Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-06
STORIES OF THE WAR
Among the Children of the French
 War Zone.

l War Zone.
 To those who have lived among
 them the children of the war zone in
 Franc will ever remain a phsychol-
 ogical riddle. It is startling to the newcomer at the war to find them
 here at all. It is positively uncanny
 to see them at play where a shell
 might break almost any moment, ut ter1y obliviOus to the soldiers and
 scenes about them, and with senses to
 attuned to the ordinary nerve-racking
 noises that only a prolonged lull in
 the ceaseless roar of guns would cause
 them the least concern.
 l They cling with their elders to the
 remnants of their shelI-s shattered
 homes in the bombarded towns and villages where even yet the German
 guns send their shells. Some have been born within sound of the can- non and others have come into their battle. The strange phenomenon of life to them will be the unwonted still ness of peace.
 l A striking picture it is, to see lit with a. plaited pig taiP' down her back tripping bareheaded along a road
 wherever soldier men venture only un- der 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 noon while a score of aeroplanes whirled and fought overhead and the high blue sky was filled with the f1eecy cotton balls that come from bursting shrap- nel shells. She could see the scared and scared lines on the distant hills
 which we're the enemy trenches. and, still further back the occasional white hot flashes of enemy guns.
 No stranger school can be found in all the world than that at Arras. Ar raS itself iS strange and g0Sflv nffv Some of the houses are just as their
 owners left them ~ during the first
 bombardment in October two years ago. Others have been puiverized along with the cathedral, the city hall 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 sent shrieking into Arras-burst- ing in furry from the sky
 In the midst of aIlSthis 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 demol-@ ish that a few additional shells would scarcely change the character of the
 tective proof It would take terrific bombardment to interrupt them at their lessons. The untitled sound of shells crashing in the distance has be- come far too commonplace to attract attention.
 All Arras lives underground. There are quiet periods of the day when tho women. children and old men venture abroad for friendly call at a neighbor- ing cellar or for the sake of a stroll and breath of fresh air. Opportuni- ty after opportunity has been given them to leave, but they prefer to re- main with what is, or was, their very own. Three persons wore killed just outside the school one day, but tho children in the cellar knew nothing of the tragedy. When school is out each afternoon the children are told to hur- ry home as fast as they can go and there is great pattering of little streets. There, are scores of other towns within the fire zone, but not quite so close to the war as Arras, where chil- quent thing to hear mothers calling their children in from a desultory