A SOLDIER'S SING-SONG

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2490, 17 June 1915, Page 9

A SOLDIER'S SING-SONG

Though there is a tendency to limit pleasures in France there is no sadness in the French soldier, even in the hospitals (states a Paris writer). Entertainment is part cf his cure. It is delightful to watch his enthusiasm when a favourite, such as' Mine. Eugene Buffet, sings or recites to him. Dressed in a tight-fitting uniform with bright buttons, a forage cap set jauntily oil her head, she incarnates the military spirit. Her influence as electric. She mounts upon a chair in the big gallery of the Grand Palais, where pictures hang in the spring, but to-day it serves as dining-ball and concertrroom.. In a few staccato phrases she rouses her audience as if striking chords upon ah instrument. ' Convalescents join rapturously in the chorus, taking infinite pains to aoquire it, and, with true French sense of rhythm, thoy give the trois bans sharp and emphatic like volleyfiring in honour of the last performer. And then Miss Anna Held sings "Tipperary." It is admirably done, with a touch of > wistfulness..and a soupcon of accent which are'irresistible. The soldiers chant it with great glee, stumbling a little over the English, but ptshing on with Teal military ardour. And then an elderly sons-writer sings his own compositions, full of allusion to tho "Boches" and the valour of France and her Allies. He has an immediate sucoess. Later he rushes down the aisle, like the avenging hero in a Chinese play, arm outstretched, finger pointing, demanding applause for a comrade who has just sung. It is vigorously given. This old patriot knows how'to touch the French temperament, how to apply the torch to tlie powder train. No, the soldier is not sad.