ce-courses have an additional
indemnity of from 75 centimes to 1 franc .25, according to the length
and nature of the service. It appeared, from statements published during
the strike in the capital in the autumn of 1898, that the soldiers and
police, of all grades, received, on an average, less pay than the
workmen whom they were protecting.

[ILLUSTRATION: LA VIE A LA CASERNE: THE MORNING COFFEE.

After a water-color by Georges Scott.]

In the multiplicity of military regulations of all kinds, and of men who
promulgate them and who are affected by them, there naturally appear
from time to time some of the aberrations and eccentricities of ordinary
human nature. Sometimes the French wit appreciates these oddities and
makes much of them; and sometimes it completely fails to perceive them.
One of the most distinguished of their generals, Poillouee de Saint-Mars,
enjoys quite a little reputation for the _cocasseries_ of certain of his
orders. One of the most famous of these was that of the _soldat-tender_,
designed to enhance the prestige of the infantry officer. For this
purpose, he was authorized to select from among the men in his command
one of the "most robust and alert," who would be the "most sympathetic
and the most devoted to his officer, and who would follow him like his
shadow." This soldier-tender, who "would be to his officer what the
tender is to the locomotive," would carry his dejeuner and all his other
baggage, being relieved from the ordinary company equipment,--the
officer, thus lightened of everything but his weapons, would enjoy over
his men the same physical and moral advantage that his comrades of the
artillery and cavalry do by the excellence of their mounts and their
"aureola of an orderly," and those of the marine by the superiority of
their technical knowledge. "In campaign, the mission of the tender will
accentuate itself and aggrandize itself. He will be authorized to halt
if his officer fall wounded. He will assist him affectionately, will
bandage his wounds, confide him to the litter-bearers, and, to avenge
him, then hasten to rejoin his comrades." Practically, an arrangement is
made by which the infantry officer, in reviews and parades and while in
charge of detachments,--as may constantly be seen in the
streets,--marches along unencumbered by the side of his heavily-charged
men.

Another of General de Saint-Mars's theories was that the foot of man had
been especially created by Provide