Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-05-16
Letter: From France
Throws Light
On Their Attitude
Communication Telling Of Madam Alexis Car
relps Experiences at Noyon Recently Evacu-
ated by Germans ork Being Done in and
Around Paris.

The following has been received by
the local officers Of the Watervllle
Branch Of the American Fund LOT
French wounded and shows In no"
high esteem the people of this country
are held in France for the work that
that they are doing there. and it also
gives vivid view of conditions in
that country which has not been told
in any other dispatches:
Madam CarreIi's Experiences
The following letter tells of Madam
Alexis Carrelrs experiences at Noyon,
recently evacuated by the Germans.
Her car, carrying supplies, reached
Ncyon a little more than twenty-four
hours after the last Germans had left.
"A city Of some seven or eight
thousand inhabitants, they found over
1900 there, as all the inhabitants OF
the neighboring villages had crowded
in Those who were in the cellars came
out gradually and a tale of horror
was unfolded that bars none we have
heard since the beginning. Every girl
between the ages Of IA and 30 was car
ried away by the BOches nine days be-
fore the retreat began. One case after
another was more pitiable than the
last. A woman was asked if the two
little children clinging to her skirts
were her grandchildren and she an
swered: Their mother has been taken
away by the Boches and their father
is at the Front. AS they were my
neighhors I wished to be able to save
his children for him until he came
back, but do not know where he is.
Those who were crowded in cellars
have hideous tales to tell None Of the
French civil populati have had
meat of any kind for seventeen
months. All they have lived on has
been black bread and rice. In the cell
lars manv have died and the mortality
among the children has been terrific.
1.-THE dead were kept for five days
among the living before they were al
lowed to be buried. In the orphan
asylum in a small room the beds were
crowded together touching, and on
those beds the children slept without
mattresses, or pillows or coverings
since December last-in their clothes,
and they were not allowed to go out or
wash-and the condition they are now
in can scarcely be imagined
Inc fT6NCH WOuIlutu Slili III IioS-
pital had not been cared for and have
now been slowly evacuated into the
Carroll hospital at Compiegne and the
% kilometres took nearly twelve hours
as the roads are all ploughed up. The
men brought in at midnight had not
received any sort Of care and were re-
| duced to the last gasp. only skin and
bones, and their open infected wounds
were filled with vermin.
There was not stitch Of clothing or
a household utensil of any kind left
ard the army is feeding the population
as best it can. Their joy at seeing the
men in blue was indeed pathetic. On
Monday at noon in Noyon there was in
every window a small tri-color flag
that somehow each inhabitant of the
town had managed to secrete for the
day of deliverance. or had made from
scraps Of red. white and blue. Most of
them had no idea that they would not
see their soldiers in the famed red
trousers and when at last they did
come in, they did not recognize them
at FIRST.
This was all tcld me quietly and
calmly. but with a tragic voice ana
gesture that I will never forget. Mad
anne Carrell's courage and resource of
mind and brain are we'll known, but
even when she won her 'croix de
cuerre,' she did not do anything finer
or more beautiful than when she
braved the lines and brought succor
and words Of love to those poor mar
tyrs. She YVES the first woman in the
town from France"
May 4. 1917.
Mrs Francis c. Shaw Of our Paris
Depot writes: 1.-The joy of the French
when they heard that America had
Joined the Allies was pathetic-every
hospital wrote us asking us for flag.
OF course we simply could not meet
the demand, but it shows the tremen-
dous enthusiasm which Americas
moral support has aroused in France.
We have received wonderful ship
ments Of supplies lately and so have
been able to answer nearly all the APP
peals from the hospitals. One Of the
greatest successes are the surprise
bags as the French call them-filled
comfort bags. | was told by sur
ceon whose post is at the Front that
some Of the men brought in to him on
stretchers with only few minutes to
live had moment of childlike Joy
forgetting their suffering when they
were given one of these bags. and he
Only wished the donors could have re-
allied the happiness they brought"
We hear from various sources that
we are going to need every inch Of
gauze cotton. etc. we can lay our
hands on, and also every bit Of cloth
ing. The refugee question is just now
absorbing much thought and planning.
The report has come that 10000 refu-