New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-18
Alsace Still Loyal to France;
Gives 1000 Officers to Army
Peasants in Midst of Battles Raging Over Their Farms
and Homes Cling to Their Love OF Nationality,
ost in $40

country and their places taken by Ger
mans. Work was taken from our .peo-
pie and given TO Germans. We be-
came the slaves of Germany. We de-
mand now the return Of our French
nationality; we demand TO become once
Another man with whom ! talked =
an Alsatian born and bred-said: The
Alsatians have been trying for thirty
years to get permission from Germany
TO build a canal beside the Rhine. The
Rhine has its source in the mountains,
and therefore is subject TO yearly
rise that makes it navigable only hali
of the year. The Alsatians want to
build a canal navigable the year round,
and for thirty years they have had the
money subscribed to pay for the cost
of such a waterway, which would great
~ benefit their commerce. but Germany
has never given permission.
at was the same way with a pro-
posal for canal from Moselle 10 the
Rhine. The Alsatians want to build
the canal, and have the money sub
scribed, but Germany has never gwen
permission, because the canal would
take business away from the railroad
owned by Germany.
"This has always been the case with
us. We are exploited and taxed TO the
last degree and the money goes TO Ger
many, but whenever we seek anything
to help us, to help our business or our
commerce Germany refuses permits
sion. We want to be French, TO have
the right to live as we wish, to cease
to be the slaves of Germany"
We made our home in Alsace and
made daily excursions from the valleys
to the mountain tops. On the last day
we slipped across a corner OF the plain
and crept up on the Swiss frontier.
The storm we met there with our dog
teams was planned by no one with
human feelings. We climbed the noun
tains in automobiles, stopping casual
~ on the way TO inspect the lower end
of cable 2,4O0 feet long which car
ried munitions and supplies up the
mountain in ten minutes, instead of
their being sent six miles around on
mule-back in two hours. Six miles fur
Their on we reached a point sheltered
behind the knob of hill, where we
transferred to the dog sleds.
Alaskan fiction has made you ia
miliar with dog teams and sleighs.
Suffice it 10 say that we had nine
sleighs and our dogs came from Alaska,
Canada and st. Johns, n. F. There
are three hundred dogs engaged in car
rying munitions and wounded soldiers
across the mountain plateau. In teams
of nine they carry loads of thousand
pounds to each sleigh, making forty
miles a day.
We started joyfully on the fine win
ter day, with the sun shining bright
ly and the dogs yelping in their eager
ness to be off. In less than ten min
utes we were out on the open face of
the plateau, with a seventymile gale
whipping the tops o. the snowdrifts
and driving razor-like crystals into
our faces and down our necks and OBJ
literating the trail. To the back of
the sleigh chung a barbaric nomad from
the frozen North, shouting shrilly to
the leading dogs: "Moush! Moush!"
! remember little Of the three miles
across the plateau in the furious bliz-
card except those shrill shouts and the
rushing wind and the biting snow.
saw not another living soul. / could
hardly see the leading dog of the team.
was on a battle front, where four
million men faced each other; mo-
was alone at the top of the world, soli-
tary i'm the frozen arctic wastes. But
somewhere out in front of me the
leader of this mad party careened on
the slender runners of his sleigh.
shouting to the dogs: "Moush! Moush."
His face was bare to the wind and ice;
his hands were bare; he wore the steel
casque of the poilu, no overcoat, moth
ing but the horizon-blue tunic of
summer uniform-and he shouted and
cheered in the ecstasy of being alive.
He had come from thirteen years of
fur trading in Canada and Alaska, and
this blizzard was home to him. But
was it war? From my heart | ask
you, was il war?
We turned suddenly from the plateau
into the shelter of group of thick
woods. The wind dropped I put my
hands to my face; it was cut to rib
bons by the sharp snow crystals. When
! looked again our leader was waving
to us joyously. We were no longer
alone in the Arctic, but were a New
England house party sleighing through
the woods. Coming toward us along
the path was a train of pack mules
loaded with machine guns, and just
behind them an OK team, and behind
them again more pack mules and then
horSe-draWn Slelghs.
was curious about my expert driv-
err who had handled his team so SUI
perbly while crossing the plateau in
the blizzard, and twisted in the
sleigh to ask him where he was from.
Bordeaux" he replied. This is my
first winter in the mountains"
We had luncheon in what might have
been a Maine logging camp. | could
hardly be convinced it wasn't until it
was pointed out to me that the meal
was served a scant 900 yards from the
German trenches.
We went down the mountain again
in an ambulance-no because there
were any casualties in the party, but
because after a second trip across the
plateau any kind of conveyance with a
top on it looked good to us. As one
Of the party said: 81 went into the