Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-07-04

a sacrifice equal to that of the man
who lost his life on the battlefield.
In view of these and other condi-
tons. how can woman know that her
soldier is alive or dead?
Think what happens along that deep.
struggling line of trenches in France
that separates the allies and German
armies. Every day battle is fought
and the list Of the lost runs from
hundred to ten thousand. Each side
takes so and so many prisoners. The
Germans may advance hundred yards
at one point. the French hundred
Yards at another. 1t is seesaw game.
At neither point, where the fighting
is always to exhaustion. is it possible,
particularly as the most severe fight
ing is in nighttime. for either side to
were killed, or remained within the
wounded or able bodied prisoners
Consider the second battle of Sois-
sons, in early January There the
French retired. leaving the ground lit
orally covered with dead. 1t was known
that several thousand prisoners were
also taken by the Germans. But as
the ground. with its trenches, taken by
the Germans has been disputed ever
since. always under fire. neither side
has had an opportunity to bury it's
dead or to identify the dead.
Thus, so far as concerns the French
families, they have not even to this
IL
soldiers lie dead that disputed
ground or have been sent into Germany
as prisoners.
Right after that battle fully 5000
Frenchwomen began the weary search
for their loved ones, and they are still
searching, as, doubtless, are as many
women in Germany.
=
These women begin their inquiry at
the war offices. There they can get no
certain information. A few months
ago the clerks there, as at the military
Offices in each municipality, used to be
free in handing out death notices
there were SO many dead. But few
mistakes have made them conservative.
Then they pity these poor women, with
their pleadings for news.
MY God. how can l tell where your
son isl the writer heard a wreck Of a
clerk tell weeping mother one day.
81 have two sons lost myself and 1
cannot get news of them"
Thus the long search begins It be-
gan last August in a few hundred thou
sand homes. and each day since then it
has been growing until today there is
scarcely home untouched.
After the woman gets tired of haunt
ing the military offices, she tries the
hospitals, and examines their lists of
names. often is permitted to visit every
ward and examine the faces of the
unidentified-faces too often disfigured
beyond recognition.
Next she begins to write to the COM
rades of her soldier. Chance may let
her find some comrade who escaped
while all the members of his company
were killed or were surrendered. This
man comforts her as best he can If
he has positive news of the death of
her soldier. he is afraid to give it.
She learns little here, a little there.
She gets new name to write to, and,
thanks to the free postal system for
soldiers, no matter how poor she NAV
be. If she has paper she can always
write.
Days and weeks and months pass. her
anxious heart unsatisfied, throbbing
one hour with hope. the next with aw-
full doubt, the next in despair, She
would become frantic because of the
uncertainty could she not go to church,
tell her tale to God, ask Him for help,
for comfort.
And what of the end of the search?
Recently In France, In Paris, at the
Cathedral of Notre Dame, . funeral