Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-24

PARIS. June "a.
TN THE north Of France, from the sea
i TO the mountains Of the east. in Pas
| de Calais and Flanders, in Somme and
| Disc and Aisne. in Marine and the
Ardennes, in Meuse and Meurthe ct
| Mosele and Lorraine. In the Nosges and
| in Alsace lie hundreds Of thousands OF
dead, the flower and youth of France, and
her sons OF more sober years, even into
middle life, who. with the young and
strong OF England and Belgium. have
given their lives in defending honor and
right against the invading Prussian from
over the Rhine.
Among and about them lie many and
many Of the invading armies Of Ger
many, to rest forever beneath the soil
they have despoiled and desecrated. They
lie silently. these men of four nations,
mute emblazon of the wickedest and most
useless war since the beginning Of time
They lie In new graves and old graves,
enconned and uncofiined, singly and In
group Of companies side by side. Some
are upon hillside and some in plain. In
cemetery and farmland, in forest and in
the open; some under FIRE still and some
far behind the roar of heavy guns.
All these myriad graves are marked
in many beautiful and touching ways:
those of France. vastly most numerous
with varied cross and without 1t. with
pieces Of shell and stone and wood and
metal laid fiat upon the SCARED surface
of the earth or about a mound. There
are groups where entire batteries, killed
at their guns, are buried where they fel
the tricolor or cockade above them. There
are single graves Of countless number
and great graves were one immense
mound covers a battalion Of men.
Panorama of Pity and Sorrow
They form an immense panorama Of
pity and sorrow, carrying as far as the
eye can reach; at close range, with name,
age. regiment, rank and date Of death
inscribed upon n single cross or an i'm
mense tablet Upon a certain hillside
hundreds of Moroccans within a certain
plain hundreds of Senegals each grave
carefully marked with symbol of far
off country and the cockade Of France.
In common grave inclosed in mute and
tiny picket fences two or five or seven
hundred uniformed dead Of France, with
great cross towering above them and
great tablet by it's side.
| None is like another, yet all are alike.
Some are tenderly cared for, marked
with fading flower or unfading wreath.
the loving personal tribute of wife or
mother or sister. These are far behind
the present battle line. Others have
but the barest essentials for future
recognition.
Here and there, from Ypres to the sea,
the same, the sorrowful. pitiful same,
save that the tricolor Of France Is re-
placed by the red cross Of England or the
red. yellow and black Of Belgium.
| And many, many German graves
abound. each marked In the equality Of
death as carefully as the graves of young
France. But the cross Is black and Of
quite different form.
Burials During Battle
And every day, every single day dur.
ing the last thirty-five months, even as
today and tomorrow, this immense silent
army gains recruits. Every day, some.
where in France, there are scores and
scores and scores of new-made graves,
at times hastily made despite full rever-
ence, made almost in the trenches their
silent occupants died to defend. And
sometimes, too, during the lull in battle,
the period of comparative calm, there Is
the sad honor of a little ceremony, a
coffin. a priestly prayer while comrades
stand with rifle at salute.
Hundreds of thousands-the flower
the strength, the vigor, the youth OF
four nations. From the sea to the noun
tains of the Vosges, and from the noun
tains of the Vosges to the sea, kilometers
deep and kilometers long. testifying the
eternal spirit of France, testifying the
mutitudes of sorrow within myriads OF
hearts.
You who read afar. let this sink int
your soul in such imperfect form al
words convey.
And ponder, This ruthless sacrifice II
the interminable shame Of William II o
Germany. the eternal crime of Prussiar
militarism,