Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-05-04
CHILDREN FEARLESS
IN SHATTERED TOWN

IW o0HI cOeO wv ~
With the British Armies in France
(By mail.)-To those who have lived
among them the children OF the war
zone in France will ever remain a psy-
Geological riddle. 1t is startling TO the
newcomer at the war to find them here
at all. 1t is positively uncanny to see
them at play where a shel might break
almost any moment. utterly obvious
to the soldiers and scenes about G
n with senses SO attuned to the ordi-
nary nerve racking noises that only a
prolonged lull in the ceaseless roar OF
guns would cause them the least con-
Germ.
They cling with their elders to the
remnants of their shell shattered homes
in the bumbarded towns and villages.
! where even yet the German guns send
their shells. Some have been born with
in the sound Of the cannon and others
| have come into their first sense OF be
ing in the midst Of battle. The strange
phenomenon OF life to them will be- the
unwonted stiffness OF peace.
A striking picture it is to see a little
French girl, S or s years old, with a
plated 'pigtair" down her back. trip
ping bareheaded along a road where
ever soldier men venture only under
the protection of their big steel hats.
Such a little girl sat and softly SANG
and knitted in front of her home near
an old Flemish mill one bright and
warm December moor while a score OF
~airplanes whirled and fought overhead
n the high Tue sky was filled with
the fleecy cotton balls that come from
bursting shrapnei shells. She could see
h scared n Scared lines on the dis
tant hills which were the enemy
trenches. and. still farther back. the
occasional white hot flashes of enemy
guns.
No stranger school a be found in
all the world than that at Arras. Arras
itself Is a strange n ghostly city.
Some of the houses are just as their
owners left them during the first bonn
bardment in October W. years ago.
Others have been pulverized along with
the cathedral. the city hall and the
railway station-three favorite targets
Of the German gunners. The enemy
lines skirt the eastern edge of the city
and daily from these messengers of
death are sen shrieking into Arras-
bursting in fury from the sky.
In the midst of all this malignity Of
war some two score children or more
go to school. Their class room is in
the cellar Of a house so we'll demolished
that a few additional shells would
scarcely change the character OF the
mass of debris that serves as a protec-
tive roof. 1t would take a terrific bonn
ardm to interrupt them at their les
sons. The muffled sound of shells
crashing in the distance has become far
too commonplace to attract attention.
All Arras lives underground. There
are quiet periods OF the day when the
women. children and old men venture
abroad for friendly call at a neighbor-
ing cellar or for the sake of a stroll and
a breath of fresh air. Opportunity after
opportunity has been given them to
leave, but they prefer to remain with
what is. or was. their very own. Three
persons were killed just outside the
school one day, but the children in the
cellar knew nothing of the tragedy.
When school is out each afternoon the
children are told to hurry home as fast
as they can go. and there is Il great pat
tering of little wooden soled shoes
down the melancholy streets.
There are scores of other towns
within the fire zone, but not quite SO
close to the war as Arras. where chill
dren live by hundreds. 1t is no infrc-
quent thing to hear mothers calling
their children in from a desultory bonn
bardlncnt just as they would from a
Shower OF rain.
Several months ago enemy airpianes
dropped bombs in Il village six or sever
mics behind the firing line. it was
Sunday afternoon and the streets were
thronged. Outside "A soldiers moving
picture theater a line of children was
waiting for the doors to open. One ol
the bombs fell near where they stood
They scattered like so many mice, but
within "A minute or two all were scram-
bling back to their places in the queue
as il nothing at all had happened.
English Tommies love the children
when billeted in a village can al
ways be seen playing with the tots
buying them all sorts OF candies ant
sweetmeats and eve wheeling then
gaily along in p-eramoulatcrs while fonc
mothers look on.