The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-18
KANSAN IN FRANCE.
Ex-Governor Martins Son
Writes of People There.
Men Few, Nearly All on Fight
ing Line.
WOMEN TILL THE FIELDS
Respect for Them Noticeable
Children Watch FIOcks.
Pastures and Gardens Are Like
Paintings.

Readers of the State Journal will be
interested in extracts from a personal
letter received from Lieut.. Paul A.
Martin, son of ex-Gov. John A. Mar
tin of Kansas. Mr.. Martin is with
the American expeditionary forces and
was with the Eighty-ninth division at
Camp Funston as instructor in bayonet
drill. Before the divisions departure
for overseas he was assigned to an
infantry company!
The other son of Ex-Governor Mar
tin, who, during the Civil war, was
colonel of the famous Eighth Kansas
regiment, with the army of the Cum
berland, is also in the service. Harris
Martin. who is an expert photographer,
has joined the aviation service as a
photographer.
Martin a Reporter.
Paul Martin entered the army from
Battle Creek, Mich. where he had for
some years been city editor of the Bat
tie Creek Evening News, following the
profession Of his father, who made the
old Atchison Champion power in the
early affairs of Kansas.
In a letter to a friend Mr.. Martin
says:
EVERY morning about o'clock the
salvos start, and they keep going for
an hour or SO and then quit. There
are times when. we hear them in the
daytime, but that is seldom. for the
sector is not the most active of them.
and the artillery seems to be working
on the plan of just sending compli-
ments every SO often to let the pther
side know that they are not asleep on
the job.
Women Do All the Work.
''If you have never seen French
village you have something to look
forward to. The houses are all of
stone and they open direct onto the
narrow paved streets. One door opens
near it into the stable. You see few
men, for all that France has, aside
from the old and the very young, are
on her fighting lines. The women do
all the work. They are in the fields
from early morning till late at night,
and the fields are the most immaculate
that I have ever seen. used to laugh
when saw pictures of pastures green
in the pictorial magazines Of the
Home Beautiful type and thought
they were paintings. But here in
France you see. them as they really
are, and they far surpass anything
that have ever seen in pictures. The
women are the caretakers.
1.-The children take care of the herds
and the flockS, for every home in
France has a COW or more, and SONS
sheep and some chickens. Maybe a
sheep-dog helps care for the live
stock, which is herded to the pastures
the evening. And they are as fine a
| looking lot of cattle and sheep as ]
have ever seen.
Women Admired and Respected.
zone cannot but admire the won
derful women of this country. One
gets a different conception of them
after seeing the staunoh and uncom-
L lot -, -
helping their men behind the lines
You can see the war written on theiI
| faces, but there is with that sadness
| a determination that compels at once
sympathy and admiration. have
passed thru many French cities, and
| visited in a number, and it is all the
| same. whether the city be large OF
| small. I have seen French womer
| turn away from the sight of American
| troops with tears in their eyes, nc
doubt thinking of others like then
who had gone out and paid with theil
all their debt to their nation. An6
| the treatment Of the American soldier
| to the women of France is one of this
greatest respect and Difference. The
| men of my company come from al
walks of life. from the 1owliest to the
| highest. I have never heard one OF
| them pass a sighting remark to OF
| of a French woman.
| American Army of Gentlemen.
| '"The American army, besides being
| composed of good fighters, is prov.
| ing to be composed as well of mer
| who are gentlemen. And it will brine
| no stigma upon its nation.
THE boys are out playing ball. Thu
ball grounds they use consist of {
pasture just west of our quarters. NJ
matter how hard the days work yol
can always find some of them play
uryr- rrps AVN vrroNsrvrrrops