The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1918-12-18
Alongside every Grave kne,+ "

Alongside every grave knelt a wo-
man, alone, or else a woman with
children aiding her as she disposed
her showing Of flowers and wreaths.
| stood in the presence Of most high
and holy thing, and so / went bare
headed, as | should have done in a
| sanctuary.
When we had made the rounds we
sat down upon the edge of the flag
dressed platform and the general pro-
ceeded to explain what I already had
begun to season out for myself only
of course, l did not know, till he told
me, how it had started.
'It has been a good many months
now" he said, "since we dug the first
grave here. But on the day of the
funeral delegation of the most IN
fluential residents came to me to say
that the people of the town desired
to adopt our dead. l asked just what
exactly was meant by this, and then
the spokesman explained:
General, he said to me. there is
scarcely family in this place where
we live that has not given one or
more of it's members to die for France.
In most cases these dead of ours
sleep on battle fields far away from
us, perhaps in unmarked and unknoM
graves. This is true of all parts of
our country, but particularly is it true
of this town. which is so remote from
the scenes or actual fighting.
$50 in the case of this brave Am
erican, who today is to be buried here
among us, we ask that French fam
lily shall be permitted formally to
undertake the care of his grave, as
though it were the grave of one Of
their own fresh and blood who has
fallen, as he has fallen for France
and for freedom. In the case of each
American who may hereafter be bur-
led here we ask the same privilege.
We promise you tat so long as these
American shall rest here in cur land,
their graves shall be our graves, I'D
will be tended as we tend the graves
of our own sons.
eve desire that the name of each
family that adopts grave may be 1e-
gistered, SO that, should the adults
die, the children of the next genera
ton, as sacred charge may carry on
the obligation which is now to be laid
upon their parents and transmitted
as a legacy to all who bear their
name. We would make sure of this,
so that, no matter how long your fall
len braves rest in the soil OF France
their graves shall not be as the neg
lected graves of strangers to us, but,
symbolically at least, may be as the
graves of our dead sons.
1--WE wish to do these things FOR
more reason than one: We wish to
do them because thereby we may ex-
press in our own small, poor way the
gratitude we feel to America. We
wish to do them because
of the thought that some strick-
en- mother across the sea
in America will perhaps feel meas
ure of comfort and consolation in
knowing the grave Of her boy shall 81
ways be made beautiful by the hands
of a French woman whose home, also
has been desolated. And finally we
wish to do them because we know it
will bring peace to the hearts of
French women to feel they have a
right to put French flowers upon the
graves of your heroic dead, since they
can never hope-most Of them-to
perform that same office for theirs "
He stood up, looking across the
cemetery all bathed and FURNISHED as
it was in the soft, rich summer sun
shine.
"God!" he said under his breath.
How / am learning to love these peo-
plev cmfwyppfm
ple!"-Duluth Herald.