The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-03-02
PEOPLE IN VILLAGE
FROWN ON CHARITY
BUT THEY WERE GIVEN SOME
HELP BY AMERICANS


HELP BY AMERICANS
Sympathy With Civilian Sufferers From
| War Has Been Given Concrete Ex-
preston in vitrimont; Mrs. William
| Croker of San Francisco Selected
That Place in Which to Garry On
! Work and Put Into Practice Ideas
Vitrimont, near Luneville, France,
February Correspondence of
The Associated Press. American
| sympathy with the civilian sufferers
| from the war has been given more
concrete expression in this little vii
] lage than in any other part of the
devastated country immediately be-
hind the French fighting lines. When
Mrs. William Croker of San Fran
cisco choose Vitrimont in which to
| carry out her idea of reconstructing
With her own means one of the vii
lagos destroyed by the German
troops in their first rush into France
she met with much doubt and sus-
| picion. The people of Lorraine are
practical and hard headed and also
object to partake of anything given
| in the form of charity. 1t was there
fore necessary to make the PROPOSE
/ ton a purely business like one be-
fore laying it before the villagers
All the men of fighting age are at
the front with their regiments. One
of the villagers while in the trenches
one day received from his wife a
letter giving details of the plan of
reconstruction. He Immediately re-
piled: Don't waste ink on telling
me fairy tales. You are ready to
swallow any7yarn told Lyou. just
make up your mind as 1 have done
!, that we have lost everything and
don't dream that good fairies are
going to restore all to us"
Evidence or Interest.
In order to convince this man and
many of his village neighbors serv-
| ing in the same corps that somebody
was really taking interest in them
and that they would not merely
have to be content with the. govern
ment indemnity Of sixty per cent OF
their losses, Miss Daisy Polk, also a
| Californian and now administrator
Of the plan, gave printed plans and
details of the scheme to the wives
left behind, ~ These were forwarded
at once to the men at the. front, who
could be assured only by document
airy evidence OF this kind of the good
| fortune to be conferred upon them
] and their Respondents ie
Miss Polk, who since the begin
ming of the war has been occupied in
relief work of various kinds, was
chosen by Mrs. Croker to admins
| ter her benevolent scheme. She de-
cided to live among the people so as
to become better acquainted with
them and to learn their needs.
| Every housed without exception, had
been eitherushelled orr burnt. She
| however, was able to find one
roomed cottage which could be re-
| paired and here from 70 her single
| room Miss Polk directs all the work
| She interviews there the architect
| the builders, the departmental Of
fcials and government functionaries,
| and only recently received Ambas-
sador William G. Sharp, who had
| come to lay the cornerstone of the
| first new house.
Houses SkeI!ed And Burned.
OF the seventy houses composing
the vil.rge thirty four were shelled
and the remaining thirtysix burned
The government itself decided to re-
| pair the bombarded houses, which
were not so badly damaged as those
! which had been set afire. The recon-
struction of these latter was under
| taken by Mrs. Croker.
No attempt was made by the
authors OF the scheme to force
! American ideas down the Threats OF
| the conservative Lorrainers. Very
little change had taken. place in the
village since the fifteenth century
and the style of architecture was
| very uniform, usually taking the
| shape of one or two story cottages
| with grange-door entrances and at
tached at the back the granaries and
cattlesheds. The only changes in
sisted on by the promoters of the
scheme as well as by the French
government were the, Introduction
of sanitary arrangements which
hitherto had been non existent, the
| provision of ventilation in the rooms
and the separation by an interven-
| ing courtyard of the cattlesheds and
1.-THE human habitation. 1t was with
difficulty that the peasants could be
| induced to accept some OF these
changes, but at length reason pre-
vailed and the plans were finally
| drawn up.
The new village is to have wider
streets and the main road through 1t
| is to be planted with trees, while the
town hall and school are now to oc-
| cupy prominent and spacious posi-
lions in the center of the village in
stead of being hidden, as before the
war in narrow lanes without any air
icn