The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-15
OUR SOLDIERS ARE FIGHTING
FOR THEIR HOMES.
By Francis Rogers of The Vigilants.

A few weeks ago a Red Cross man
was watching the arrival O ia train
from Switzerland at the Care de
Lyon in Parish. Among the passen-
gers were many broken, emaciated
creatures, both men and women, to-
gether with a few frail, half-starved
children. These were repatrie, the
wreckage of the invaded districts of
northern France, who, grown too
feeble to serve longer their task
masters, the Germans, had been sent
back to France by way of Evian on
the Swiss border. No sight could be
more heart-breaking than process
sion Of these homeless, hopeless peo-
pie, who, after suffering the mental
and physical tortures inflicted on
them by the Germans, are sent back
to France to begin life anew in un-
familiar surroundings and among
strangers. The French government
and the French people do everything
possible to mitigate the tragedy of
their lot and to make them feel wei
come, but, at best, the tragedy is all
but overwhelming.
In few minutes. of all the passen-
gers there remained on the platform
only young woman carrying in her
arms child. The woman was pitiably
haggard and worn; the child scarcely
more than skin and bone. These two
appeared to have neither a destina-
ton nor a friend to concern himself
with their arrival, though the woman
paced to and fro gazing anxiously on
all sides as if she expected to find a
familiar face. Noticing her distress,
the Red Cross man asked her whom
she was looking for. "Ah! monsieur,
my husband" and then, comforted
to find sympathetic ear, she told
her story.
Her husband and she had owned a
little farm in northern France. In
August, 1914, he went to the war,
leaving her in charge Of their home.
They had no children. When the Ger.
mans came, seized all she owned and
compelled her to serve them as a
mehial. A year later she gave birth
toga little girl, the father being a
German sergeant into whose power
she had been given. As long as she
was strong enough to work the Ger
mans had held her, but sorrow and
hardship finally broke her down and
they sent hqf back to France.
"My husband is now in Paris on
leave, and hi was to meet me here al
the station. All! how / long and how
I dread to see him! He knows moth
ing of this child. What will he say
and do when he sees It in my arms?
1 love it, because / bore it, but how
can I expect him ever to tolerate it:'
This story is only one among thou
sands that could be told, varying
from one another only in their sor
rowful details. When the Germans
seize new district they make com
plete census of all women of child
bearing age. These women are as
signed to German officers and sol
diers. When the children are borr
the boys are taken from theil
mothers and sent into Germany tt
be raised by the state for future
''cannon-fodder"; the girls are lef
with their mothers, who, when theil
value as slaves has ceased, are sen
back to France with their femal'
babies.
It is their increasing knowledge o
these infamies that is bringing tn
American soldier more and more t
feel that he is fighting to protect hi
own women from the fate of tn
women of France and Belgium. Las
January / was talking with Lieu