The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-08-19

and has been since the first day
 of the war in 1914. During thu
 first dreadful weeks he had an op portunity to see the suffering brough
 to the children, and it was through
 his efforts that the Comite pour l; Protection des Enfants de la Fron tiere was organized.
 9th, l started for A in tn, north of France, in company witl Major Dwight, hoping to call upol Colonel Barclay Parsons. who wa. many miles from that city but wht might, l thought, send an automobil, for me as we had matters of import ance to discuss. The train proceeded rapidly and I arrived at 8 o'clock il the morning and went to the Britisl officers club for an excellent break fast. during which we were greeted with cannonading overhead due tt visit from the boches who wished to photograph the town. The noise did not seem to disturb any of the breakfasters, so we did not even st out to look upon the scene which ap pears to be usual one.
 saw that the town itself had beer very heavily bombarded. All the houses neighboring the public square are destroyed and great man, others along the principal street. quite wrecked. learned that the people had been ordered to leave the town every night, as number haG lost their lives in the recent bonn bardments, but most of them return for the day. Some shops were opened There were markets in the streets and good deal of activity continued The city was full of soldiers of vari ous nationalities presenting an inter esting spectacle.
 I happened, by chance, to learr of the arrival, within the not very distant vicinity, of some American diEi'ion, and suipccted that l might find my son. Colonel Parsons tele phoned that it was impossible fol him to send car, but that he would try to come to see me. Finding nc hotel opened, owing to the lombard Munt, was at . loss what to do until remembered that an old friend of mine was the sous prefet in tha, arrondissement, and I went to the sous prefecture, where I found hin and his charitable and attractive wife. They welcomed me as mem Der of the family, and the sous pre- fet insisted upon taking me out ir his car through the countryside te see the American divisions. 1 found the headquarters of the division ir question and had a pleasant talk with the general, from whom learn ed that the various units were scat tered about the countryside and that some of them had not arrived.
 We then continued our tour and upon reaching small town happened to see troop train arriving. The sous prefet suggested that we watch all soldiers disembark, as we might see our young man. I, laughingly consented, referring to the old pro verb of the needle in the haystack and then, the train stopped and the colonel of the regiment stepped out with the young man close behind him! It was surprise to us both and there was much rejoicing.
 The troops looked splendidly, had stood their long journey well, de spite two days encounter with subs. during which they downed two without suffering any loss. Oul young man was in command of his company all the way over. He does not know whether he will remain in command or be superseded by a senior lieutenant who will soon ar rive. In any event, the morale of the company was splendid and the of ficers, all fine young fellows, seemed to be much liked and respected by the men. We lunched with the col onel and one or two other officers in roadside auberge. The sous prefet was delighted with the American troops. The newly arrived regiment was then ordered off for a long march to its billets in a neigh boring village.
 We returned to the town and, al nightfall, went out to little house high on the hills, in which the pre- feet had taken refuge since the early days of the bombardment and the partial destruction of the town It is a lovely little villa belonging to chateau and, in the woods. had been constructed a dug-out furnished with mattresses. etc., in which the family took refuge during the bonn bardments. It had been strange experience for them. That night, we sat upon the terrace watching fol the air raids and ready to run into the dug-out as these raids come with