Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-10-10
women SUFFER
IN wake Of WAR
Sodden Roads in France are
Thronged with Destitute
Returning Refugees.
(By william Philip simms.)

(by william Pnllp S1mInS.)
Paris. Oct. 10.-(By Mail to New
York; am Just back from the
front, where the fighting is actually
going on, and from the battleflelds
we French and English and Ger
mon soldiers have added new and il
lustrious pages to history.
Impressed me most, the bloody front
where rauid-firers purred and lebels
spat and %shrapnel spilled their singing
sprays Of death. It was rather thu
wake of the armies where the women
and children and crippled Did men sat
and bltnked and stared dazedly. be-
numbed, yet not approaching. the full
ness of the catastrophe thing which
had just passed over them.
Wounded Procession on Foot.
Coming gu of scissors, I met a
caravan Of wounded walking south
ward towards Chateau-Thierry and
Meaux. There were men Of all arms
and all the fighting ages-men from
Algeria. Tunis. Morocco and Senegal.
There were French. English and Hin
du, all with the first blood-crusted
bandage applied to arms, heads and
limbs, hobbling slowly down the mud
dy road under a cold, soaking drizzle.
They were the only slightly wound
ed, evacuating the firing lines upon
their own legs. And they were pitt
full.
But south of Meaux, bound north
ward to the plains of the Marine.
passed another caravan, more p3tiful
still. 1t was a Of old men,
women, girls, children and babies,
bound home after being driven be-
yond Paris by the southwark sweep
Of the great war. They were from
the farms. the b~attlehelds Of the 81
gantic armies, and most Of them were
compelled to walk. there being rick
ETY. carts and wagons enough only for
a few Of the sick, the too old or too
young to march.
Barefoot Woman Seeking Home.
One woman ! saw was barefoot
She had trudged her shoes OFF her
feet. It was raining-this was the
same day I saw the column OF
wounded evacuating Soissons-and
for weeks artillery. auto trucks. army
trains and conveys Of army supplies,
plus the wheels Of various other war
machines had cut into them deeply
This woman was pushing a baby car
rtage In which were two children and
some household effects. Her skirts
dragged the mud as she leaned for
bespattered to the waist. BArehead.
ed. under the drizzle, she struggled
on, = feyerish light in her ayes and
twin spots glowing on her cheeks.
soaked. brownish cape failed to keep
the wet from penetrating through to
the skin.
1 spoke to her and learned her hus-
band was Sin the east" somewhere
on the lighting line. She. had not
heard from him. Yes. she was very
Suddenly I asked her what she
thought of the war.
Gives Unexpected Reply.
ITS glorious isn't It," she replied
in her Champagne country dialect.
Of u country. # ours continue to
shall win soon. Don't you think sol
It was an unlooked-for reply. I had
against everything and everybody. the
other Of tho wars wounded.
many. They ned from their, village.
and farms - the Gsrmans advanced,
hamlets and neighbors goinE togeth.
or.
Their horses and good vehicles
were often sAiSAd. LEAVING only oxen
ana unit, horses to draw the two.
wheeled carts and. sousakinG wagons
h!lad With hay and women and ba-
bies. indiscriminately mixed.
EAttls Food or 6heatae.
At night they eamped b9 thesroAA-
stdes whether 1t ratnAd oestS1 ietaxl