all his life he has been an ardent and intrepid horseman.

A community devoted to the raising of fine saddle horses is all but
certain to be a community devotedly fond of horse racing.

Love of racing is almost a universal trait in France; and in Tarbes it
was a feature of the town life in which business went hand-in-hand with
pleasure.

In an old French book published before Ferdinand Foch was born, I have
found the following description of the crowds which flocked into Tarbes
on the days of the horse markets and races:

"On these days all the streets and public squares are flooded with
streams of curious people come from all corners of the Pyrénées and
exhibiting in their infinite variety of type and costume all the races
of the southern provinces and the mountains.

"There one sees the folk of Provence, irascible, hot-headed, of
vigorous proportions and lusty voice, passionately declaiming about
something or other, in the midst of small groups of listeners.

"There are men of the Basque province--small, muscular and proud, agile
of movement and with bodies beautifully trained; plain of speech and
childlike in deed.

"There are the men of the Béarnais, mostly from towns of size and
circumstance--educated men, of self-command, tempering the southern
warmth which burns in their eyes by the calm intelligence born of
experience in life and also by a natural languor like that of their