The Washington herald., 1918-06-01
French Flowers in Plenty
For Graves Of Americans
Peasants Gather Basketfuls on Memorial Day
for Decorating Resting Places of y. S.
Heroes Beloved by Our Allies.

be seen everywhere throughout the
countryside with their big baskets
gathering the wild flowers that grow
in such abundance.
"I want the finest and the largest
bunch I can get for this poor boy
whose mother has written me-" told
the chaplain. II don't care what II
costs; I'll make up the difference out
Of my own pocket" as
The chaplain told the story of
tho American mother and the money
order for 81 to the French officer at
tached to the regiment as an inter-
prefer. ..E- -. wa
The morning we started for the lit
tie cemetery the latter. came to us,
! accompanied by a French woman bent
with infirmities of age but the pos
SCISSOR Of one of the most angelic faces
have ever seen, .....-. -
This old woman wants to furnish
the flowers for the grave OF the boy
you told me. about" said the French
officer. She knows the story" J.
Flowers offered.
The old lady placed the basketful
Of flowers in our machine and as she
did so she said to US through the
interpreter:
MY herat bleeds for the dear
mothers of America, whose boys
have died In our common cause and
whose bodies lie under our sod, so
many thousands of miles from their
homes.
Il can sympathize with your
American mothers because too
have suffered. Three of my four
sons and one OF my two daughters
have given their lives in this war,
and my fourth son is now in a Sec
tor where the fighting is the heav-
lest. My daughter was a French
Red Cross nurse. and she was kill
ed when the Germans one day
bombed the hospital where she was
working.
MY children, too. are all buried
far from home. That is one of the
cruelest things about war. One of
my boys lies in Flanders, another
along the Somme and the third in
Serbia. my daughter in Northern
France. ]. too. hope and pray that
the day will come when they'll rest
here near the little church in their
native village"
The old woman was crying like
a child when she finished this brief
speech.
offered to pay her for the iow-
ers for Roberts grave and she ap-
peared hurt that 1 should have sug-
gested such a thing.
Send ii back to his mother in
America" she said, land tell her and
all the other American mothers that
as long as flowers grow in our beau
tiful fields there will always be many
willing hands to pluck them for the
graves of their boys.
France can never repay America
for the help she is giving us in this
war. II flowers from French fields
can in any way make America under
stand the depth OF our apprecia ton
there will always be plenty Of them
for American graves"
French Love Americans.
After the chaplain and had thank
ed her and had driven on he said to
me:
You've got to get out among the
peasant folks of France to find out
the real esteem in which we Ameri-
cans are held in this country. The
city folks like us. TO be sure. but
they don't show their feelings like
, these simple country folk out here in
the war zone.
Il predict that the day will come
when France will observe an Ameri-
can Memorial Day for American dead,
the same as we do back home. OF all
the nations fighting on the side
against the Huns, the French love us
Americans best. French people who
are absolutely ignorant of history
nevertheless have a deep affection for
America and everything that comes
out of America"
So 1 say that American mothets
need never fear that the graves of
their boys will ever be forgotten in
France.