Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-09
WAR-SCARRED CITY
TOHAVE NEW TALE
P hila d delphia May Help
Chauny Survive An
other War
ADOPTION CALLED SURE

ADOPTION CALLED SURE
II Philadelphia adopts Chauny-whlch
seems more than lkey-the old men and
old woman Of future day in Chauny will
have a more beautiful story to tell the
little boys and little girls of Chauny than
the old women and men could tell the
children before this war came to lay the
town in ruins.
There were stories enough to tell, for
Chauny is old, perhaps as old as any Of the
towns and villages in the Department or
the Aisne, and some were ugly and some
were beautiful; but the story of being
adopted after the merciless ravaging at the
hands of the Germans, of being fed and
clothed by a big American cty--that will
be the most beautiful Of all.
Ambassador Jusserand is expected 20
name Chauny as the town that Philadelphia
may adopt II Philadelphia wills. Then 1t
will be for Philadelphia to decide whether
it will feed and cothe Chauny and bind UP
its wounds, or whether it will say to the
French Ambassador:
NO, NJ. Jusserand, I would like TO do
something for Chauny, but l really donr
see how l can. I have my hands so full,
you see. 1t would be fine thing for some
American city to do that. ! wish l could.
Some other time perhaps. II was hor-
rible thing for the Germans to wreck the
town and lay 1t waste before they left It
was an unspeakable outrage. Truly, the
Germans are Huns They should be ostra-
Cized by the world. My heart aches for
Chauny. ! am sorry | can't adopt It,
hope some one does"
Philadelphia probably will not say that
Since the EVENING LEDGER last Saturday
told how the city may have the privilege of
adopting this peaceful sweet and simple
hearted French town-the privilege of adopt
ing it or leaving it to die or find another
savior-a good many Philadelphians have
told the Evening Ledger there can be no
doubt of what Philadelphia will do. They
seem to think Chauny is as good as adopted
now. Perhaps they are right Most Of them
were old Philadelphians and seemed to know
what they were talking about. They seemed
to know their Philadelphia" with its own
ways that some people smile at, its ways
that are often somewhat SLOW and wearyinB
to people from, say Chicago its dirty streets
that are expected to be clean some day If
they are not now, and its homes and homes
and homes with big hearts in them no mat
ter how simple they may bel just as New
Workers know their New York" with its
Greenwich Village and its Wall street and
its Broadway cafes and its Greenwich VIII
lage and its Wall street and its Broadway
cafes and its Greenwich Village and its
Wall street and its Broadway cafes).
Well, those Philadeiphians said it was
foregone conclusion that Philadelphia would
adopt Chauny and IT was now time to go
ahead and arrange the details. SO If what
they say is true it is up to Ambassador
Jusserand" after all and not up to Phila-
delphia"
Before this war that has ruined so many
cities and towns and villages and desolated
so many homes the people OF Chauny were
very happy people and they had been
happy for many years--for so many years,
in fact that the stories the old men and
women told did not even hurt any more.
Some were stories of the Franco Prussian
War, but most Of them were Of the Hun
dred Years War, which had been handed
down from generation TO generation from
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It
was then that Chauny saw bitter days.
This Aisne department city of 1000 or
10000 souls on the Oise. twenty miles or so
southwest of st. Quentin, was racked and
torn time after time in that bloody century
and a few years from 1887 TO 1453, when
the French and Eng ish seemed unable TO
make any lasting accommodation Of their
differences. Its men went of 10 the war
and then the war came TO Chauny. Some
times the men never came back and some-
| times they came back crippled. The houses
| and churches and little stores were wrecked
and ruined And after each horror the
people bravely struggled to their feet and
| built new houses and new churches and
| new stores. And when they had them
| built the men would go 70 war again and
| the war would come to Chauny again,
Chauny lived through II all. Chauny
| could not be killed then and the Germans
could not kill il now, it seems, Only that
! is not a certainty. The Germans have not
! killed IL yet, though IL is weak and broken
! There is a possibility that it will live some
way, even If unaided II is certain to live
| If the big, strong city that it needs comes
along and gives II strength and courage.
The stories the old men and women told
were OF the wrecking and rebuilding OF the
| town again and again. Those were the
| stories told the children in the daytime
| when the men were away at work In the
glass plants and the sugar factories anC
| the chemical laboratories, for which the
! town Is famous.
! There are no men away at work now anc
| the old men and women are not telling the
! old stories. They do not do that in times
| like these, when Chauny's houses are only
| wreckage and the people have to pile
boards over their heads to make some sort
! of shelter
But II ChGuny is adopted and It's hon q
| rebuilt and It's little stores and churches
| there will be old men and women again e
| talk 20 the children about the Hundred
Years War and the Franco-Prussian Wa
| and the World War and the city that tool
| Chauny and adopted II and healed Il and
made II whole aud kept the life IN is sou
! after the German invader had been bsateI
back.