tells me, it is compact and self-contained enough; but hero, behind the front, it seems to be everywhere. 1 marie a railway journey, not long ago, with a. carriage-full of officers. One was a "landing officer" coming eastward from Cherbourg. Another bad been taking horses to Lo Manß. A third had just passed through Paris on his way to some special duty at Le Havre. So it is with all of ..them. They seem to have come together from all parts of the Empire, and to have taken under then' charge the whole of France—of Western France, at all events. "I didn't go back to the Central ■ India Horse after T hud finished my two years with the Burma Police."! heard one man telling another—a Major in the Seinde Horse—"I went hon\e; so, you see, 1 am a 'dug-out.'" With a British Colonel I explored tho ruins of Senlifl a ; week ago. Either doing special duty as rapidlv 'as they can so that they may be sent to the front afterwards, or actually, by one route or another, however apparently indirect, on their way to the front, they seem to be everywhere. The seasoned officer—the man of several "little wars," or the frontier fighter from India—is full of interesting talk, of shrewd judgment and of valuable experience; but his importance is as nothing to that of the " man" who was gazetted from Sandhurst only a couple of months ago. I have met him frequently; and generally in groups. ."His equipment is painfully new, and he is fully conscious of its newness. He is dining as well as he can on his way' upcountry, urged thereto by the thought of the" dinners that he will not get later on. One of them confided to me the other day that hia ha.versaok was " simply stufied " with "dog biscuits "—the name by which the hard but palatable ration biscuit goes hi the service. And when they are not exchanging reminiscences of "the shop'' they are genera lly ex- • plaining, one to another, how they manage for money when the Germans have taken you prisoner. .".You simply dVaw a cheque on Cox,'" I gather. " If you have nothing there, write to your'father, and ask him to pavsomething in. Then you draw on it." The troopers are a little less enthusiastic and a little less professional m their attitude with regard to the war; but thev mean strict business. .Yester-. day morning, at a railway station that shall bo nameless, I met two men ot. a distinguished dragoon regiment>--they wore congratulating- themselves on having no longer an honorary colonel who is an alien enemy. They had been six weeks in France; had just arrived at the junction; and, by this time, if their anticipation was correct, they are in the trenches somewhere on -the other side of the Belgian frontier. Both were time-expired men. who had volunteered for service. " 1 didirt know we were going into the trenches—to be turned into infantrymen! one of them grumbled.' "It's all very well foi youngsters; hut I've been doing cavalry work ail my life- <V k ",™ about that sort of thing.-' the, othei agreed with him. -"Route inching, they've been giving us, he said. *iiteeii miles a day._ At our age five miles is enough.. Wo haven t got the quick infantry step; and, besides,,weyo all got ' stirrup corns/ that are hall wheat you've ' been-marching. a little bit." , , "Never mind," wa« the. final sum-ming-up. "They know what we can do as cavalrymen, ajid they think wo re good enough for infantry work. We 11 show 'em!" That is the spirit of the army that is going up to fill the vacant spaces in the ranks. They grumble—the British soldier always grumbles 1 They resent the fact that the sale of spirits to "les militaires" is strictly forbidden in-France. They object to the work that is being asked of them. But when the time comes for doing the work nothing could hold them back. "The men," as Lord Roberts once put it, "are excellent!"—" Westminster Gazette." V. A FTNE EXPLOIT. A wounded officer now in hospital in Paris, tells the following story of fine exploit of the Due d'Orleans's brother. The Duo do Montpensier at the beginning of the war was at Yokohama. He offered his yacht, the Mekong, to the British. Sir Convngham Greene, our Ambassador at Tokio. accepted his generous offer in the name of the British Government, on Augne.t 5 last, but begged the_ Duke to sail his yacht over to Wei-hai-woi himself, and there to hand it ovor to the British fleet stationed in that port. On the way over the. Mekong sighted a big German steamship. The Duke's yacht was armed with three little guns, made more for ornament than use, unci but one man on board who knew how to firo them. The Duke, without the slightest hesitation gave chase to the German ship, and signalled her to haul to "or be sunk." The merchantman immediately struck her colours and surrendered. Sho turned nut to be the Hamametal. a vessel of 4000 tons. She was led into Wei-hai-wei by the Mekong, where the Duke handed her over to the British authorities, after which he took ship for San PVanciseo on board the Mongolia. Ho was unfortunately laid up m that city with fever, which he contracted during his expedi- I fcion in Indo-Ohina. j