Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-10
GlInfire is Fierce
On British Line
Continued from Page Ono

Continued from Page Ono
! thirty prisoners were brought back
and that is a small episode compared
with the great happenings in which
/ the French army is engaged south
of the British lines. All our thoughts
and hopes for good fortune are with
! them, while our men wait for their
! turn to resist once more the fierce
efforts of the enemy to smash through
our lines.
There is not a British soldier who
does not understand the fullness of
the tragedy nor the simple splendor
of the courage Of those French people
who are menaced by the latest as
saults of the enemy. so that after
nearly four years towns and villages
which seemed beyond the danger zone,
though not very far away from the
! line down across the map of France,
are now threatened
Some can hardly visualize the mean
ing of this. As we here zee it every day
II means that each time the enemy has
gained few miles of ground a new
long belt of France has been drawn
within the evil spell of wars most mon
strous cruelty. The Germans guns as
they advance reach out to the villages
along all that strip of country, smash
ing more old chateaus of France, more
farmsteads and cottages
The German aerodromes have been ad- =
I'vanced and their night raiders come fur
ther west or south, searching out new
targets for destruction and fiinging
down explosives on sleeping women and
children under the thatched and tiled
roofs of small towns which expected no
harm until these demons OF the night
came with their terorr. So during re-
cent weeks along many roads there has
"A nf
with their babies from the new danger
zone.
l saw many of them today and yes
terday, as on other days. and always in
my memory there will be a picture of
these farm wagons crowded with little
families of French crawling along the
roads mile after mile, on long trails
with children wedged between household
furniture, and young girls tramping be-
hind the carts to give the brave old
horse a lighter burden.
They are sad sights. but above the
sadness is the wonderful courage of
these people. even of the little ones, who
understand, because they. too. have seen
what death is-such death as came a
few days ago to some children in a
French town, torn to ribbons by bomb
explosions-and, above all, of the
women who are the leaders of these
7
have strange. stoical patience and
resignation to this adventure of war
They often camp in field at night, like
gypsies leading nomad life, though
they come from coZy homes, some of
! them from prosperous farms and shops.
where during all their life before they
have been safe and stationary.
! 1t is but one manifestation of the
courage that is in the soul of Trance. in
all this gallant people never greater
than now. when the days are most criti-
| cal
| During the last two days I have been
out among the French soldiers and peo-
pie, and their calmness. their confidence.
| the spirited way in which they refuse To
lose heart or hope are astonishing and
admirable. They do not believe that tha
| Germans will ever set foot in Paris. and
are as certain of that now as thew were
| in the black days of 1914. They say:
Even IL the enemy took Paris 4,
would not end the war We should 20
on fighting just the same until The
Americans are ready with their
strength; but the Germans will never
enter Paris"
with that spirit in the French peop,s
/ and the French army after four wears
of war and with the Americans in preat
numbers on the roads Of France ana
with our army still strong after ali
It's bitter and costly fighting, the Ger.
mans can never win to the end Of the
war. even II they should win part Of the
way Today's news cospee 70 US thar
The Freafh sFe hQk<ing - Vell s.