, 1918-08-15

house esEaped for the time being. But later on
1t was burned by other Germans. When 1 found
this CONAN she was working IS hours each day
washing for the soldiers. L asked her why she
worked so hard and she told me that 1t was
because she had nothing left to her in the wide
world, and the only way to keep herself from
heartbreak was to be always occupied.
The conditions under which most of these peo-
pie have been living are horrifying. Their
houses are heaps of ruins. You can hardly be-
leve the systematic way in which the Germans
proceeded to destroy their dwellings. A bomb
was thrown into every house along the line Of
march. The furniture was all broken up or
burned, fruit trees were cut down, and the wells
polluted. Yet, when the invading tide was swept
back these villagers came back ut once to their
former homes. This devotion of the French peas
ant to his little home is something which Ameri-
cans can hardly appreciate. He loves 1t ardent
ly; 1t is almost n part of him he cannot bear to
leave 1t.
During the time when they were struggling
to rebuild their shattered homes, these peasants
had to live in cellars and dugouts. OF course
these places were most unhealthy and not fit to
remain in. 1 once went down into n cellar in
which an old couple was living. The roof of the
cellar was so low that when 1 was seated on q
little plank talking to the old people l had to
stoop. The floor was entirely mud, and the water
seeped in through the walls and trickled down
in tiny streamlets. In the corner was the straw
bed which had been furnished the old couple
seven months before. It was indescribably filthy
and so damp that one could twist 1t and wiring
water out OF IL. Yet the cnlef desire or the ola
woman was for n plate to eat off. The Germans
had destroyed their c%rockery and household
utensils and they had only one old metal skillet,
In which they cooked and from which they ate.
In one village 1 saw u mother who had gone
back to live IN n little shelter which she had
built for herself in the corner formed by the only
two remaining walls of her dwelling. over the
top of this place she placed planks. One side
was open to the weather. The cold, raw weather
made it difficult to exist in such n place. l my
self have lived In a little wooden building near
the front, similar to the barracks In which the
soldiers live, and l know the cruel winter wealth
er of these parts of France.
The hardship has been greatest on the little
children. oh, the poor children! They no longer
play. They have forgotten all their games. They
do not know what 1t means to run and laugh and
be gay. AS they walk along the streets you will
see them start suddenly and look over their
shoulders In n frightened way. So great has
been the terror instilled into them by the Ger
mans.
An officer told me Of seeing two little children
standing against n wall in the town of Malssin,
in the north Of France. one day in August, 1914.
Across the road was a burning house. When the
French officer asked them why they were waiting
so patiently, they replied that n German had
shut their father and mother up in that house
and had told them to wait there until they came
back to fetch them.