Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . who keptshop a door ortwo beyond wasas spick andspan as any Iremembered in-trusting my per-sonal appearanceto in all had, too, thatindefinablesomething whichin army slang iscalled snappy,and one settleddown in his chairwith the genuinerelaxation thatcomes with theconsciousness ofsurrendering tothe ministrationsof one whoknows his answered aquestion put inFrench readilyenough, but heanswered it inGerman, whichbrought up an-other query, this time in his mother-tongue. Nein he replied, I am Frenchthrough and throu
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . who keptshop a door ortwo beyond wasas spick andspan as any Iremembered in-trusting my per-sonal appearanceto in all had, too, thatindefinablesomething whichin army slang iscalled snappy,and one settleddown in his chairwith the genuinerelaxation thatcomes with theconsciousness ofsurrendering tothe ministrationsof one whoknows his answered aquestion put inFrench readilyenough, but heanswered it inGerman, whichbrought up an-other query, this time in his mother-tongue. Nein he replied, I am Frenchthrough and through, way back forgenerations. My people have alwaysbeen born in Lorraine, but none of usyounger ones speak much French. Yes, he had been a German had worn the Feldgrau more than twoyears, in some of the most bloody bat-tles on the western front, the last twoagainst Americans. It seemed uncannyto have him deftly flourishing a razorabout the throat of one of those whom,a very few weeks before, he was in dutybound to slay. And how do the people of Metz. AMERICAN DOUGHBOYS MAKING AN EXCURSIONDOWN THE RHINE really like the change? I asked, strivingto imply by the tone that I preferred agenuine answer to a diplomatic evasion. Ja, sehen Sie he began, slowly, re-whetting his razor, I am French. Myfamily has always looked forward to theday when France should come back tous. A-aber—in the slow guttural was just a hint of dis-illusionment—they have suchdifferent ideas oforder, of disci-pline. They area wise people, theFrench, but theyseem to make somuch work ofsimple they have such curious i >*rules. Yet, on the whole, Metz would rather be French than German ? Like all perfect barber-con versa- tionalists, he spaced his words in rhythm with his work, never losing a stroke: We have much feeling for the French. There was much f 1 ag - w a v i n g , much singing of the Marseillaise. As to what we would rather do—what have we to say about it? Atrocities? Yes, I
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