Evening star., 1917-12-23


PARIS, December IA. 1913
A RARIE CLEMENTINE DELETETF
Wll is an unmarried woman. tall and
worn. She was postmistress for
twenty years at Houplines. in the north
OF France. Houplines is COR rather
was) town of 5000 inhabitants, ten
miles from the city of Lille, and part
OF that great industrial agglomeration.
when the German armies marched
down, in 1914. the French authorities
notified the postmistress that she was
free to leave her post Now that atten-
tion has been rather tardily called to
her case. she explains why she did not
do so.
1 refused to leave because the French
captain who asked me TO quit would
not give me written order II was
not regular to leave my post without
such an order. and when one is in the
administration tc:yil service} one ough;
to do things regularly. Afterward
kept on staying at Houplines because |
got accustomed to the danger and ia
tigue. Our soldiers made the sacrifice
of their life. and L did the same. Ihave
no more merit than they. and they con-
slider it quite natural"
AS the invading troops were entering
the town she notified the head Office at
Armentieres inside the French lines.
She hid the gold and money that were
in the post office, burying 120 fve-franc
coins (silver dollars) in a flower pot
She left 20 francs in small change in
the till and made her accounts CORE
spond. This. perhaps. was cheating, but
she sat and waited.
The Germans arrived and demanded
fE.4.
the 20 francs and her books. They
stormed and threatened. They broke
furniture and telegraph machines. They
declared that they would execute her.
A Prussian general came TO look at the
ruin which his men had wrought. 1T
is war" he said. She showed him an
old woman whom his soldiers had
abused unspeakably. 1T is war; lie
repeated
At last the British army pushed the
Germans back and occupied the town.
Such inhabitants who had not fed were
left practically on the firing line. Soon
the horrors of daily shelling began
Still the postmistress stayed on. She
says:
women and children and whole fam
lilies We're killed My post office ad-
Joined the mayors office and the guns
seemed aimed at us. When ! could hold
out no longer | took refuge III the civ
ilian hospital. 1t had been built be-
lore tDe war, Win nineIE-etSpt peas.
There | could help to comfort the poor
old people. l remember one particu-
larly dreadful evening. The good sister
and / tried to cover the sound of the
cannon by singing. One day i shell
hit the hospital and killed four at my
side The old people, in their sick
chairs, became panic-stricken. They
were not going to let me help carry
them to the cellars. but / lost my tenn
per and did what it WAS my duty to do.
Her special duy postmistress was
to try to keep her little community in
touch with the remainder of the world,
She had to carry the post bag herself
to the army chauffeur. who left his
automobile to come and fetch it. Twice.
in this service, she was wounded. once
a fragment of shell nearly blinded her.
The nearest French village that was
over across the trenches, inside the
German lines. was FrelinGhien. only
few miles away. From that village fl0
men and boys were deported to the
prison camp in Germany. Those poor
prisoners. under the starvation policy
of their captors. were allowed to write
through Switzerland to have their
friends in France send them packages
of provisions. Their letters began com
ing TO Houplines. il being the nearest
point inside French lines to their
homes The postmistress received the
post cards and quietly took the place
of the poor prisoners relatives, whom
she could not reach and who were
equally under German captivity, un-
able to send the slightest aid to any
body She sent food and clothing as
best she could. She used up her saw
ings-all the ready money she could
lay hands on--for the purpose Here
and there she was aided by individuals,
but never in a continuous manner,
Looking back on the totals which this
oae woman Sent to J. 10 French civilian