France. Armée; Joffre, Joseph Jacques Césaire, 1852-1931; World War, 1914-1918
The "poilu" has given his name to many publications. There is, for
instance, the "Poilu et Marie-Louise," a title a little obscure, no
doubt, to the British reader; but the adjunction of "Marie-Louise"
signifies that it is associated with officers who left the famous school
of St. Cyr in a year when the anniversary of Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s
Imperial wife, gave its name to the academic year. This organ appears
in all the glory of print; but the majority cannot afford this luxury.
The _Argonaut_ explains its origin, of course, distinctly enough. It is
produced in the Argonne. It contains illustrations and letter-press
copied by the duplicator. Another has the suggestive name of _La
Saucisse_—the popular name of the observation balloon, which directs the
fire of the guns. The _Souvenir_, especially to French ears, has a
serious sound. Before the war it had a definite military meaning.
To-day, as applied to this particular journal, it means an effort to
keep green the memory of those who have fallen in the field. Whereas
the majority of trench publications give an amusing view of life at the
Front, the _Souvenir_ strikes the grave note. Its articles are devoted
to cherishing the memory of brave deeds, and of the heroes who performed
them—lest we forget. The editor, in an article of considerable charm,
quotes the remark of a mutilated soldier to a sympathetic civilian.
"Yes, I am the hero to-day," says the victim of the war, "but a hopeless
cripple to-morrow." A glorious deed may be the work of a moment, but
crutches have no apparent glory and endure for a lifetime. There is no
halo round the head with sightless eyes; no monument over the little
green grave, and society, on the morrow of victory, forgets. And so the
poetic and heroic pages of the _Souvenir_ are full of the recital of
deeds of valour either actual in their happenings or symbolical.
_Le Ver luisant_ ("The Glow-worm ") represents quite a different
conception of the duty of a trench journal, as does _La Voix du 75_
("The Voice of the 75"). The _Bellica_, the _Boum Voila_, the _Boyau_,
the _Canard Poilu_, the _Clarion Territorial_, the _Cri de Guerre_, the
_Diable au Cor_ (the organ of the 3rd Brigade of the Chasseurs Alpins),
the _Écho des Marmites_, the _Écho du grand Couronné_, and the _Écho du
75_ are other titles. Cheery productions they are, full of light
touches—humour that is not always very refined perhaps, but still
humour, among the bursting shells and the agony of death. "Bocheries"
is the title of an amusing column in the picturesquely named _Marmite_
(the name given to heavy shells), and there is sometimes a light
fantastic column of fashions—such, for instance, as the correct way of
wearing the respirator, or the chic angle to tilt the steel helmet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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