Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-06-30

waiting ambitions OF the rIeHCA POoS-
ants. They admired the spirit winch
prompted the aged ones and the Wom-
en- and the children to dare death 10
order to make a full crop possible,
but they did not think that few ex'
ira bushels of wheat or of potatoes
would compensate France for further
losses among its peasantry. Ii was
necessary, therefore, to call malt on
this fine but dangerous farming en-
deavor The toilers did not mind the
hell of sheIl fire any more than the
soldiers did, but there are some sac
rifices which are needless. So 1t ID
that the peasant toll of today must
manifest itself only up to the inside
limit of danger from dropping projec-
tiles. Thus it is that the plain on
which am standing has not yet been
turned by the pillow.
Nature has been at work here ever
since it felt the first warming touch OF
springs sun. This battlefield today Is
covered with flowers, dandelions,
daisies, rget-me-nots and violets. the
deep pits dug by the earlier fallen
shells are now sunken gardens. White
and gold, yellow and blue and Grim
son. enter into the color scheme OF the
battlefield. l never knew before the
knifelike sharpness of contrast. war
and death are in the valley, and peace
and life are on the commanding nil.
The guns are pounding while over my
head two skylarks are soaring ana
singing. The fast growing grass al
fords the birds shelter for their nests,
and above them always is the sky
against whose foundations artillery Is
vainly used.
Reminders of the Battle.
All along the edges of this plateau
the trenches are deeply cut. They are
used for shelter by the men of both
armies during the sweeping fire on
this open plain. Today they are some
what back of the rearmost trenches
of the present fighting line. 1t is cas-.
lily learned how savage was the flgnt
in this place where today one picks
flowers and listens to the larks sing
ing in defiance of the noise of the
cannon. Reminders of the battle that
has moved on apace are everywhere.
German shells and French shells ex-
pended either vainly or to awful pur-
pose are an incumbrance to ones foot
steps When one follows the track OF
modern war he wonders that any man
engaged in it can live to write its
history
1t is hard to turn away from this
field near st. Mihiel. There have been
horrors enough along the line of ele
way to make one hate war for all
time, but yet there is something
about it which grips the interest and
the imagination. This battlefield of
Marie is one point of two meet
ing lines of a triangle, within whose
compass the fighting has been at its
fiercest and whose edge is still famed
by the hot breath of battle. I have
said that this triangle is out OF the
present fighting, but one cannot so
sense it while the ground shakes with
the roar of artillery.
France is high-heartedly hopeful to-
day that the line of this fighting will
continue to recede northward and
north-eastward, and that the recession
will become quicker paced day by day
as the spring and the summer adj
vance AS it is the fragments of vii
lagos within this triangle, and which
are still shaken by the gunfire, feel
seemingly that their future safety is
as assured as If they were removed
a thousand leagues from the clashing
armies in the valleys of the Aire and
the Mouse The few villagers who
have come back have full confidence
in the prowess of the French soldiers
who are bulwarking the land.
More Desolate Villages.
Near this field of the fighting there
are several desolated places which |