Papa & Barber

To have his silky mustache trimmed, Joseph Jacques Cesaire Marshal Joffre entered his favorite Paris barber shop last week, wearing only one ribbon, that of the Medail le Militaire.

"Good morning all!" cried jovial Papa Joffre.

"Ah, my Marshal, and how are you?" beamed his barber.

Taking this idiom (comment vous portez-vous?: how do you carry yourself) literally, Papa twinkled, "Well, my children, if it weren't for the rheumatism in my legs I should carry myself very well!"

As it often does in French barber shops, the talk turned upon books. Papa said that the War book he likes best is Le Memorial de Foch by Raymond Recouly, next best, La Bataille du Jutland by Captain George von Hase. The barber, eager to show himself wellread, observed, "From their books it is certainly evident that Foch and Clemenceau did not like each other "

Instantly Papa bristled. He too had to fight under the irascible Tiger of France. "Foch," he snapped, "was right! Clemenceau--" but the Marshal did not finish. He knew a newshawk was listening. He has vowed that his memoirs shall not be published until after he is dead. Therefore he slipped back into his character of "Papa," concluded urbanely as snippets of whiskers fell all around, "Yes, Foch was right, but [shrugging his sheet-covered shoulders] soldiers and politicians are not always made by the Good God to get along with each other."

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