PERHAPS no other man in France is so talked of so much as General Joffre. Certainly he is the idol of the French people. They look on him as their hero and savior, and his name is mentioned among them with a sort of half-worship. No other people have ever depended on their leaders as have the French. They believe with the right sort of leadership they can do anything. This is the impression you get in talking to them. They say that since the Franco-Prussian War they have looked forward to the time when they might have a general with Napoleon's genius and some other name—for even the name Napoleon now prevents a man from fighting for France, at least if he is of the royal line.

You may be certain that we all looked forward to meeting this great man. We did not meet him after all at close range, having to content ourselves with a view of the busiest man in France as he rode by in an automobile at top speed.

General Joffre, as we learned, has been at the head of the French Army for two years before the war. He first came into notice when, at the last grand maneuvers, he jarred military circles and greatly pleased the people by unceremoniously dismissing from their command five gold-laced generals whose methods did not meet with his approval.

But Joffre first showed what sort of stuff was in him when he met the Germans at the Marne. It will be recalled that the French, never suspecting that Germany would invade Belgium and having all their military plans laid for mobilizing on the German frontier, were more or less demoralized when they found an entirely new line of defense necessary. They had no railroads built to help reform their line, and the moving of a vast army is a perplexing task. Without a leader in whom the whole army had supreme confidence, and with the German host sweeping across Belgium and hurling back the English, it would have been a hopeless situation.

But while what the Kaiser called "Sir John French's contemptible little army" was holding back for a few days the German onrush at terrific cost, Joffre was busy realigning his forces between the invaders and his beloved Paris, which seemed doomed to all but him. He had studied the situation carefully and detected the fact that the long flank of Von Kluck's army left an opening. This opening was found by the Army of Paris, augmented in every possible way and finally reinforced by every available soldier, rushed from Paris in every kind of automobile to be found. The Germans were stopped at the Marne—twenty miles from Paris. Not only was the capital of France saved, but the invaders were steadily driven back until they were sixty miles away before they could make a successful stand.

[Illustration: Portrait in Tapestry—General Joffre.]

It was then that France found Joffre, so the people say. Up to that time they had heard little of him and nobody knew who he was or where he had come from. At once they began to inquire. Few of the soldiers had ever seen him, and there had been nothing much in the newspapers about the man who had managed all this.

After the Germans had been forced across the Aisne and there was time to breathe, the French decided to have a review of that part of the army that could be spared. It was here that everybody watched for Joffre. The French tell it in their own way and it is interesting to hear one of them explaining, with the usual gestures, just how the hero looked on the day of that review.

It was not much of a display of military style. The troops reviewed had been in the thick of the fight and there was an enormous amount of mud. There was no reviewing stand except a muddy elevation, on which the commander was to stand. Nobody seemed to know where he was or where he would come from, but it was passed around that he was to be there and the soldiers watched for him eagerly. Most of them thought that he was a little, fat man. They had unconsciously absorbed this idea from pictures of Napoleon, and, forgetting the terrible stress of the past weeks in the temporary flush of victory, they expected to see their general come to the stand with a blaze of glory. They looked for silken flags and gaudy uniforms and a regular French military parade. This was as little as they thought would do proper honor to the victorious commander of the Allied armies, and they were right, because General Joffre is at the head of the greatest force of men ever gathered together.

As you are told about this in France, the day came and at the spot selected for the review, an open field somewhat back of the lines, with plenty of freshly planted crosses in sight and evidence all around that the peace and quiet had not always been there, a few generals and officers gathered. Finally, a regimental band, playing the first martial music heard since before the battle of the Marne, swung out of the woods at the head of a body of troops.

Then a large man, tall and heavy and wearing an ordinary soldier's overcoat, but with the laurel band around his hat that showed him to be a general, came out of the woods behind the little knoll and walked rapidly toward the group of officers. Every hand went up in salute. Then they knew it was Joffre. He went to the muddy knoll, and stood there watching keenly while the soldiers marched past, the bugles blowing and the bands playing.

In spite of their muddy uniforms and the hard fight they had just gone through, the French say that these soldiers looked spic and span as they passed their general. Their rifles went up in salute as straight and accurately as if they had just come from quarters and were marching over a level parade ground, instead of over fields filled with shell holes and slippery with mud—or perhaps something worse.

Joffre is a silent man, they say. This does not interfere in the least with the adoration of the French, who are usually great talkers. They believe in him to the utmost, and they will follow him to the limit of endurance. So long as Joffre is at the head of the French army, the spirit of victory will remain.

Since Joffre has become famous, of course much is known about him. He was born in the Midi, as they call the southern part of France. Trained as a soldier, he saw service in the East, where he did that which he set out to do. There is no particular incident that points to the discovery of his genius, although he must have done unusual things to get to the top. He is known to have been a modest, quiet, home-loving sort of man, spending much time with his family at Auteil, and showing while there that he was very fond of fishing. Fishing is a good recreation for the man who wants to think, and the French believe that while Joffre was doing that he must have been evolving plans for settling with the hated Germans. He likes to fish yet, and when he can get away from the war zone, he hunts a small stream and spends his leisure hours along it.

During his brilliant career since the war began Joffre has developed some of the qualities notable in our own General Grant. There is not a particle of show or bluster about him. He dresses as plainly as possible, talks little and seems to prefer solitude. But his will is imperious and he does not hesitate when anything is to be done, whether it is pleasant or otherwise. For his men he has the greatest consideration, but they say in France that, like Lincoln, he has little regard for Generals. Some of the things told about him remind you of the story of Lincoln. In this story a Confederate raid had resulted in the capture of two generals and a number of privates. When the story was brought to Lincoln, he said it was too bad about the men. Someone suggested that it was a pity the generals had been taken, but Lincoln said that did not matter much, as he could make some more. Joffre has made it uncomfortable for the inefficient generals in France. Many of them have lost their commands and most of them live in fear of his quiet but inexorable discipline.

Joffre does not look kindly on visitors to the Front, and nobody gets there without his permission. He signed the passes on which the Commission traveled, but he did not seem overjoyed at our coming enough to look us up while we were there. Apparently he regarded us as people who could not help in his big job and who were likely in some way or other to become nuisances.

When you talk with people who know this man you are at once impressed with the fact that he appreciates his great responsibility and that there is nothing on his mind but how to win this war for France. They say he has a clipping bureau that saves for him all that is being printed about the war. He probably expects to read it somewhere after the war is over, but he will not likely be able to do this in the remainder of an ordinary lifetime.

Time only will decide whether Joffre is really a great military genius, or whether he is merely a good general, conscientiously doing his best and fortunate enough to become a popular hero. Modern war is so different from old time variety that no one can judge results up to this time. It is at least certain that Joffre has beaten the Germans back and back, slowly, but surely forcing them out of France. He says himself that he "has been nibbling at them."

There can be no doubt that at the time this is written he has reached the pinnacle of fame in France. He is the man in all France who is most talked about, most admired and most trusted. Were he to die now, as Kitchener died, his place in History would be secure. What will happen before the war is over is another matter. But, having heard the French talk about "Father Joffre" so much and so lovingly, and having been given the most useful thing in France, if you want to see the front—a pass by him in spite of the great cares resting on his shoulders, I hope that fate will be kind to him and that he will remain the idol of his people to the end.

As might be expected, France is full of the sayings of Joffre. Everyone you meet can tell you a new one. Some of the aphorisms credited to him that I can now recall are: "Go where the enemy is not expecting you"; "No soldier is expected to think of retreating"; "Now is the time to stand and die rather than yield". This last is said to have been his utterance before the beginning of the Battle of the Marne.