The daily Missourian., 1917-06-19
WAR-TORN FRANCE
CAUSE FOR PITY
Women Forced to Do Menial
Tasks, With All Able
Bodied Men Gone.
CROPS ARE PLANTED
Fields Cultivated Within
Sound of Big Guns
Behind Lines.
BY United Press


WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
THE FIELD. May q Thy main.-Ii
America could know France today
most likely young men would flock
TO her aid by hundreds on every trans
Atlantic boat. The pity of those
scores of villages behind the lines en-
tirely stripped of able men, with many
of the women in deep mourning as
they carry on the work of departed
soldiers, would appeal more strongly
to the pure American than miles OF
recruiting posters. Hop into a mill
tary auto and go for a tour behind
the fighting lines, over the ridges from
which the wide landscape unrolls
itself in its spring splendor. The ride
will convince you that the young men
of the United States have before them
a duty that can't be shirked without
dishonor The car draws up at a rail-
road barrier, where stands an elderly
soldier of France, disabled in the
war and now on light duty. He passes
the car and you roll into the main
street. Here are women driving farm
wagons, women herding sheep, wom-
en- carrying burdens that would
cause a strike of the moving mans
union back home
Children may be seen through the
cottage doors, assuming the burdens
of housework. Women and children
no men, except the disabled. 1t is
the war. Beyond the village your
car mounts a ridge. Miles of field
are under cultivation. Women are
following the plow or walking down
the ridges with one arm swinging as
they scatter seed from a bag. Women
pass by on the road, leading farm
horses. That is a sample and typical
of what is to be seen. The French are
stole, but they do need American help
to whale the Boche. Their disillu-
sionment if America should fail would
be hard to picture. Their faith is sc
great in America, the sister Republic
which honors Lafayette This is the
district behind the lines. Up for.
ward, where the war took to trenches
after the Boche retreat, there are
scarcely any villages left. Civilian
inhabitants are rare. One scene OF
peace has been found before a French
city by the Germans. The British ex.
pect to take the place by the pressure
of indirect movements, thus sparing
the town from bombardment. II il
is destroyed, then Tommy will have
another score to settle with the
BOche dynamiting squad. Before the
town is a fiat field of more than a
mile. UnderfOOt are patches of dan
delions. 1t is quiet and peaceful as a
May day in Iowa. Overhead an aero
plane drones like lazy bee in its
patrol along the sky. Suddenly bat
terry wakes up at a vague spot and
the shells make dark spots against
the haze on the German horizon. The
Boche bestirs himself, evidently try
ing to find a British gun. His gun
thumps far away. there is an inter-
val and then the shuttle is heard
gradually growing louder.
Here comes one." says a Tommy.
The shell drops quarter Of mile
away. "Dud." says Tommy. "Boche
throws lots of duds."
Notre Dame de Lorette has come
out green again after the terrific
fighting there. Beyond is Vimy
Ridge, which the French fought so
hard to take before the Canadians
succeeded. Vimy looks down on the
BOche lines and far into the German
occupied land. The clay soil of the
ridge is churned unimaginably. The
British are beyond the ridge nova
days and engineers are perfecting or
ganizations behind the relentless ad-
vance. In a huge crater on the crest
there remained a few dead who had
been overlooked. Tney lay in their
death postures amid their rusting
equipment and nearby were a few
French tin hats, mementoes of the
fight that France made here.
The site Of the chapel of Notre
Dame de Lorette is peaceful now,
though the chapel itself is obliterated.
In the old German trench that ran
through the church the French SOL
dier has put up little plaster Of
Paris group of the Holy Family, in
scribed in words of immortal faith:
"Groupe de la Sainte Famille de la
Sancta Casa de Lorette. Page de
GlOire ct de PrOtection pour Nos