New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-28
SORROW KINDLES
SPIRIT OF FRANCE
DAY of the Dead" Brings
Fresh Pledges to War
to the End.
GRIEF AND COURAGE
MlNGLE AT GRAVES
Dead of Yesterday and Thou
sand Years Ago Fighting Now,
Says Soldiers Missive.
By NINE. JEAN ALCIDE PICARD.

By NINE. JEAN ALCIDE PICARD.
Paris, Nov. 6.-All Saints Day and
the DAY of the Dead" have been cele-
brated in France this year with a par
ticular fervor which lent to the tragic
events of the war touching signifi-
canoe.
Despite the bad weather, which gave
to the anniversary added melancholy,
the pilgrimages to the different necrop-
oil of the capital have been very nu-
merous. Many impressive ceremonies,
both civil and religious, we're held, and
the sight Of the mourners heaping flow
els with the tricolor on the graves Of
our glorious dead was az the same time
distressful and admirable.
Old and feminine France was bow
ing in sorrow before the graves of its
young men. As we look at the names
Of the brave ones whose lives have
been ended prematurely in their effort
TO protect their homes we read: ITO
our brother" ITO our son." ITO my
husband" Twenty" Twenty
fivc." "Thirty-two years old 9.
and so on endlessly till one has the i'm.
preston that surely all the youth Of
France has been sacrificed on the altar
of the country, and one shudders TO
think of all the saddened homes.
Work Is Not Yet Done"
Yet. this crowd of mourners is also
admirable and encouraging in it. Dig
nified sorrow. The time has not come
yet when tears can be allowed TO flow
freely. The work is not yet done. and
all these fathers, mothers, wives and
sisters give less the impression that
they have come to visit their dead TO
tell them Of their pain and their re-
greet than 10 bring a promise-a sol
emn promise-that the lives Of the
dear ones have not been given in vain;
that the work they have begun shall
b. achieved and that no one shall
weaken, no one shall rest, while the
enemy has not been chased our of
France, his power to accomplish evil
annihilated
How many cemeteries we have seen
i'm this last year, Not trench, farm or
a garden which has not its own. And
with what tender care and respect they
are surrounded Yesterday | rode once
more across the battlefield Of the
Marine. / saw again all these graves,
grouped all along the railway line, on
the roadside or isolated in the fields
Not only, as life was resumed in
these regions and the work in the fields
taken up, have the little knobs been
respected. with their awkward little
cross surmounted by poor maculated
k6py, but pious hands have made
fences around them and decorated
them. while the names which t. in
clemency OF the weather had almost
effaced have been painted again.
IL is most of the time the work OF
the older soldiers guarding the COM
munications, or of the men at rest
from the trenches. They have erected
veritable monuments. On the graves
they have made verdure and flowers
grow, and with their ingenious deco
rations they have tried to express 70
their comrades the gratefulness of the
country. To the passersby they tell:
Honor 20 the bravei" Dead for their
country" "Honneur ct patrie," and IN
their simplicity they are infinitely
touching.
Flags on Every Grave.
For the anniversary. flags had been
planted on every grave, and all these.
futtering in the wind, evoked the soul
Of our heroes, pure and clear, speaking
Of hope and life rather than death.
Many people had come with flowers -
some found a kind Of solace in the fact
that they know where their dead are
lying: others 10 whom this consolation
has been denied, wandered from one
anonymous grave TO another trying to
solve their mystery and 70 find out
whether "Soldat H.. mort pour la
France" might be the one they looked