Of Marshal Petain M. Ribot writes: "He has all the highest qualities of a leader. He knew Wwhat his men could be asked to do, and he left nothing to chance. Best of all, he had personal authority. He was not quite careful enough in what he said after he rose to posi ions of great responsibility, but there was never anything of the courtier about him. He' is outwardly cold and reserved. I feel sure that in reality he has much. keener sensibility than most people evedit him with.'
In another letter M. Ribot writes:
"Gen, Joffre will go down to posterity as the man who won the battle of the Marne, and that is a sufficient title to fame. I often saw Gen. Joffre at the meetings of the War Committee. There was never an; thing striking in his explanation but he showed much good sense and solid judgment."
"Pootball" Now a French Word. almost as dificult for a new word to" get. into the French 'Academy dictionary' as it is for an {tuelf. fare put old reputation to
through severe tests, To begin with, they have no chance at all Tess" they happen to satisfy M. Rébelliau, formerly librarian of the Institut de France and now a member of the Académie des Inscriptions ct Belles Letiver, who is a sort of ial registrar of verbal He puts them down in. alphabetical order and presents them from time to tire to the five Acatemicians who form the -dictionary committee. When this body meets, euch of the five has before him 'n copybook having a sheet of the last edition of the dictionary stuck on the left-hand page te new words inscribed on the ight, under a large query mark. The claims of the candidates are fully discussed and, if admitted, are referred to the next meeting of the whole body of Immortals.
In this way it was decided that "football" had curned its place in the French Janguage but that "basket-ball" was not yet ae: climatized; that the war meaning of es (ace) x ""first-rater" or "Number 1 man" as. the Chinese would say, is pirkka, but that the much older word "Lécane" (bicycle)
not. The derivation of this word may be worth relating to there who do not know it. During the bicycle feraze a quarter of a century ago, fa Paris manufacturer on one of his visite {0 his. fe tory, was with a bad cold which him to pronounce the oft-
'bécamicien." "Next day, every skilled workman in that' factory was a "bécanicien," and it was Jnctaral to narrow down the new word fo as to signify the article they manufactured,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.