The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-30
FRENCH CHARITIES ARE REMARKABLE
 IN THEIR APPEAL TO
 THE WHOLE WORLD
(COntinued from Page One)

! marching through the snow, mud and | sleet; they showed the old couple a home with no fire in the grate saying, Tt is cold for us, but not so cold as
 for our son in the trench
 For every contribution to this Christ
 mas fund those who gave received a decoration. According to the sum these ran from paper badges on a pin to silver and gold medals. The whole of France | contributed to this fund. The proudest shops filled their windows with the paper badges and so well was the fund or ganized that in every town and city pe- ttioners in the streets waylad every pe- destrian. Even in Modena on the boun- dary line of Italy, when I was returning to France and sharing lonely Christmas With the conductor of the wagon-lt, we were held up by train robbers who took our money and then pinned medals on us. | Until we reached Paris we did not khoW why. It was only later we learned l that in the two-days' campaign the poilus had benefited to the sum of many mill ] liens of francs
 In Paris and over all France Tor every one who is suffering through the war | there is some individual or organiza ton at work to relieve that suffering. Every 1 one heps and the spirit in which they 1 help is most wonderful and most beauti- ful. No one is forgotten When the ! French artists were called to the front | the artists models of the Place Pigalle and Montmartre were left destitute. They had not put by" They were but | teffiies. So. some women of the indus- trious, busy-bee order formed society to | look after the artists models. They l gave them dolls to dress, and on the | sale of dolls the human mannequns now | live.
 Nor is any one who wants to help al
 lowed to feel that he or she is too poor; | that for his sou or her handy work there l is no need. The midinettes, the cash" girls of the great department stores and l millinery shops, had no money to contrib l ute, so someone thought of giving them a l chance to help the soldiers with their ! needles
 It was purposed they should make cock 1 ades in the national coors. Every French | girl IS taught to sew each is born with | good taste. They were invited to show | their good taste in the designing of cock 1 ades, which people would buy for franc | which franc would be sent to some sol I dier 1 The French did not go about this in a hole-ln-a corner way in a back street. They did not let the cash girl feel her 1 artistic effort was only a blind to help l her help others. They held a salon for 1 the cockades And they held it in the same Palace of Arts where at the annual | salon are hung the paintings or the great | French artists
 The cockades are exhibited in one hail. and next to them is an exhibition of the precious tapestries rescued from the Rheims cathedral. In the hall beyond that is an exhibition of lace. To this museum, duchesses and queens have sent laces that for centuries have been heir looms.
 But the cockades of Mimi Pinson by the thousands and thousands are given TO h the same taste and by the same artist who grouped and catalogued the queens lace handkerchiefs And each little Mimi I'lHSon can So to the palace and point to the cockade she made with her own fingers, or point to the spot where it was, anG know she has sent a franc to a soldier of France
 mere are some other very good bar galns Are you lover of art and would you become a patron of art? If that | Is your wish, you can buy an original water color for 50 cents and so help
 an a art student who is fighting at the
 Ifont and assist in keeping alive his family in Paris. Is not that a good bargain? As everybody knows the hcole ues BeauN Arts in Paris is free to students from all the world 1t is the alma mater of some of the best known American artists and archi- tects. On it's rolls are the names of Sarsea St. Gaudens, Stanford White, " hltney Warren, Beckwith, Coffin,
 MacMonnles. Certain schools and col ieges are so fortunate as to inspire
 great devotion on the part of their
 students, as, in the story told of every college, of the student being led from
 the football field who struggles in front of the grandstand and shouts,
 Let me go back. I'd die for dear old
 -l"
 But the affection of the students of
 the BeauX Arts for their masters,
 their fellow students and the insti- tutlon is very genuine. They do not speak Of the distinguished artists,
 architects, engravers and scuIptors who instruct them as "Doc.," Prof." "Old Stick in the Mud" and Bonehead"
 Instead they call him Master" and
 no matter how often they say it, they say It each time as thought they meant it.
 The American students even when they return to Paris rich and famous go at once to call upon the former master of their stelier, who, it may be, is not at all famous or rich, and pay their respects. And, no matter if his school of art has passed, and the torch
 be carried is in the hands of young CT Frenchmen, his former pupils still salute him as master, and with much the awe the village cure shows for the cardinal.
 hen the war came 5000 of the French students of the BeauX Arts, past and present, Were sent to the front and there was no one to look after their parents, families or themselves It seemed chance for Americans to try to pay back some of the debt so many generations of American artists, archi- tects and sculptors owed to the art of France
 Whitney Warren, the American arch itect, is one of the few Americans Who in spite of the extreme unpopularity of our people, is still regarded by the French with genuine affection. And in every way possible he tries to show the French that it is not the American people who are neutral, but the Amer ican government. One of the ways he offers to Americans to prove their friendship for France is in helping the students of the BeauX Arts He has organized committee of which he is honorary president and of which MacMonnies, Beckwith, Danat, Coffin Bonnat and H. H. Harjes are members The acting committee is composed of French and American students work ing under Ronald Simmons of Provi- dence. R. I. The others are Cyrus Thomas of Chicago, Alvah Crocker, Jr., of Fitchburg, Mass, and Francis Jaaues of Boston. They work. and they work F hours a day, in the palace of the BeauX Arts itself, on the left bank of the Seine.
 It is hard to understand how in