The Washington herald., 1914-11-08
women Toll AS
BATTLE GOES ON
French Work IN Fields While
Men Are Fighting Not
Far Away.
GERMANS PAY FOR MEALS
TsutOR o6eers Knew All About Lune-
vile and Nancy Before They Came
There in Their Conquest.
1sriai cabIs to ne ws.Aington Hesald.

land women at work in the fields witt
hot sighting going on 80 near by that tn
toilers are not out Of the danger sone.
4 The dividing space between peace ant
war is, curiousiy. narrow. Up 70 the as
moments before fighting begins, men ant
women are working In the fields and chill
dren playing in the streets among ths
soldiers and the horses and the guns
Almost before the sounds Of the Iast
shots have died away they are out again
In the air and sunlight. looking at theii
damaged homes, and once more gather
ing up the threads or ordinary peaceful
life. Or, rather. except for the hours
when actual bombardment or street nght-
ing IL going on. II Is more true to say
that they never drop their peaceful occu-
pations.
Spirit Il Obdurate.
Long-after the las trump has sounded
there still will be Frenchwonen washing
clothes in the Meuse and Marne and
Meurthe and Moselle.
You may burn a Frenchman's house; Il
is not SO easy to crush his spirit Lune-
Vile, Baccarat. and Badonviller, three
small villages I have recently seen, are
cases in point
We came back from BadonvilIer, at
that time the most advanced French post
on this side. by way of Montigny. On
the way we saw a dark mass Of German
troops on the move at a distance Of about
two miles from the road, and during our
twenty minutes' stay at Montigny four
shells were fired by their artillery on
Domevre and Blamoht from their posi-
ton between these two towns. But be-
yond, no doubt, wanting 10 maintain
their present position, the Germans do
not seem inclined to resume their Of
fensive at this particular point Their
best troops have probably moved further
north Those that remain, to Judge from
the prisoners brought in. are chiefly
either boys or men Of over forty.
Two Of these prisoners, middle-aged
reservists. from strassburg. we met on
the way home as they were being
brought into Baccarat from Neuves-
Maisons, where they had just been
caught One OF them told me that they
had surrendered Of their own accord, be-
cause they were badly treated by their
officers and had not enough to eat He
said that they had had no bread for sew
eral days and were nearly dying Of hun
ger. They certainly looked rather
wretched, but they seemed beyond ques-
ton relieved at having surrendered, espe-
cially when they were told that they
would not be shot.
Church Disagured.
At Baccarat there is more rain and
desolation. The church, which was loop
holed by the French troops, is horribly
shattered and diShgured by sells.
The Germans paid for their meals in
German marks, and for what they re-
questioned In promissory notes, redeem
able after the war. One Of the inhabl-
tAnts, a woman, complained to a German
police official that the whole Of her wine
had been appropriated for this last
rather unsatisfactory medium Of ex-
change. He obligingly offered to make
her loss good TO her from some one else's
cellar, IL she would tell him where to
find one sufficiently weli-stocked.
The really interesting point Of this lit
tie story is that she knew the man. Be
fore the war he was a commercial
traveller. and had visited Luneville twice
month for eighteen years. When she
came back in a position Of authority he
was not above paying OF old scores on
natives against whom he had a grudge.
He was not the only cne of the troops
that occupied LuneviIle who knew II In
time Of pesce.l Another oficer, auartered
in the town during the occupation, was
well known before as a LuneviIle
manufacturer. and others, some of them
on the stan, had been fairly frequent
visitors.
To call them spies would be going a
little far; but at least II is fairly obvious
that these men, bound to be officers in
the German army in case Of war with
France. had gained a fairly good know
ledge Of this part of France before the
war began.
A picturesque little detail, for the truth
Of which 1 cannot vouch. is that one OF
the kaiser's sons (who had once visited
Luneville) was with his father when he
watched one of unsuccessful battles
in front of Nancy. and passed through
Lunevile with him when he left the
scene Of operations to make his way back
to Germany.