Evening journal., 1918-03-09
BY GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER
and LILLIAN CHESTER
Copyright. 1918. by the Newspaper
Enterprise AssociationA

Enterprise Association)
PARIS, March 9-There creeps a shad.
ow over the land. The fields lie broad
and clean and thick with turf but even
in their richness there is sort Of desc
lation. Why2 Come with us for day
i'm the country, and see what war can
do, even when war Is many miles away,
The first impression OF the country IS
that OF cleanness. for the stumps and
stones were all removed centuries ago
and walls and hedges marked farm
from farm and field from field with pro
foundly orderly accuracy. But there Is
moro than mere neatness In all this.
there is a vague. lndennsble something
which strikes the eye uneasily. and
presently The answer comes -monotony
From horizon 10 horizon It Is all one
color, one texture: from The hills over
there. lacing their bare trees against
the morning sky like "a sort Of glorified
Nallenciennes. TO the brook way yonder
It's banks lined with tender-sprouled
willows, 1t is all the same unyaryins
green.
1t IS as II the foot of man had not
trod here.
What is wrong9 Again the vague
uneasy puzzling.
I'm this field The cattle had been used
TO Craze the grass 20 broWn-roOted
shOrlness In that. where the brook
runs through. 10 irample The ground
into a yellow morass over there, ai
this season The vivid color Of the com
ing grain had already made its con
trasting checker, and. still beyond. the
plough had turned the mat Of nature
under fresh black loam
4 score of hues the labor and the
enterprise Of man had made on the
crust OF earth by now but today there
is only one--the emerald OF moist out
doors. The fields are slipping back
20 the monotony Of desolatlon, and the
shadow which oreeps over the land Is
desolation itself 1t is the war.
To enter the barnyard of a well-to-
do French farm is like entering a viii
lage for an the buildings. the residence,
The sheds for grain and hay, the work
shops, the barns and the implement
shelters, are built around a big court
yard the entrance 90 which Is ny way
Of a heavily barred gate through a
thick wall relic Of medieval days. when
wars were local. and every mans house
was his fort
Industry and frugalily made this
place prosperous, and erected this pic
turesque skyline Of tiled roofs, but the
teeming life Of The spacious court Is
gone, and the great barns have less in
them with each passing year OF Tie
war In this big stone barn. long rows
of beautiful, thick-necked Percher0n
ID
empty stalls. The war took them.
There are only three where scores
had been before fourth one stands
in the courtyard, great, white. sleek.
heavy fellow. his ponderous
feet between the legs Of a boche black
smith. and his bride held by another
lazy, contented-lookng boche. The most
fortunate men in Europe, these fellows.
and they know it. men in the prime OF
sturdiness who have no cares, who arc
certain Of good food and lodging, and
who do not need TO risk their lives.
safe from the war are these German
prisoners.
There are "a Of them employed on
shis farm. and they arc locked up each
night as a matter of formality.
Prisoners OF the Allies are constantly
escaping out Of Germany. spending
months in the unceasing attempt, and
rsking their lives every minute Of the
Time 10 get back home, because death
would be better than their condition
but these plump German prisoners stay
where they are put, and thank God.
Across the court the Ions. low barn
where fne milk cows once munched
their hay IN enyiable serenity But
those velvet coated aristocrats OF the
dairy are fast disappearing, and in their
places stand a scrawnier breed beet
cows, which eat a coarser food, and
craze in constantly decreasing num-
bers on a constantly decreasing acre
age Of pasture. for these beeVes are
kcirg eaten faster Than they can be
raised.
Down in the implement shed, great
two-wheeled wagons. built like enor-
nous boats, stand empty. and enor-
mously wide rakes and harrows and
seeders and reapers stand rustine
Across the wall stretch those broad
reaches of monotonous green which the
ploughs will not turn this year. nor
The harrows rake. nor the seeders seed
nor the reapers reap.
A particularly thick wall. that, and
40 intervals holes at half the height. 10
was built more than three years ago
by the military, for defense against the
possible coming Of the bochc, and the
holes arc for machine guns.
The war dispatches have bcen fun