The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1918-04-16
french Peasants Pour Back
Into Reconquered Lands to
Begin Their Lives Anew

broad plain over which the tide Of war
three times has ,ufged II was early
spring
Learn New Story.
An old frenchman. his wife and a
glh OF perhaps twelve were trudging
along the roadside. toward Bapaume
Each carried pack. containing a lew
household necessities We had passed
them on the road. but they overlook US
while We rested 10 eat a lunch OF sand.
wiche, and thcfmos bottle coffee.
We stopped them, and learned their
story Of living IN France In wartime
II was much the same, but different
They also. had been driven out Of
their little hamlet home when the war
came 10 II They had seen their houses
IN flames and had joined the stream Of
terrified pcasanlfy away 10 Amien'.
There were grandfather and grand.
mother. father and mother, son and
daughter They had owned three or
four little strips Of ground adjacent TO
the village IN which. like most OF the
French agricultural workers, they lived
There they had raised wheat. vegetables.
sugar beets kept a COW. some chickens
and pigs and been happy
They Expected Safety.
When they had reached Amicns, they
expected 10 be safe. But the Germans
captured that town, though they held il
only short time. During the German
occupation they were under rigorous
military control but II brought no great
priyation for the town had supplies for
that period.
When. after the Marne, the Hun
fell back. this family disintegrated. The
father and son escaped and joined the
French army One was too old. the
other too young. 10 be required 10 join
up at the first CALI but they were
both presently accepted. Both had been
killed at Verdun.
Only Two Are Left.
The grandmother had died, in hmiens,
during the exile; priyation and broken
spirits had overcome her. There were
left the old man. his daughter-in-law
and the little girl. Somehow they had
lived, doing whatever offered itself,
living in the poorest quarters--waiting
for the day when they could go back
TO rebuild their home and start in the
world anew. They were now on their
way 20 IT,
We did not see their home but we
saw hundreds like il, destroyed as il
was little stone or brick houses stand
ing flush with the highroad The Ger
mans had used them TO quarter troops,
cutting loopholes for machine guns.
Almost every house had been the scene
Of a hand-to-hand fight a, one period
or another. Hindenburg had finally
abandoned the area. When they finally
retreated. the Germans blew up the
houses with great charges Of explosives.
Spring Is Time Of Hope.
The land was ditched and scared
with endless trenches, flanked by wide
zones OF bsrbed wire. Mine eraters
we're frequent; it would have been pos
sible 20 bury respectable country
church, steeple and all, in some OF them.
All the surface was torn with she'll
holes. from which the ohalky subsoil
had been spewed up to cover the land
and render II barren
These people had heard that the ruin
Of their home was still in part, stand
ing II was spring, and spring is the
time of hope, The invader was retreat
ing True, he was only a dozen miles
or so ahead but what of that1 They
were returning to their home, to reclaim
their little patchwork fields, to SOW a
new crop, to help France feed itself
another year of war.
Thousands Like Them.
Such as they thousands and thous-
ands OF the peasants, crowded back
into the abandoned ruined areas as fast
as the Germans were pressed north
ward. They went TO work with what
ever implements they could find, or
with none at all No part of the Huns
work OF destruction had been so
thorough as this utter demolition OF the
agricultural implements.
This fragment Of a family was typical.
It's story was the story of what savagery
means when, armed with the implements
which science has put in It's hands, il
sets out to conquer the world
Liberty bonds are civilizations policy
against such conflagrations.
-wss.-