GOLDEN LADS
Photo. Excelsior.
THE PLAY-BOYS OF THE WESTERN FRONT.
The famous French Fusiliers Marins. These sailors from Brittany arecalled "Les demoiselles au pompon rouge," because of their youth and thegay red tassel on their cap.
GOLDEN LADS
BY
ARTHUR GLEASON
AND
HELEN HAYES GLEASON
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
"Golden Lads and Girls all must, As chimney sweepers, come to dust."
TORONTO
McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART, Limited
1916
Copyright, 1916, by
The Century Co.
Copyright, 1915, by the
Curtis Publishing Company.
Copyright, 1916, by the
Butterick Publishing Company.
Copyright, 1915 and 1916, by the
Tribune Association.
Published, April, 1916
(Printed in the U. S. A.)
Profits from the sale of this book will go to "The American Committee[Pg vii]for Training in Suitable Trades the Maimed Soldiers of France."
TO THE
SAILORS OF BRITTANY
THE BOY SOLDIERS OF THE FRENCH FUSILIERS MARINS
WHOSE WOUNDED IT WAS OUR PRIVILEGE TO CARRY IN FROM THE
FIELD OF HONOR AT MELLE, DIXMUDE, AND NIEUPORT
CONCERNING THIS BOOK
It would be futile to publish one more war-book, unless the writer hadbeen an eye-witness of unusual things. I am an American who sawatrocities which are recorded in the Bryce Report. This book grows outof months of day-by-day living in the war zone. I have been a member ofthe Hector Munro Ambulance Corps, which was permitted to work at thefront because the Prime Minister of Belgium placed his son in militarycommand of us. That young man, being brave and adventurous, led us alongthe first line of trenches, and into villages under shell fire, so thatwe saw the armies in action.
We started at Ghent in September, 1914, came to Furnes, worked inDixmude, Pervyse, Nieuport and Ypres, during moments of pressure onthose strategic points. In the summer of 1915, we were attached to the[Pg viii]French Fusiliers Marins. My wife's experience covers a period of twelvemonths in Belgium. My own time at the front was five months.
Observers at long-distance that are neutral sometimes fail to seefundamentals in the present conflict, and talk of "negotiations" betweenright and wrong. It is easy for people who have not suffered to betolerant toward wrongdoing. This war is a long war because of Germanmethods of frightfulness. These practices have bred an enduring will toconquer in Frenchman and Briton and Belgian which will not pause tillvictory is thorough. Because the German military power has sinnedagainst women and children, it will be fought with till it isoverthrown. I wish to make clear this determination of the Allies. Theyhate the army of Aerschot a