The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-01-30
French Novelist Tells Of Visit Where
First Dead Lie

Paris, Dec. 31.-Henry Bordeaux,
the French novelist, giving in the
Revue Hebdomodaire an account of
mis- recent visit to the graves Of the
first three soldiers Of the American
expeditionary force to fall on the
french front, says: Later on a mon
ument will rise there; later on the
name of that obscure village that |
can not reveal now will be known and
Will resound across the ocean. Visi-
tors will come in throngs, even from
over the seas, to contemplate the hor-
lion and breathe the air impregnated
with the atmosphere Of sacrifice and
glory that makes peoples strong and
individuals audacious and persever-
ing"
| Those graves are situated along
the stone wall of little Lorraine vii
lage," he says, "a tiny village right |
up next to the front 1t is nearly in
tact and some of the inhabitants are
still stickin gto their firesides there.
The church clock marks the hour !
though the church bell rings no more |
"A shell bursts in the neighborhood
from time to time and the pasants
pause to listen to the explosion then
Igo on with their work There are
cows in the sheds and poultry
scratching about he barnyard with as
surance
"The church is built on a hillside
near &C luster of farm buildings that
seem to have been built upon the site
of an ancient stronghold. Streach-
ing away from the buildings there is
: a high stone wall alongside which is
a line of graves marked with wooden
crosses from which fly the French tri.
color. They are the tombs of French
soldiers killed, most of them, at the
| end of August. 1914 when the Ger
mans after the battle of Morhange
! tried to invade this part of Lorraine
but were repulsed.
"There are three more graves, iso-
lated from the rest, in front OF the
wall where it rises before the build
/ ings, freshly dug, with chrysanthc
NUNS not yet faded scattered over
them. These are the tombs Of the
first American soldiers killed during
the war on this front for the liberia
ton of the world
| Corporal Gresham and Soldiers
Heinright and Hay were buried on
the fourth of November in the little
village close to the scene of the
fight"
After recalling the funeral Grafton
delivered by the French general com
manding in the sector, NJ. Bordeaux
saws "The road to this new GENE
4
terry is known Officers and soldiers
passing to their posts in the sector
!! leave their route to seek out those
- three graves, but why should ! not
= say it? They are visited more by
the French than by the Americans. 1t
would seem that the latter have not
| for the dead the attention and the
care he significance of which has
been transmitted to us by an older
| past; their gaze seems to be more
! riveted upon the living.
when the first American battery
was one day in October brought to
/ our front and put in action, 1t was
| a real. ceremony A general, himself,
| priced the honor of firing the first
| proiectile and the shell of that pro-
| iectie was carefully packed up and
sent to the white house Was it not
the first attestation of the force OF
the United States?
| an another village, quite as near
| the front. where some twenty inhab-
| |itants still remained, girl was born
the other day. The same American
general claimed the honor OF being
Iigodfather to the child and made the
mother a handsome gift.
"Our allies celebrate force and
life" Bordeaux concludes from these
I incidents and adds death has no
hold upon them"