Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1918-05-22
By MARIAN eoNsAlL DAVIS.

| of France you always find something
left among the wreckage that speaks
! intimately to your own heart. II may
be broken flower pot with dried roots
still cllnging; an image Of the Virgin
| still standing In her oval niche in a
fragment OF wall: baby's broken
cradle; twisted garden tool. All the
| bayonets and incendiary torches and
guns Of the invaders have not been
able TO crush out something OF the
spirit which fingers there.
And they have not been able 10 crush
II out OF the tragic professions of
| the homeless. as they are driven hither
| and thither-sometimes as slaves by
| their conquerors; sometimes TO flee
where they viii, from violence and de-
struction. Some day, as you walk
| briskly on an errand through the
streets of Paris, you see a group Of
them coming In. slow-moying, bewil-
dered There is a terrible intimacy
about this sight. and most OF all about
the little ones who have seen hideous
things and are too young TO know that
| they are not a common part OF lie.
Who is going to take care of them
and their mothers. and these old. bent
people. who are such a detached, tri-
ding part of Frances million and
half refugees?
For three and a half years France
he's been doing the best she could as
they poured In endless streams from
Belgium and from all the invalid dis
tricts of France. while she had to pit
her strength against that pushing Ger
man line which would have surged into
Paris through any break. But every
| day they caWe in greater numbers, lost
and helpless. from beautiful villages
and towns and cities that now are
heaps of ruins. But that something of
the spirit was still not crushed out
II responded TO the sunlight. Geniuses
Ike Mtasieur Peitier and Monsieur
Mirman and the man who meets every
train that comes into Evian with the
repatriated, knew this.
Red Cross co-operates
The French commission Of the
American Red Cross, with the $780,
600, 1000 war fund behind II, on its ar
rival In Paris consulted with the
French government how II could best
help. And the glory OF the American
Red Cross is the principle of co-opera-
ton IL established there, and by which
1t works The first thing 1t did for
refugees in France was TO make itself
the co-operator-and never by any
chance the rival--of all the exist
ing agencies official and nonofiicial for
their welfare. Ii put grant of 5000
| 600 francs (about SI.00o.0oo) in the
| hands of the French government for its
refugees. And IL began to find or pre-
| pare decent lodgings for the thousands
upon thousands of them squeezed into
| Paris attics.
There had been wonderful initiative.
Enthusiastically French. in many
cases In meeting these inpourings Of
| the homeless. The case of Monsieur
Peltier and group Of gendarmes (who
| correspond to our policemen is one
OF the great stories of the war. Here
II is:
One day-it was early In the war
the gendarmes of two embellishments,
or wards, in Paris received an official
telegraph that about 1850 refugees
would arrive the next morning for
them to take care of. Soi-no provi-
sion. no money, no roof. no place to
put them. no anything. but $500 Of
them, nevertheless, due to arrive the
next morning-and their responsibility !
Monster Peltler. the chief of one Of
these wards, called conference.
First, money These gendarmes. or
policemen, put each hand in his own
pocket. and produced two francs: and
after the conference they told the
small shop keepers along the streets of
their wards and they added to this
pooled sum for the start-off. Every
ones two francs on the table, there
rose the question of lodgings. That
was the rub. Finally someone timidly
suggested the huge building that had
been in former times a seminary for
priests, in the famous old square of
st. SuIplce. A part Of it was being
used for a museum That question
settled
Work of M. Peltier.