The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-01-28

Jan. 31.-(Correspondence of the
Associated Press)-To those who
have lived among them the children
of the war zone in France viii ever
remain a psychological riddle. 1t is
startling TO the newcomer at the war
to find them here at all. It is posi-
lively uncanny to see them at play
where a shell might break almost
any moment, utterly oblivious to the
soldiers and scenes about them, and
with senses so attuned to the ordi-
nary nerve-racking noise that only
p prolonged lull in the ceaseless roar
of guns would cause them the least
concern
They cling with their elders to the
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 within sound of the cannon
and others have come into their first
sense of being in the midst of bat
tie. The strage phenomenon of life
to them will be the unW'onted stiffness
of peace.
Beneath Aerial Battle.
A striking picture it is to see q lit
tie French girl, five or six years old.
with a plated "pig tail" down her
back, tripping bareheaded along a
road wherever soldier men venture
only under the profession of their bic
eel hats. Such little girl sat and
ftly sang and knitted in front OF
her home near an old Flemish mill
one bright and warm December noon
while score of airplanes whirled
and fought overhead and the high
blue sky was filed with the t1eecy
cotton balls that come from bursting
shrapnel shells. She could see the
scared and SCARED lines on the dis
tant hills which were the enemy
trenches, and, still further back, the
occasional white hot flashes of enemy
guns.
GhOstly City of Arras.
No stranger school can be fount
in all the world than that at Arras
Arras itself is a strange and ghostly
city. Some of the houses are just
as their owners left them during the
first bombardment In October two
years ago. Others have been pull
verified along with the cathedral, the
city hall and the railway station
three favorite targets of the German
gunners. The enemy lines skirt ths
eastern edge of the city and daily
from these messengers of death are
sent shrielxing into Arras-burstinl
in fury from the sky.
In the midst of all this malignitS
of war some two score children OF
more go to school. Their class room
is in the cellar of a house so wei
demolished that a few additional
shells would scarcely change thu
character of the mass of debris thai
serves as a protective roof. 1t would
take a terrific bombardment to in,
terrupt them at their lessons. TIL,
muffled sound of shells crashing il
the distance has become for too com
monplace to attract attention.
Subterranean Homes.
ALI Arras lives underground. Their,
are quiet periods of the day whel
the women, children and old mel
venture abroad for friendly call a
a neighboring cellar or for the SAX
of stroll and breath of fresh ali
Opportunity after opportunity ha
been given them to leave, but the,
prefer to remain with what is. o
was, their very own. Three person
were killed just outside the schoo
one day, but the children in the eel
lar knew nothing of the tragedy
When school is out each Afternoon
the children are told to hurry hom
as fast as they can go and there j
a great pattering of little wooden
soled shoes down the melanchoE
streets.
There are scores of other town
within the fire zone, but not quit
so close to the war as Arras, wher
children live by hundreds. It is n
infrequent thing to hear mother
calling their children in from de
sultory bombardment just as the
would from shower of rain.
Just a Bomb.
Several months ago enemy air
planes dropped bombs in village ST
or seven miles behind the firing line