o every
other foot of ground.

For instance, from every single trench which also contains an artillery
observatory the exact distance is recorded to every other trench, to
every house, hillock, tree, and shrub behind which the enemy might
advance. In fact, the German organization which threatened to rule the
world seems overtaken by French organization which became effective
since the war began.

All through the trip it was this new spirit of organization that
impressed me most. I have sent you many cables on the new spirit of the
French, but never before dared to picture them in the role which to my
mind they never before occupied--that of organizers. I started the trip
to see the real French Army in the most open but unexpectant frame of
mind. For weeks I had read only laconic official communiques that told
me nothing. I saw well-fed officers in beautiful limousines rolling
about Paris with an air that the war was a million miles away. The best
way now to explain my enthusiasm is to give the words of a famous
English correspondent, also just returned from a similar trip, (he is
Frederic Villiers, who began war corresponding with Archibald Forbes at
the battle of Plevna, and this is his seventeenth war,) who said:

"In all my life this trip is the biggest show I have ever had."

The first point on the trip where the French intelligence proved
superior to the German was that I was allowed to pay my own expenses.
With the exception of motor cars and a hundred courtesies extended by
the scores of French officers, I paid my own railroad fare, hotel and
food bills.

"This army has nothing to hide," said one of the greatest Generals to
me. "You see what you like, go where you desire, and if you cannot get
there, ask."

This General was de Maud'Huy, the man who with a handful of territorials
stopped the Prussian Guard before Arras shortly after the battle of the
Marne and who since then has never lost a single trench. His name is
now scarcely known, even in France, but I venture the prophecy that when
the French Army marches down the Champs Elysees after the war is over,
when the vanguard passes under the Arch de Triomph, de Maud'Huy--a
nervous little firebrand--will be right up in the front rank with
Joffre.

While our party did all the spectacular stunts the Germans have offered
the correspondents in such profusion, such as visiting the trenches,
where in our case a German shell burst thirty feet from us, splatteri