The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-07-11
GERMANS CANNOT
BRIGHTEN PARIS
PEOPLE OF THE FRENCH CAPT.
TOl WILL NEVER WEAKEN
THEIR DEFENCE
NERVE SHATTERED PEOPLE FULL Of PEP
Evans Visits Boys From Iowa Who
Are Back From Trench Fighting
And Raiding German Lines
(By H. G.. EVANS
1915


Front, France-Four days in Paris;
and such days! Arrived there two
days before the allies got their re-
serves between the city and the on
coming German hordes, and while the
Germans were coming nearer each
day!
Every day shells from long-distance
guns and every night bombardment
by a%irplanes! About midnight the
screeching wall Of the sirene whistles,
announcing the approach Of the en-.
emy's planes; then the terrific barrage
Of the French guns, their bursting
shells lighting up the heavens above
the city, followed by explosives from
Hun bombs as they struck.
Wa ever a city so ~harrassed? Did
ever a people live under conditions so
likely to shatter their nerves? Yet
the Parisians go about their daily
business unconcerned and unafraid, as
Indifferent to their discontinue as the
Chicago populace to a windy day. All
the frightfulness of the Huns and
Hades will never break the nerve OF
the French people.
Just let our people at home acquire
the nerve, the grit-and to use a
somewhat vulgar but popular express
Cinn nNnr hnro tha oIfc--nnCCnccn6 hu
the French, and victory is assured.
honestly believe that speedy vic
tory depends more on the nerve, the
morale of the people at home in the
United States than on anything else.
The British and French will hold
against the coming of u forces in
sufficient numbers to finish the job.
There's no question about the courage
the morale of our own boys. They're
the fittest lot of men who ever went
into battle and as eager fer the fray
as a schoolboy for a Saturday after
noon or a Fourth of July. As sure as
there is a God in heaven the allies
over here will stand as fast as the
everlasting hills of France-what will
you folks at home do?
During the last few days | have
travelled more than a hundred miles
just back of the front, sometimes with
in hearing of the guns, sometimes
dipping into the shelled area. A
strange spectacle, indeed, The fair
fields of France r%ipening under the
harvest, while through them by rail,
motor truck and on foot move myriads
ecration by the invading %despoiler. 1t
is indeed a "far-flung battle line" this
thing known as The Front, this band
of iron and steel and flesh and blood,
on which millions of men have been
killed, millions more wounded, and
where other millions are at death
grips. Nor is this the first time this
particular part of the line from which
am writing has been baptized in
blood. We pass through a village
where Atilla, the Hun, camped with
his legions more than a thousand
years before America was discovered.
Another where was Matched a plot
against the Bourbon kings. Here is
the native village Of Joan Of Arc, and
the old house where she was born, and
the pasture where she dreamed dreams
and saw visions. Over these fields
Napoleon fought the Prussian armies
under Butcher. Chateaus, centuries
old, dot the hills, ~impregnable in their
day, important now against modern
guns.
I was in one American camp, not
far back of the front, when the or.
der came to move to the front. The
order had been expected and every.
thing was in readiness. Only a few
moments were required for the boys
to pack. Invariably when a company
was formed and would swing off to the
meeting place of the entire unit, the
air was made vocal with song. They
headed direct for the front and in a
few hours, not stopping to strike camp,
they hurled themselves on the Ger.
man masses and drove them back a
mile and a half. These were the fel.
lows who fought at Chateau Thierry.
where the Germans had crossed the
Marine. They drove the enemy back
across the river and blew up the
bridge.
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