New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14
Anatole France
Celebrating His Seventy
fourth Birth
day
NJ EXT Tuesday ,cal be the
" birthday Of Anatole France,

author of "The Crime of
Sylcestre Bounard," ayhich first
aron friends for hin, IN English
speaking countries; Of "Thass,"
and some millions Of arords II,
other nocels, romances, plays and
essays. John Lane has already
issued tventy-elght rolumes of the
eCorh;s Of Anatole France, G,ad has
ta0o more under auay, thus keeping
close to the masters output
through the press IN French.
Himself q soldier IN war with
the Hun, the literary activities of
Anatole France haze been for the
time arrested By aUar. He has been
called on exponent of epicurean
skepticisna. Perhaps the charge
need not be taken too seriously by
has admirers, but the answer e0iW
be found IN the address he issued,
printed herew5th, on the second
Au Saints Day of the a0ar, 1aow
presented for the first time IN Eng
Ish, as translated from "Lc FL
garo":
WHAT OUR DEAD SAY
GGTT is needless to remind our people Of
i those who were dear and who are no
more, to remind our people, known, known
not without reason, for their fervent cele-
bration of ceremonies for the dead. Was
it not in France in the nineteenth century
where that philosophy was born which
places in the rank of first duties of man
gratitude toward the generations that have
preceded US to the tomb, leaving us the
fruit of their thoughts and works? Surely,
ancestor worship is of all times and chimes
it is the only religion of certain Oriental
peoples But in. what country are the ties
between the dead and the living stronger
than in France or mourning at once more
solemn and more intimate? With us, as q
rule, the beloved and rcvered dead do net
entirely forsake the homes where they have
dwelt; there they live in the hearts of those
who remain; there they are initiated, con-
suited, listened to.
81 remember, too confusedly to use it
= here, admirable scene from an old
chanson de geste, 'Girard de Boussillon,' I
believe, in which one sees kings daughter
gazing at night after battle upon the plain
where innumerable warriors, fallen in her
defence, lie dying! She wished says the
poet, to give each one farewell kiss And
from the depths Of my far-off memories
this royal maid rises before me like
image of our France, weeping to-day for the
flower Of her race so greatly laid low.
"And so do not write these lines to ex-
hort my fellow citizens to commemorate to-
day dead according to immemorial
custom, but to honor with our whole people
those who have sacrinced their lives and
to consider the great lessons that they send
us from the depth of their noble and sacred
dwellings.
"And first of ALL with the memory of,our
own let associate piously the memory
of those brave ones who have shed their
blood under all the flags of the alliance,
from the canals of the User to the banks
of the Vstula, from the mountains of Frioul
to the passes Of Moravia and on the vast
seas
Next let US offer our most brilliant
flowers and our noblest palms to the inno-
cent victims OF most atrocious cruelty, to
the women, to the martyred children, to
that young English nurse guilty only of
generosity, whose assassination has aroused
the indignation Of the whole world.
"And our dead, our beloved dead! Let
our grateful land open wide her heart to
receive them all, the humblest and the
greatest, the heroes fallen with glory for
whom are prepared monuments of marble
and of bronze and who will live in history
and the simple ones who drew their last
breath thinking of their native fields
May they be blessed, all those whose
blood flowed for their native land! Not in
vain have they sacrificed their lives Fallen
gloriously in Artois, in Argonne, in Cham
payne, they have halted the invader who
has not been able to take one step forward
upon the sacred ground that covers them.
Some weep for them all admire them more
than envy them. Let as listen to them;
let US give ear-they speak Let us bend
above this ground shattered by grapeshot
where many among them sleep in their
bloody garments. Let US knecl in the
cemetery beside the flower -decked graves
Of those who have returned unto their dear
country and there let us listen to that i'm
perceptible yet mighty breath that their
voices mingle at night with the murmur OF
the wind and the rustlng Of fallen leaves.
"Thcy say:
Brothers, live. fight, complete our
work; bring victory and peace to our
comforted shades. Drive forth the
enemy who has already rccoiied before
Y u.s. Deliver France, avenge right! JUS
ace and outraged humanity and restore
your pioushs to blood-steeped
fields
Thus speak our dead. And thew saw
further
'Frcnchmcn, love one another with
Drotherly love, and to be stronger