South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-09-11
Correspondent Describes In
tense Woe Among Sufferers
in the "BaCkWaSh" of Eu-
ropes Greatest War.
BY HARRY PAYNE BURTON.
taft War Correspondence.

-
STAFF War Correspondence.
PARIS, France.-would you like
20 hear about a railroad journey in
war-torn France today? A trip from
BOulOgne TO Paris-on the only train
that makes the trip every "a hours
Travelling along close 20 the frontier
of fighting?
For an hour before the Paris train
left the Care du NOrd (station) at
/ BOulOgne, il was actually besieged
with passengers. for il is the only
train that runs from the sea to Paris
in each "a hours. And every pas
senger that rides on il is examined,
re-examined and cross-examined. for
Paris is not taking chances on let
I ting in German spies.
The train was filled beyond suffO-
cation when we finally started, two
/ hours after the scheduled time. The
I distinction between the first, second
and third classes had not been held TO
at all, and peasants, just escaped
from some beleaguered section in the
north Of France, sat beside members
OF the Paris aristocracy returning
/ from England. whittier they had
taken hurried trips to deposit jewelry
and money or, indeed. To ship them
for safekeeping TO America.
And when the train did actually
move. people were sitting in each
\ others laps in the compartments, and
some of them were lying in the bag
gage racks overhead!
All trains today in France are run
\ ming under martial law Reduced to
/ fact, this means that no nOn-military
train is permitted to travel faster
! than Is miles an hour and that il
must stop at every station on the
road so the coaches may be examined
for suspicious persons. Our train
certainly stuck TO schedule time. In
I fact, l am sure il never went faster
than eight miles an hour. 1t took
us just 26 hours to make the six
hour trip to Paris.
From the suburbs of BOulogne
right through to Paris there is not
one-half mile of trackage that is not
guarded by two uniformed French
soldiers with fixed bayOnets. Their
figures. in red, fitted past me by day
with the regularity of telegraph poles,
and at night the twinkle of their Ian
terms slid by the darkened compart-
ment windows at as precise intervals.
The trip to Amiens was so uneVent-
full and so wearisome that it seemed
we would never get there. Beyond
the holding up of the train at every
station so that a guard might peer
into our coach for people who looked
mans) nothing happened. But when
we reached Amiens at 3 o'clock in the
morning everything changed.
Refugees Fill Station.
We were in the war-Or it's back
wash
The great black station at Amiens
was literally filled with refugees from
all over the eastern part of France
I do not know the French language.
but / can understand the language of
tears and here il was freely spoken.
They were old women, women so old
that their skin was as Wrinkled as
parchment from the catecOmbs. They
were crying silently as they huddled
on their little bags of household treas
ures-all they had been able to carry
away when the cry, Les Allemands!
Les Allemands." (The Germans! The
GermansD pierced the air with horri-
flying suddenness in these quiet little,
frontier villages of Normandy
other women, younger and fresher,
sucked babies at their breasts as the
tears ran down their cheeks, and little
boys, barefoot and hatless. trying TO
be brave kept Wiping tears out OF
their eyes or, exhausted at last, were
sleeping on the unused tracks in the
end of the station. There must have
been 1000 of these refugees in the
station when we entered it. When
we left il two hours later. the num-
Der had been tripIed by incoming
trains.
At Amiens got off to get something
TO eat at the station. You could not
buy anything But all the food you
wanted was given away. The gov
eminent had arranged that everyone
was TO have as much bread. cake and
coffee as he wanted. Nothing else,
but plenty of that There was no
butter for the bread, but that is true
in all France today. In the most eX-
elusive restaurant i'm the city OF Paris
YOU can buy neither butter. cream
nor milk. Every COW in the country
has been Communicated for the army.
The compartment 1 rode in ar
ranged for four persons, was housing
u. 10 minutes before our train start
ed on for Paris. And then. on the
next track to us, the train from Lille
pulled in And in two minutes 1 400
more refugees had DOured into the ,
coaches that made up our train.
There were - now in our compart-
ment alone, Six babies occupied the
floor.
Women Collapse.
As the new come women sunk into
the seats or onto each others laps.
They Just collapsed. They didn't cry
at first-tEey merely seemed to faint
away One woman who was coming
back from England. a princess of the
FauhOrg Ste Germaine. began bath
ing their faces with cologne, and
someone threw water on their wrists.
Coffee was brought from the station,