Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1916 — IN TRENCHES AT 76 [ARTICLE]

IN TRENCHES AT 76

French Veteran of 1870 Is Doing His Share. Corporal Surrugue, Twelve Years Mayor of Auxerre, is Still Hale and Hearty and Does His Bit Like the Others. Paris.—The Paris Journal Offlclel recently published the following honorable mention in army orders: “Corporal Surrugue, Charles, entered under No. 9,131, in company 9-2 T of the Sixth regiment of Engineers, second company of the corps, veteran soldier of 1870, chevalier of the Legion of Honor, enlisted as volunteer for the duration of the war at the age of seventy-six years, asked to go to the front as second sapper and miner, takes part without any physical weakness in all the work carried on day and night under fire of the enemy, animated with the highest conscientiousness and the most noble conception of his duty toward his country, and offers to his younger comrades a model discipline of dash and energy.” Seeing this description of the old young man a correspondent of the Illustration of Paris set out for the front to find him. After wandering about the trenches in zigzag fashion the correspondent saw a rather small man with white beard and the insignia of an engineer on his cap. Rejnembering Stanley’s description of how he met Livingstone in the heart of Africa and walked up to him, saying “Mr. Livingstone, I presume?" the correspondent accosted the engineer: “Corporal Surrugue, are you not?” The engineer was completely taken aback at the idea that anyone would want to Interview him, but finally led the newspaper man into a subterranean shelter, which was very humid and from the roof of which large drops of water fell on the correspondent’s notebook. Asked how he kept so well, Corporal Surrugue replied that he did it by walking. Having been occupied with work on country roads, a thirtymlle walk was nothing to him. ——- For twelve years before the war he had been mayor of Auxerre, in the department of the Yonne. Before that, as a civil engineer, he had been engaged in railroad construction and especially on the railway from Arras to Etaples, for which he offered the plans in 1872. That year he drove the first spade at the station of St. Pol-en-Ter-moise, in the same place where fortyfour years later he has come to handle the spade and pick as an ordinary sapper. In 1871 he belonged to the army of Faldherbe and was captain of engineers engaged in constructing defense works in the valley of Scarpe. He was twice honorably mentioned then, once for having remained at his post when the other workers fled, fearing a German advance on Athles, near Arras, and again for having saved a wounded officer by carrying him to the rear. In 1875 Mr. Surrugue entered the service of public roads in the Dordogne, where he remained six years, and then took up the same kind of work in the Yonne for twenty years. Elected member of the municipal council of Auxerre, he soon became the leading man and was mayor of the town from 1900 to 1912. His administration of public roads and works caused him to be attached to the inspection department of the ministry of the interior. Such was the civil career of this modest and brave man. When asked about his present service and whether his companions knew who he was, he said: ‘'They don’t know much about me and I am not going to tell them. I am Surrugue, who does his bit of trench work like the rest, and that is all. These days what one has dfine in civil lifq doesn’t count. Everybody is equal in the common effort. When a man has physical vigor which can be used there should be np hesitation. “I passed the medical examination and they wacaJtorced-toJake me. Then I bad three months of instruction in novelties which we knew nothing about in 1870 and in July left for the front I took part in all the works of preparation for the drive in September and on October 1 I was named a

“The war cross which they have given to me surprised me, for I did nothing for that. I have done less than others who have been here since the beginning. I know they are decorating my years, but as my age does not count with me I am a little ashamed before my comrades. “The only advantage of age is to have a little Influence over the younger onfes. When they grow impatient I tell them of 1870 and contrast it with what we have done today. We, who were not ready, have-stopped at the Marne and the Yser an enemy superior in numbers and formidably organized. We have imposed on him our will. He has submitted to our law and when the time has come we will crush him!”