New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-28
What Germans Left in Northern france
Blu John GalsWorthy

,,,;,h o,t.,retched arms. One room
-, n,,c. IVA. vat.r-tight--and in u they
were all sleeping; some on "ooue -
made from trench wood, covered WIN nay
and some on the floor.
And 80 the story runs everywhere! fract,-
calIy the whole population OF thls ue9o'
who have trickled back by twos ana 'nreeS
since the Germans drove them OUT anu
burned their villages, is without ii'Ihg "''
commodst ton.
To enable the land TO bear crops next yea,
the peasants must return to these deo'oS'"
villages this winter. There are perh"P
from two TO thirty houses or rooms IN e"e"
village. according to its size and conol.io,'
which can be temporarily repaired - ~" y
c.n b. secured. The government (rrencn)
do notbin0 AZ present The first thing
,o do is TO make few water-tight rooms
With tarnaulin roofing, and there must oe
Garden and farm tools Gall burned by tne
Gcrmans) cement, cooking utensils, cioth,
inc beds. bedding Gall ruthlessly destroyed
bv the Germars), food and farmyard STOCK
snch as chickens and rabbits-in order tha'
the former inhabitants may return.
There is nothing but the bricks and the
dust left behind by the Germans. 4, You see
small children playing among all this, ana
until these were clothed by outside heip
many of them were found naked Immediately
after the Germans retreated.
~ This huge scar on the face OF france
we are asked to heal tiny portion ana 20
make again living thing out OF deatn' u
,iyo hack some sor. of future to few nun
dreds of poor souls utterly deprived
How to Imagine the Truth
One can only grasp it in terms Of our own
COUNTRYSIDE Each one knows some country
village. let him or her think Of that without
p tree. without a wall standing, with every
means Of livelihood cut off, without beasts or
birds. save the rats and the crows; mass
of rubble and rusty wire, deep holes and un-
exploded shells.
Let him imagine that this goes on mlle
after mile. village after village, county after
county. Let him fancy the villagers he
knows-little shop-folk. cobbler, postman,
blacksmith, laborers, their wives, daughters
mothers, the children he sees daily gong TO
school-all killed, captives or dispersed, be
reaved of each other, robbed and ruined
without place to set foot, shelter from
the night, stick, stone or penny lett, as
naked of subsistence as the day they were
born.
Let him picture the old folk TT only for
care of others, living like that old woman
near Noyon! Broken homes, broken hearts,
broken lives,
There are hundreds of these villages out
there. thousands upon thousands of home
less. hopeless, ruined folk.
We are asked to give a resculng hand,
little money, to prove that we feel for the
fate of these poor people; that we loathe
this abomination of desolation wrought on
the innocent and the defenceess; that IN
true comradeship with France we will help
this ruin and make desert green again.
The American treasurer Of the tund
chich is helping these people IS Captain
J. f. Lucey, of the Hoorer Food Admins
tration, Woolwortb Building, New York,
to lChOn checks mag be sent.
Mrs. Frank Wright, herself a lcorker IN
Northern France for the fund, is at the
buckingham Hotel. Fifth Auenue and FIT
tieth Street, for feW days, where she 1cilL
giye any further Information TO those
vishing to aid IN this repair Of the rov-
ages Of the Boche.