The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1917-11-01

1
arts and sciences; France, full o
sweetness and light-that Franc,
concerning which Heinrich Helm,
exclaimed: "0h, France, thou daugh
ter OF beauty Thy name is culture.
| The three great enemies Of farm,
and towns and cities have been fire
! flood and earthquake. Witness the
city OF St. Pierre, An interior exnlo.
sion blew Off the cap OF the noun
lain and flood OF gas poured down
upon the lovely city, asPhyNiated the
citizens and left not one house stand
ing Witness that mighty CONFUSION
in San Francisco that brought thou
fsands OF bricks crashing down il
ruins. Witaess the fire in Chicago
that turned the great city into twist
ID iron ard ashes. In New Zealand
there is lake called Avernus, The
oirdlcss lake. Poisonous gases ris,
from the black flood Of water, and
soon the lark. with its song, and the
eagle, with its flight, fall into the
poisonous flood
Bat all these images are quite in
adequate to explain the desolation
he devastation of France unon the
retreat of the Germans. About At
miles north OF Paris one strikes the
ruined region Then hour after hour
passes, while with slow movement
and breaking heart one journeys lW
miles 10 the north and zigzags p,
miles south again through that black
region. The time was wnen 1t was a
wild land, rough, with forests, nneo
with wolves. Then the Frenchman
entered the scene He subdued all the
wild grasses 10 which Julius Caesar
referred III his story OF his war in
France; he drained the valleys and
widdened the streams into canals.
tic enriched the fields, and made
hem wave with gold He surround
ed the meadows with odorous hedges
and banked where there had been
l swamp with perfumed shrubs.
Slowly he threw arches of stone
across the streams and carved the
bridges until they were rich in art,
While everything made for use was
,arried- up 10 optbreaking beauty.
The roof of the barn had lovely
ines; the approach to the house was
upon a carved road; the highways
were shaded by two rows OF nobiN
-rees. The stony hillside was terrac
ID and there the vines grew purple
"A the sun. How simple was his life
Mat sanctuary his little home
Nth what rich embroidery OF wheat
md corn he covered all the hills ht
was prudent without being stingy
hrifty without b ing mean. h
save against old age with one hand
and distributes to his children with
he other.
And, having lavished ali their love
,pon the little farm house, the gran
ny and the barn; having prunet
.hese grapevines with their clusters
# white and purple until each seem
ID like friend. dear as that mirac-
llous picture, was the Baucis and
philemon, having at last made cvery
rec to be shapely. their little world
was invested with affection and
beauty
Do you remember how that Flor.
entine artist, alter his days stint wa.
lone. toiicd upon his studio, slows
arriving the capitals, collecting lii
lie terra-cotta from Cyprus, an ole
manuscript from Athens, a lovely
mead OF Apollo from Ephcsus. and
.ridescent glass from Persia, with d
bit OF old Iyrian purple lending d
pot OF flame in one corner and 4
little mosaic from Thebcs colored an
other corner, when he saw the end
rs S-@rvo ...s, }3...s on a visit to
Egypt, as4,ed thai he might be car
Cd home = de iii Tic studio, which
e made rich with his soul?
VIVA. the Hidcous Hun Has Done
III some such way as that the
French peasants loved their land, and
hen lost it. One morning the enemy
stood at the gate. The farmer with
ais pruning knife was 10 match for
/ German with machine gun, and
down he went under the plum tree
he was pruning. The devastated reg
ions of France are like unto devil
world. All the pear and plum trees
have fallen over under the stroke
Of German axe, and are dead and
dry. Here and there one sees an
occasional tree where a half inch
Of bark remains, and sympathizing
with the peasants sorrow, the roots
have sent flood OF sympathetic
sears and sap out into one little
branch, amidst the death Of a hun
red other boughs that famed ir
May its pink OF bloom, then in Au-
gust gave its red glow OF clustered
GOOD. But as for the rest, it is desc
lation. Gone all the beautiful ridge:
they have been dynamitcd. Gone
all the lovely and majestic thirteen.
dred other boughs that famed il
leries, for every city of 5000 peopl,
in France has its quarterly exhibi
| ton of paintings sent out from Paris
and some of the finest art treasure:
in the world have persisted. The lane
has been put back to where it wa
when Julius Caesar described it 200l
years ago--a wild land and waste
growing up with thorns and thistles
| That proclamation on a wall tell
the whole story: Let no building
stand, no vine or tree Before re
treating let each we'll be pollut
ed with corpses and with creosote'
The spirit was this: "Since we Ger
mans cannot have this land, no on,
else shall"
| Your eyes never saw a more eX
| quisite bit of carving for the corne
of a roof than this Ga spray of myr
tie leaves, carved in stone, after tn
Germans had destroyed the Cathe
dral of Arras.l Look at this fire
brand. Every German company 0
soldiers carried one automobile lor
nv filled with these firebrauds. wit