The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-01-26
DOING MUCH To
RESTORE FRANCE
Americans Are Doing Wonderful
Reconstruction in DevaS-
tated Section.
live IN RUDE BARRACKS
Miss Anne Morgan and Her co-Work-
ers Share in Primitive Life While
Carrying on Labors Among
Destitute People.

New York.-Miss Margaret Steven
son, co-worker of Miss Anne Morgan in
devastated France, has just arrived in
this country with the first direct news
OF the reconstruction work already ac-
complished by this American Fund for
French Wounded unit composed of ten
American women. Miss Stevenson told
of the 81 villages they have partly re-
ha%bilitated, of the 5000 acres of land
they have had cultivated, the hundreds
of refugee families they have clothed,
fed and installed in houses they have
furnished the classes they are running
for children who have run wild since
the beginning of the German occupa-
ton, and of the community center they
have established at Blerancourt, in the
heart of the rayaged region.
Live In Rude Barracks.
eve are living in rude wooden bar
racks built IN the ruins of the old
Chateau of ~Blerancourt," said Miss
Stevenson. "Our barracks are fur
Inished with the same implanted fur
,niture and plain iron beds that we
give to the peasants. The heads of
Iour unit, Miss Anne Morgan and Miss
Anne Drake, share with us in this
primitive life. They are up at seven
O'Clock in the morning, tidy up their
ihuts, help with the dishes, and then
are off about their duties, visiting the
refugees, finding out their wants and
helping install them in temporary
shelters. Both Miss Morgan and Miss
Dixie speak French as well as they do
English, and they have entered deeply
into the lives of the people. Some
thing approaching normal village life
has been restored to the communities
under the care of the American Fund
Unit" Miss Stevenson says. "The
French government has placed this
unit in charge of the Aisne and Som
me districts, both of which were sys-
tematically devastated by the Ger.
a
sour unit is militarized and works
directly under the French army"
Miss Stevenson explained. Through
the military authorities, Miss Morgan
has obtained valuable aid. Soldiers
on eight-day leave from the trenches
are put, under her direction, to help
rebuild shattered homes and pillow the
neglected fields. There are no able
bodied men or women left in this part
of France. When the Germans re-
treated they swept the civilians before
them. All who were able to work for
them they kept behind their lines; the
nonproducers-that is, the feeble old
people and the small children-they
have allowed to return. These are the
refugees, the people we have to help
make homes for and make se%lf-support-
ing.
Wonderful People.
"They are wonderful too, these old
people," Miss Stevenson went on.
"They return to their destroyed homes
worn out with suffering and hardships,
but no sooner are they on their beloved
soil again than they seem revitalized,
filled with energy. and the desire to re-
store all that has been destroyed. They
build one-room shelters for themselves
from the ruins of their once comfort
able homes or else their government
puts up small demountable wooden
houses for them. These we furnish
with everything they need to start
home life anew-beds, bedding, chairs,
kitchen utensils, and we supply them
with clothing and foodstuffs. Every
thing that is sent to US from America
we give them without cost, but the
stoves and kitchen utensils that we
buy in Paris we sell for two-thirds the
cost. They prefer to have 1t so, and
they pay any way they choose-in
work or vegetables. The first thing
they do when they reach their homes
is to start a garden, and many of them
have been able to support themselves
this way. Others make their living by
washing for the soldiers. These are
all very old people, remember, aged
men and women of seventy-ive and
even eighty. They walk from villages
miles away to get help from US, and
they wheel great loads Of supplies on
wheelbarrows some eight or ten miles
over cobble roads.
"These old people who have worked
hard and denied themselves all their
lives 81 they would have q competency
in their old age have to begin life again
with nothing but their stiff old hands
and their courageous hearts. They all
regret now that they didn't have a lit
tie more fun out of life when they
were younger, that they had not put
off ease and comfort until their old
age. But they do not complain; they
just dig in and work harder than ever
to make a home for the sons and
daughters who may come back at the
end of the war, or at least for the
grandchildren"