The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-09
Their families were

still in their homes and many prisoners
asked permission to visit them. / had
occasion to witness such visit In APP
remont. Two reserves led one Of the
prisoners to the house, which he had
pointed out as his. The prisoners
young wife was in the kitchen with her
three children. We followed them into
the house.
The woman turned pale as she sud
denly saw her husband. They emf
braced. We went outside for we felt
out Of place there.
The woman had not had letter
from her husband for five months be-
cause the Germans were between her
and her husbands army. He had been
In the trenches for a month, realizing
how nearby his wife and children were,
yet unable to reach them and with no
way Of knowing whether they were
alive or dead.
How he must have felt as the French
! shells flew over his head on their way
to Apremont!
/. There was no way Of knowing
whether the glow in the sky caused
by the burning of house was fur
nished by his home or not. Every
thing became torturing uncertainty
and all Of life was hell.
Home again for a few hours; then
away, a prisoner! At least he would
be able &c get word to his wife by
letter through the field posts.
Finally he said good-by. His wife
had nothing to give him, no laundry,
no food.
Everything had been lost and she
lived on the soldiers bounty. She gave
take 1t. She accepted the money back.
1t consisted of few and 10 pfen
mig pieces and some coppers all she
had.
Unable to endure this we took col
lection among ourselves. We made up
more than 10 marks, which we gave
to the young woman. She refused it at
first, then looking at her husband, she
took it and tried to kiss our hands.
When we refused to let her do this
she ran to q store nearby and returned
with cigars, tobacco, matches and sau-
sage, which she gave to her husband.
She smiled perhaps for the first time
In long while.
The children were with their father
and they kissed him as he left. He had
one child on each arm and his wife
carried the third.
With the greatest happiness the
family walked along between the two
armed soldiers. When the moment Of
parting came all began to cry.
This was the fate Of thousands Of
poor French and Belgian men and
women. Quartered near their homes
yet unable to know who was dead or
alive.
While we stood at the depot ten Ger
man soldiers arrived with fixed bayo-
nets. Between them were three French
citizens in civilian clothing, whom they
escorted. All were elderly men. We
asked an old Frenchman what this was
about and he said:
I'VE receive our food from the Ger.
man military officials but it is not suf-
ficient to live on. The people have
nothing left. All stock and food had
been seized. These three men refused
to work any longer for the German
officials because they could
not live on what they received.
'They were arrested and are being
sent to Germany. No one kno--'S : nat
their fate would be the C. Inc men
We're being taken away by the Ger
mans and inte:.Aed in Germany"
We reserved orders to march to
Varehnes and left the next morning.
A., we reached the heights of Varennes
about noon we saw the wide country
before us and the city nesting in the
valley. Farther up on the heights was
Vauquois. Nothing could be seen of
any houses but through our field glasses
we could make out an enormous ash
heap. Shells fell there continuously ;
and we were frightened at the pros |