The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-08-26

new Y Ork, aug. zo.-GOmIeSBe oe
Bryas is touring the United States as
a representative Of the American COM
mittse for devastated France to enlist
the sympathtes OF the American peo-
pie for the stricken French folk. She
was sent to this country for that pur-
pose by Miss Anne Morgan, organizer
Of the committee and daughter of J.
Pierpont Morgan. Much of the credit
work Is due Miss Morgan, the com
tesse says. The committee has cared
for over 1000 children, victims OF the
Hun mailman.
Comtesse de Bryas paints vivid pic
lures of the suffering the French are
undergoing heroically as the German
bomb, shell, burn and pillage homes
and towns.
Il sometimes meet. in the course of
my travels, people who say All, poor
France! Tragic. invaded country.
But TO these people l would say: No,
Is not poor France, but noble France.
Not tragic France, but heroic France"
Il once went down into a cellar in
which an old couple were living. The
roof OF the cellar was so low that
when I was seated on little plank,
taking to the old people, l had to
stoop. The floor was entirely mud, and
the water seeped in through the walls
and trickled down in tiny streamlets.
In the corner was the straw bed
which had been furnished the old
couple seven months before. 1t was
ind6scribably filthy, and so damp that
out of It, Yet the chief desire of the
old woman was for a plate to eat
from. The Germans had destroyed
their crockery and household utensils,
and they had only one old metal skill
let in which they cooked and from
which they ate,
AN officer told me Of seeing two
little children standing against a wall
in the town of MaiBsin, in the north
of France, one day in August, 1914.
Across the road was burning house.
When the French officer asked them
why they were waiting SO patiently
they replied, that a German had shut
their father and mother up in that
house and had told them to wait there
until they came back to fetch them.
The treatment of children during
the German occupation was very ter
tible. Little tots of and s, ana chill
dren on up to the ages OF IS and IA,
were forced to work all day for their
enslavers.
Work Long without Food.
They were taken into the fields at
lowed to come back until 7 in tho
evening. During all that time they
were given only one meal. Their tasks
were to dig potatoes, cut away the
barbed wire entanglements ana pick
up unexploded shells. The food they
ate was 80 poor that 1t was miracle
that they lived.
After the Germans went away
there was no milk to be got because
all the cows had been either killed or
driven away. In one district there
were 500 children who existed for
months without a single drop of milk.
1 met one little girl who had been
kept for 20 days on diet consisting
of nothing but bread and soup, the
latter being watery and scarcely at
all nOurishing.
SchooIhoUses Are Destroyed.
The destruction of the school
houses has made 1t impossible for the
young children to gain any education.
It Is no strange thing to encounter a
boy or girl OF II who can neither
read nor write.
I'm their hideous thoroughness the |
Germans destroyed books, pencils, !
desks and ALL Not a thing was left
After the American relief workers
came into the devastated regions they |
established schools and built little |
wooden buildings in which to carry |
THE deportation of young girls has
been systematically practiced. A Ger
man officer comes to the front door
Of a house and orders the entire fam |
lily to assemble outside on the door
step. Then he picks, at random, a
number of the younger women Of the |
family I Will take you-and YOU
en- ones with his forefnger. At this |
summons they must leave their homes |
at once. They are not allowed to pack |
their belongings nor to carry much |
baggage. They are permitted only so
much as they can carry wrapped in
handkerchief.
French Morale Unshaken.
France has been hard tried, but
she is not broken. Never was the
morale OF the French people more un-
shaken than it is today. France halls
with Joy the arrival of the Americans. !
1t is most fitting that these great sis
ter republics should be lighting side
by side in this hour of stress Vic
tory will be won. 1t is inevitablel But
ali the pain, the woe and the unnec-
essary degradation that have followed
in the wake of the invaders Will the |
world ever forget these? Can the Bit
ter memory ever be effaced%'
The comtesse's father is French, but
her mother was a Philadelphiau who
went to Europe when q small child
and was brought up there. Her great
grandfathers George Clymer and
Thomas willing, and her gTanduncle, |
George Read were all signers Of the
Declaration of Independence, and one
of them, George Clymer, was among
the six who helped to frame the con-
stitution. The Contesse de Bryas has
been actively engaged in relief work |
since the outbreak of the war In 1914.