Gilpin observer., 1915-06-24
compelled to call a halt on the cult

compelled to call halt on the cult
waiting ambitions of the French peas
ants. They admired the spirit which
prompted the aged ones and the wom-
en- and the children to dare death in
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. 1t was
necessary, therefore, to call a halt on
this fine but dangerous farming en-
deavor. The toilers did not mind the
hell of she'll fire any more than the
soldiers did, but there are some sac
rifices which are needless. So it is
that the peasant toll of today must
manifest itself only up to the inside
limit of danger from dropping projec-
tiles. Thus 1t is that the plain on
which am standing has not yet been
turned by the plow. 4
Nature has been at work here ever
since 1t felt the first warming touch Of
springs sun. This battlefield today is
covered with flowers. dandelions,
daisies, forget-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. never knew before the
knifelike sharpness of contrast. War
and death are in the valley, and peace
and life are on the commanding hill.
The guns are pounding while over my
fu.N r1y 1ov ir10
singing. The fast growing grass af-
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 fight
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 the
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
| Vaux-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
t-ae~~e-i 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
| u
will become quicker paced day by day
as the spring and the summer ad-
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 Meuse. 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 lighting there
are several desolated places which
have seen. but OF which | have not
written. so like is their condition to
that of scores of other villages which
have visited and whose pathos ap-
pealed. Pretz and Vassincourt are
| gone. Louppy lie Chateau is pile of
ruins, At Revigny nothing is left but
the walls of the church and one saints
statue. from which destruction in
some way or another was warded Off
We see these places as We pass
from the battlefield to village still
standing, at least in part. and where
we may rest, and where we might
forget war were it not for the distant
rolling of the guns along the line
where men are killing men. We are
| going back to Paris and from there
later I hope to go under the same
| guidance to another part OF France.
where. as along this line, the armies