"I am just going to close the factory.

The Proprietor has been mobilized, and in a few hours will join his regiment." And he pointed to a written paper posted on the door of his dwelling like the printed cards on all establishments, signifying that employer and employees had obeyed the order of mobilization.
It had never occurred to Desnoyers that his carpenter might become a soldier, since he was so opposed to all kinds of authority.

He hated the flics, the Paris police, with whom he had, more than once, exchanged fisticuffs and clubbings.

Militarism was his special aversion.

In the meetings against the despotism of the barracks he had always been one of the noisiest participants.