Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-31
kNClENT CHATEAU
TYPEIES THE WAR
Portrays to Bazin Origin OF
French and Ultimately of
World Freedom
TIE BINDING AMERICA
By HENRI BAZIN

s''q ceyrssrG,ss-t q tas EgsniSs Ledger 'Ott'
AMERICAN FIELD HEADQUARTERS IN
FRANCE, Sept "a.
Every day for the hast fortnight I have
passed an old chateau, gray as rainy sky
With an outline In architecture that be.
speaks the fifteenth century. II stands high
upon a hill and commands the country for
miles about a certain American divisional
neadquarters not far from where 1 write
This morning / had our enlisted sergeant
rhauneur make a detour that l might visit
this ancient house at closer range. We
went up a winding road typically French
70 find its end at the chateau itself IL
was closed and quite deserted, without even
the sign OF a caretaker. don't doubt that
could very easily find its history and
mayhap the present owners permission TO
visit its interior, but It seems to me as
think Of 1t after an hours close inspection,
and following a constant daily vision of its
majesty at a distance, that I can tell its
tale. And l hope in something of an
Intimacy of ownership, for do we not each
and all own birthright I'm the things that
touch us closely be they paintings or trees
or chateaus of the fifteenth century?
II was baskihg in the morning sun. this
old chateau, every window barred and the
weather-scarred gold of a crest over the
entrance glttering still Upon one side
were magnificent forests and beyond a roll
ing plain OF recently harvested land. In
lit dHClenI RdTUen DelOTe were giant un-
trimmed box trees and old bushes of the
lilac Beyond them / could see a field far
down In the valley. field rich in yellow
OF the mustard and red of the poppy. 1t
was all rarely beautiful and amid great
peace despite that nearby khaki-clad
Sammees were learning to kill.
It's a long, long journey to the days you
were built, my chateau upon the hill And
the changes that have come to France have
been many since your old doors were first
opened to the habitation of man. To
Imagine them ali would take great space
May choose few?
First the days of romance, of powdered
Wigs and the sedan chair in which gided
lackies carried nay lady up and down your
low. broad stairs. And then the days when
Kings visited you. their men at arms rid
ing by their sides, the days of feathered
hats and the quick sword. And in course
OF time the revolution, when your master
took refuge within your portals from the
Euillotine that later carried his life away
And then far down the line OF time to
1870, when the Prusco, then as now the
Boche, ruthlessly took you for barracks
and made an officers shambles of you. And
then still further down the line to the days
el prosperous peace ere 1914 when those
within your walls a dreamy home amid
the hills, All these things, and many more
were your ortion; and with them all the
Vicissitudes of mankind, the joys and sor-
AeW1s AAiN piAlllS anu utdlilS llldl are human
portion.
You stand upon your hill, solid and
strong, majestic and beautiful, a part of
the France that men have given their lives
TO save from barbarian invasion, as much
as the land about you you are part of
that which France spells and it is no
small part of what you and she stand for
that American youth have crossed the sea
TO defend that khaki-clad Sammees are
training within but little distance of your
gates. For you typify the home, the tie
that binds, the true starting point from
which civilization begins, and the vantage
ground from which civilization would fan
II the barbarian could have his evil way.
Many of your counterpart has he destroyed
these last three years. destroyed ruthlessly
and brutally as he has razed fruit trees,
poisoned wells and. desecrated churches. 1t
was written that you should be erected
within that consecrated part of France
where the Boche has not found long resting
place and that in consequence your ancient
halls should remain clean of his evil con-
tact :o ...
With the sweet scent of the nearby for
est IN my nostrils and the stiffness of that
forest in my ears, seem to have pass in
review before me all your ancient history,
20 have the present fall away from me,
the war and preparations for war an I'M
possibility. the trenches of practice and
the trenches Of blood that I have seen but
myth. and that only you, my chateau
upon -the hill, are real in world of gen.
tleness and peace, and the September MORN
ing sun.