The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-10-11
A "Close-Up'' Of
Suffering France
The Starving Children, the Broken Repatraes and the Huns
Devastation Are the Gloomy Pictures Painted by Re-
turned Red Cross Man.
By MILTON ,eRoNNER.

day would be marked by three fea
lures:
First-'What war has done to the
children.
Second-The tragedy of the repatri
ates.
Third-The terrible solitude in the
regions desOlated 'by the German in.
vaders.
These were the points made in a
talk l had with DR.. Albert Parker
Fitch, Amherst professor, who has
Just returned from French town for
the Red Cross.
Perhaps" said he, 'the first i'm.
preston is what war costs the non
combatants- aged, the helpless,
the very young.
"One who has been in France never
thinks of war without seeing the chill
dren-looking like little birds with
reed-like arms and legs, with scrawny
faces and tOo.Old eyes.
II think of the little girl l saw in
Hoye, who had lost high right arm
because the retreating army had
buried shell in the coal where she
went to get the daily fuel for her
mother.
"Or think of the little boy at
Marigny, who had lost one of his
legs from shell fire; or the little child
saw at Toul, who had been literally
frightened out of her wits by the
shock and horror of the battlefield,
and sat always gazing furtively into
space.
France is full of these sick children,
sick because they have been deprived
OF the care of their parents, because
they had no shelter from rain and
storm, because of the lack of food.
II saw poor little kiddies with the
distended stomachs which are the sure
sign of peritonitis. saw an orphan
age group shrek in chorus when a
Sister of Mercy dropped tray. Their
nerves have literally been shot to
pieces.
But the terrible background for
it all is the want and poverty
saw children whose heads were a
solid mass of vermin when they were
rescued from outhouses and hedges
where they were found-children who
looked aged because they had seen
that which it is not good for anyone
to see.
"The second great tragedy is that
of the repatriates. The enemy is now
sending out Of the French territory
which he holds the old men and wom-
en- past their usefulness, little boys
and girls, and women with young
babies. Also some vicious women.
Many are diseased. The Germans
send them back so France will have to
feed and clothe them.
They are coming at the rate OF
nearly 5000 a day. l doubt whether
the world holds more pathetic spec
tacle. saw a trainload arrive. They
filed slowly out, being welcomed by
the mayor and a Red Cross commit
tee.
They saw standing in the station an
Alpine chasseur in his dark blue uni
form. A great cry broke from the
ranks: 'Ah, there you are! Oh, we
must embrace you Half dozen old
men and women and children ran up
to him. He, with instructive Latin un-
derstanding of their poignant Joy at
seeing a defender of France, opened
his arms and hugged them to his
heart.
The repatriates are carefully fed
and housed. :, Often families are re-
united, but for the great majority this
is impossible. The old men and wom-
en- will live out their last days amid
new faces and other scenes; little chill
dren will grow up not knowing who
their parents were.
AN ancient historian said OF the
Roman armies that they made a soli-
tude and called it peace. In a more
sinister sense that may be said OF the
portions of France from which the
Huns have been driven. The enemy
showed a we'll defined policy as he
gave back the land to its children.
He meant so to leave it that the heart
OF france SNOulu Dc uIOhoA' Iho oPi1 ~
to fight gone.
Hence, like the primitive tribes OF
old, he fought against Frances God
and in each ruined villages the parish
church is a heap of powdered stone.
Next he destroyed the town hall
where the records of birth, death
marriage, land tenures, all the data
that help in the perpetuation OF
secure and orderly existence were to
be found, and burned the records.
'Next he attacked the great his
torical monuments. Then he cut down
all the fruit trees, all hacked at the
same height above the ground. about
three -fourths through, and all bent
the same way. Along the highways he
left the dead or charred stumps OF
the great shade trees.
1T was oppressive to ride, as did
through this desolated and deserted
countryside, now ruined so complete
that in some villages it was no longer
possible to distinguish where the
streets ran through them. Amid the
ruins autumn flowers were sprineine
I'D around the broken walls and
charred.beams. But everywhere there
was the sinister silence of death, and
the only human touch was the solitary
sentry Of France"