Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-01-28
FRANCE
PLAY ASGUNS ROAR
Seem Obvious to Fighting
and Scenes About Them :.
80
in War Zone. ~
ALL ARRAS UNDERGROUND.

Correspondence of the Associated Press. -..-
WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES ~
FRANCE. December 2S.-To those who
have lived among them the children
o the war zone in France will ever re-
main a psychological riddle. 1t 10 start
ling to the newcomer at the war to
find them here at all 1t is positively
uncanny to see them play where q
shell might break almost any moment.
utterly oblivious to the soldiers and
scenes about them, and with senses 80
attuned to the ordinary nerve-rackins.
noises that only a prolonged lull In
the ceaseless roar of guns would cause
them the least concern.
They cling with their elders to tho
remnants of their shell-shattered homes
in the bombarded towns and villages,
where even yet the German guns send
their shells. Some have been born with
in sound Of the cannon and others have
come into their first sense of being In
the midst of battle. The strange Pic
nomenon of life to them will be the
unwonted stiffness of peace.
Knit as Aeroplanes Fought.
A striking picture is to see a little
French girl. five or six years old, with
|
tripping bareheaded along a road whet.
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 noon while q score
of aeroplanes whirled and fought oyer-
head and the high blue sky was filed
with tn heecy cotton balls that come
from bursting shrapnel shells. ShS
could see the scared and SCARED Inca
on the distant hills which were the
enemy trenches. and, still farther back,
the occasional white-hot flashes Of
enemy guns.
No stranger school can be found in
all the world than that at Arras. ArrAS
itself is strange. and -ghostly city.
Soma, OF the houses are just as their
owners left them during the first bonn
bardment in October, two years ago.
Others have been puiverized along
with the cathedral. the city hall and
the railway station-three favorite tar
gets 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-
bursting in fury from the sky. s..,
Classroom in Cellar.
In the midst of all this malignity of.
| war some two score children or moro
go to school. Their classroom is In the
cellar of a house SO well demolished
| that a few additional shells would
scarcely change the character of the
mass Of debris that serves as a protec,
tive roof It would take terrific bomr,
| bardment to interrupt them at their
lessons. The muf1ied sound of shells
crashing in the distance has become
far too commonplace to attract atten-
ton.
All Arras lives underground. There
are quiet periods of the day when tina
women, children and old men ventura
abroad for friendly. call at G. neighbor-
| ing cellar or for the sake of stroll
| and q breath of fresh air. Opportupitx
after opportunity has been given trena
| 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 great
pattering of little wooden soled shoes
down the melancholy streets.
There are scores of other towns with
in the fire zone. but not quite SO close
to the war as Arras, where children
live by hundreds. 1t is no infrequept
children in from a desultory bombard-
ment Just as they would from a shower.
OF rain. iru
80.
Bombs Scatter "Movie' Fans. :
Several months ago enemy aeroplanes
dropped bombs in a village six or seven
miles behind the firing line. 1t was
Sunday afternoon and the streets were
thronged Outside a soldiers moving
picture theater line of children was
waiting for the doors to open. One of
the bombs fell near where they stood.
They scattered like SO many mice. but
within a minute or two all were scran-
bling back to their places in the queue
as if nothing at all had happened.
English Tommies love children. and
when billeted in village can always
be seen playing with the tots. buying
them all sorts Of candies and sweey.
meats, and even wheeling them gayK
along in perambulators while fond
mothers look on.