Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1919-03-14
ALErTER FROM FRANCE.
aris, Feb. lo, 1919.

Paris, Feb. ~, 1919.
)ear Mother -
What a delightful day this
las been and how l have enjoy ed
t Just one OF those delightful
" nter days which we so seldom
enjoy in Paris. The sun sloue
beautifully all day, rare per-
fornance, the sky was perfectly
clear and the temperature was
just right, only here and there.
i'll the sunny spots, was the
ground, which has been covered
with light show for about
week, made bare by the direct |
rays of the sun. | tell you a day
like this is worth a whole lot to
ui here in France. 1t makes one
feel SO good, puts life into you
aud makes you feel like you want
to do some tlling.
AS | have written you before,
and as | have had chance to
observe i'll the two winters have
spent here, France is not sunny
France" in winter time but is a
land Of fog, rain and mud. In
stead of having sunshine and
snow as you are possibly having
back there now, we have endured
a winter of fog and rain so that
when sunny day does happen
across we really feel like cele-
brating.
You know. as someone has said,
we all the more appreciate sun
shine after cloudy or rainy day,
but we do not have sunshine after
a rainy day but. rather, after a
rainy week or month. l think
these cloudy, rainy days have g
| tendency to depress and the
gloom actually penetrates one:
| mind and affects the stat,
r thereof, however self-controlet
you might be. Of a Cheerful
e mind, | find il much easier to o.
p cheerful when the sun is shining
n brilliantly than when the winte
a is dismal and gloomy. Unfortu
& uately, the latter conditions pre-
p vail, I have to exert, some
times, quite little effort to max
TIP for what the weather lacks S
that my general atmosphere i
not too gloomy for myself all,
others.
1t has been really like winte
the past week OF so and we llav
had S me very cold nights.
presume tile temperature lla
- been as low as fifteen or tweut
l. degrees above zero and the lake
r and ponds are frozen over SRI
ticiently to permit skating. | ex
4 pect to put heels OH pair o
3 skates tomorrow i the boy bring
them for me. Gee. IN jus
>, crazy to get on the ice again.
o Yesterday, Sunday, l vi~ite'
e Rheims and tie famous and hea u
f tiful cathedral there. The whol
city, which before the war had
l population Of more than a hun
dred thousand people, was de
strayed bv the Germans and
didn't see one house in it tina
would be habitable. A very few
people have moved back but the,
ha'el't a fit place to stay. Th'
city is literally destroyed an(
will have to be rebuilt anew. TT
me it would seem that the un
: fortunate inlla bitants NIGH just
as well select new site for a
city and build from the ground
up. Rheims, the beautiful city
with its worid-fa nous cathedral,
and noted for its manufacture of
| Champs gne, is totally wrecked
and DESTROYED, shelled and crum-
pied, bombed aud burned. 1t is
a horrible mass but shows the
| German hand.
AS you possibly know, the
French houses and buildings are
II 1t constructed with wood like
ours in America but are COM
posed of stone, concrete. etc. and
the buildings are very permanent
and substantial and stand tor
centuries. Many of these homes
and houses are simply reduced to
rock piles and it would be a
Tremendous task to remove the
debris. In America we could !
build house from the old four
dation from which the original
building was burned or DESTROY
ed III less time than the wreck
age Of these Cd Ii, uses can be
cleared away.