'Two well-known Parisian characters are shortly to retire into private life. They are Sergt. Hoff and Sergt. Jeannot, the bemedalled veterans who have taken caro of the Are de Triomphe for the last thirty' years. These worthy men are reded with something like the veneration which used to be paid to survivors of the Grand Army. They are regularly interviewed whenever any question concerning the French army in the Crimes crops up, and their opinions are-duly recorded inthe newspapers. Although the Are de Triomphe is free to the public, its guardians have managed to make a good thing out of it. Being forbidden to ask for fees, they hit upon the device of remarking artless); when the visitor began to mount the staircase, People pay what they like, " and people generally did pay. I. had the curiosity the other day to interview Sergt. Seannot on the Findlaterincident. "With all due respect to friend Findlater," ho said, "I would rather be porter here than a figurant at the Folies Bergéres. Hoff and I didn't get our crosses with bagpipes in our hand and we had to stand up against something worse than Afridi arrows. 'The Afridis had rifles? May. be, but fighting savages isn't like storming the Mamelon,' said Sergeant Jeannot.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.