The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1918-03-09

RfeSLC OE4S1 Z G44444SLL 6S'S4S
per.
~ GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER
and LILLIAN CHESTER.
4copyriSht, 1915, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
PARIS, March 9. There creeps q
shadow over the land. The fields lie
broad and clean and thick with turf,
but even in their richness there Is
wort of desolation. Why? Come with
us for a day in 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
md stones were all removed centuries
ago, and walls and hedges marked
farm from farm and field from field
with profoundly orderly accuracy. But
there is more than mere neatDes5 IN all
this; there is a vague, 1ndefinabie
something which strikes the eye un-
easily, and presently the answer comes
-nonotony!
From horizon to horizon it is all
one color, one texture; from the hills
over there. lacinS their bare trees
against the morning sky like sort OF
NGl44SuC1G&t4lS6p " SAAC U4OOA
way yonder, its banks lined with ten
unvaryfns sreen.
It IS as Il the foot of man had not
trod here.
what is wrong? Again the vague,
uneasy puzzli1g.
In this field the cattle had been used
to Craze the grass to brownrooted
shortness; in that where the brook
runs through, to trample the ground
into yellow morass. Over there. at
this season, the vivid color of the COM
ing grain had already made its con-
trastfnS checker, and. still beyond, the
plough had turned the mat of nature
under fresh black loan,
a score of hues the labor and the
enterprise OF man had made on the
crust OF earth by now; b%t today there
Is only one-the emerald of moist out
doors. The fields are Slipping back
TO the naonotony Of desolation. and the
shadow which creeps over the land is
desola6on itself Il is the war.
To enter the barDy-ard CT a weII-to-
do French farm is like entering q vii
lage; for all the buildings, the resi-
dence, the sheds for grain and hay,
the workshops, the barns and the i'm
plement shelters. are built arounda zig
courtyard. the entrance to. which is by
way of a heavily barred safe through
a thick wall: relic of uedie"al days,
when wars we're local, and every mans
house was his fort.
Industry and frugality made this
place PROSPEROUS, and erected this pic
turesque SkI-iine 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 the
war. In this big stone barn, long rows
pf beautiful. thick-necked Percheon
drsugtt horses once filled the now
empty stalls. The war took them.
There are only three where scores
had been before. A fourth one stands
tn the courtyard, great, white, sleek,
heayy-rumped fellow, his ponderous
foot between the legs of a Boche
blacksmith, and his bride held by an
other lazy, contented+looking Roche.
The most fortunate men in Europe,
these fellows, and they know it, men
In the prime OF ,sturdiness. who have
no cares, who are certain Of good food
md lodging, and who do not need to
ffsk their lives. Safe from the war are
hese German prisoners.
There are If OF them employed on
Gu46 GdEIQS d4u LQey are LOCKED up eaCQ
hight as matter Of Formally.
Prisoners OF the allies are constant
y escaping out Of Germany, spending
months IN the unceasing attempt, and
etSkng their lives every minute Of the
time to 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 fine milk COWS once mUnched F;
their hay in enviabIe serenity. But
those Velyet-coated aristocrats OF the
dairy are fast disappearing, aud in |
their places stand scrawnier breed:
beetcows, which eat coarser food. and
sraze In cons=antly decreasing NUM-
bers On a Consistently decreasing acre
age OF pasture, for these beeves are
being eaten faster than they can be
raised
= Down in the implement shed. sreat |
eRoRheeied wagons, built like ecar- !
Sneus boats, stand empty, and enor- !
SnopSly vide rakes and harrows and |
seedeHs ana reapers stand rusting.
Across the wall stretch those broad |
reaches Of motonous green which the |
plougbs wiu not turn this year. nor !
the harroWs rake. nor the seeders seed, !
nor the zeaperS reap.
a particularly thick wall, that, and