New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-18
By FRED B. PlTNEI
[By Cable TO The Tribunel


does not sound like taking part IN n
great war, yet this is just what have
been experiencing in the course OF a
visit to the Alsatian front and the
French armies.
/ As look back on this trip, lasting
the greater part Of a week, it pictures
itself as a curious mclange of extreme
hardship, winter sport, war, patriotic
drama, Cooks tours, weekend house
parties in the Berkshires and, just at
the end, a touch Of light opera. But as
for giving an ensemble of the war,
can't imagine it. For that ] should
have to go back behind the trip, to re-
turn to the atmosphere Of Paris, to
pick up threads of conversation, to
hold firmly in mind one or two special
points.
must see an observation balloon
floating high above the border where
I Switzerland, France and Germany meet.
! must see crimson blood spots on the
white snow of freshly bombarded
trench. To drop swiftly down steep,
winding mountain road in the early
dusk TO a narrow valley where q tiny
village struggles along both sides of
the road and half a dozen village girls,
pressing back against the great snow
drifts, call out: "BOn soir, monsieur
after the hurrying auto-that is not
warlike; nor when a group of young
sters in another village comments on
the party as they pass: ITEMS! Dep
uties or transformers
And when we sat in the dining room
Of n half ruined hotel, with one cor
ner of the room torn out by shell
and the ugly hole patched up with
panks, and listened intently TO the
passionate arguments of an Alsatian
who denounced Germany and all things
German and demanded the return of
Alsace TO France-we might have been
actors in great emotional drama. The
setting was perfect for a nihilist plot
scene, and our rough clothes suited the
part--yet | swear to you we did not
feel that we were in the war. But We
were not much more thar thousand
yards from the front line Of trenches.
The queerest thing-the one most
filled with contrasts and most rcplete
with surprises-that this war has to
offer is the Alsatian front, where death
waits on the mountain tops and in the
plains spreading TO the Rhine. while
in the narrow valleys is a sober. peace
full population, going TRANQUILITY about
the days work, concealing behind a
mask of calm a myriad of hates and
fears, hopes and suspicious and de-
spairs-a veritable turmoil of emo
tons. Here is people animated by
an intensely devoted love Of France
who nightly see from their cottage
windows sky lighted up by rockets
Of all colors sent up by their neigh
bors, telling God knows what story of
their thoughts and deeds TO the Ger
mans behind the trenches in the plain.
Here is a people with an abiding love
Of France living in alternate hope and
fear, desperately concealing all emo
tons, waiting for the end of the war
which is TO decide their allegiance.
We emerged into this strange coun-
try by night, at speed of fifty miles
an hour. topping a range of snow-clad
mountains to see suddenly spread be-
fore US the Alsatian valleys, dotted
with towns and villages in brilliant il
Elimination clear to the Rhine.
Not the least strange thing Of the
trip was to come from the midnight
gloom of the Paris streets, where all
the lamps are dimmed and every win
dow Dramatically sealed against the
slightest escape of ray of light, and
find here, within short cannon shot
of the German lines, streets gayly
lighted and blinds flung high.
On the top Of the mountain we we're
in France; halfway down the further
slope we slipped into reconquered AL
SAGE. with the breaks on the wheels
humming something that took little
Imagination TO turn into the Marseil-
laise as we whirred over the frozen
snow.
Alsace reconquered. Visions Of
Metz and Strassbourg and a certain
statue in the Place de la Concorde, sur
rounded by people wild with JOY. Wis
ions of people in the valley we were so
rapidly approaching who would re-
ceive us with waving flags and cheers.
But the visions soon faded into the
reality of grim, sober people, waiting
IN interminable anxiety. and it was
only when, three days later, we crossed
over the border again that we found
once more a smiling, cheerful, happy
people.
There was always that contrast, that
cleavage, to tell US without need of
signposts where the border lay. On
one side the smiles, jokes, cheerful
happiness Of people sure Of their po-
sition; on the other mournful anxiety
a grim realization Of war and wars
fate.
Alsacc has furnished two officers to
the German army and 1000 TO the
French. army. These people have a
right 10 their anXieties. In a wrecked
hotel have spoken of talked long
with a man who was born in Alsace
under German rule, but whose father
and mother were French and himself
French at heart.
ave French here are French at
heart" he said, "but for nearly fifty
wears we have not dared to say IT,.
Since the war of 20 Alsace has had two
populations living side by side, but
without intercourse, almost without
speech. After that war all Alsatians
who would not take the oath of al
legiance 70 Germany were driven from
the country and their places were TAX
en- by Germans. We lost more than
10000 of our people that way, and had
/ 200, 900 Germans forced on US.
"Thc official population is all Ger
man. The true people are all French.
For twenty years before this war |
had my luncheon daily in this hotel.
There were two tables in the dining
room. At one sat the German officials.
at the other all the true Alsatians. |
never knew a word to be exchanged
between the two tables.
I'VE Alsatians were never German.
In the beginning Of our history we
were divided among several small prln-
cipalitics. bishoprics and free cities,
but they were never German, never be-
longed TO the German Empire. Three
hundred years ago, under Louis XIV,