The Nenana daily news., 1919-01-21
FRANCE COMES
 BACK ID l|fE;;
 GA|E1Y RE|GNS

land of recent bs:.,es $ queer land now. Over the sheil ,oYn "il- lages and blasted woods, the pitted fields and the ruin of all that once was, in strange quiet. The winter sky is lacking in airplanes and great flocks of crows have taken their place.
 A few villagers have crept back to see what remains of their homes and holdings, but they are few and probably the winter will have pass ed before reclamation and recon struction are undertaken on large scale
 Along the roads repaired and re bridged for the Allies advance into German territory, long camion trains move slowly and always southwark They travel leisurely now, for the need of hurry is gone. They bring back the salvage of battlefields, all the things that go to make war, abandoned or cap tured
 Truck load after truck load of rifles and shells, of water bottles and haversacks, cartridges, machine guns, bayonets and trench knives and pistols, mess kits, overcoats, caps, and endless catalogue of para phernalia are brought in. The bat tie zone is still full of it all, in heaps and racks, waiting salvage. Now and then come trains of air plane camions, burdended with dis mantled flying machines of every type and every nation, engine and fusilage and running gear on the truck and the great wings on it's specially designed trailer. Some of them are unharmed, but many show bullet holes through the frail fab , rie or the ruins of a crash. A fair proportion of them bear the Nal tese cross that marks them Boche.
 There are trains of captured enemy artillery, particularly of motor batteries, driven and man. ned by Frenchman, and these are happy outfits. Often the guns are decorated with evergreens and al- ways the French soldiers laugh and wave a greeting. As they creep through the villages the populace flocks out to view the cannon that for four years sent death and de- vastation into their land, and the children clamor on the carriages and out on the grim barrels. But it is the troops on the way back that are most interesting, re- turning to resa areas or to their ports of. authorization for home French or American. their behavior is the same. Always they are laughing or singing, always they greet everyone cheerily or bolster ously and always the French off CTS salute with smile when they meet an American car, while the men wave and shout "La guerre est finie" or similar greeting. Even the children cry "finis, finis", to the passing car.
 Strangest of all are the lights at night, in the hamlets and villages or shining friendly from the isolat- ed farm house, in regions farther back. For so long France seemed deserted land to the traveller by night. Hour after hour the Asso- ciated Press correspondent has travelled at night without a glimmer to be seen in the countryside, and now from every hill and vale the cherry windows shine and the will lages are ablaze. The papers de- vote columns to the illumination of Paris, but it is here in the re- mote part of France where war has been, that lights at night seem most wondrful, even if they are but candle or little lamp. Where once camions or staff cars loomed light less in the roads to the imminent threat of collision, and often it's accomplishment, the brilliant head lights stab the night.
 There is no village now but where the travelling stranger can obtain