The Washington herald., 1919-02-04
WILD FLOWERS BLOW
FREELY BY AMERICAN
MOUNDS IN FRANCE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

upon one red mound of earth to-
day there was dying wreath of
beautiful white roses of Francs.
Someone had come to BeIleau Wood
and found name familiar to the
heart.
The officer who took us over the
battlefield told us just how the
battle was fought; he had been there
himself with his own men and seen
hundreds of the pride and flower of
America die without a whimper in
these woods.
He showed US where the German
machine guns were hidden on the
hills and where the Americans first
smashed all the rules OF established
European warfare by breaking out
of the forest and chasing the Ger
mans as courageous and de-
termined sheep dog viii chase a
pack of wolves.
Lazy, But He Could Fight.
Here was such a company" said
the officer, "and there is where
Captain So-and-So fell when he was
leading his men; over that road the
Germans ran and through those
bushes they fed and tried to hide"
But all the time he was talking,
kept thinking of a man from Missis-
sippi or Alabama. ! forget which. L
was told about him by one Of his
comrades when he came home
wounded, from the battle of Belleau
Wood
He was a big fellow. with long
legs and arms" said the comrade,
and he did hate to drill and he would
not keep his gun clean or his tunic
buttoned, and we had a lot of fun
with him in the eegiment. But the
day we got to Belleau Wood that fel-
low got sight OF the Heinies and he
grabbed his gun and broke through
the brush after them. l never saw
a man run so fast in my life, except
the Heinies he was chasing. and he
always caught up with them and al
ways left at least one dead Heinie be-
hind him.
He would not stop when we drop
ped into the shell holes He kept
right on. | believe he chased some
of them straight into the river Rhine. "
| wish 1 could have found which OF
the low graves down there In the edge
OF Belleau Wood was his, the man
from the low countries where the
slow. broad Mississippi sweeps on its
proud way to the Southern Gulf. =
would have gathered a bunch or
French wild flowers and laid them
over his brave heart
Somehow as / stood at the summit
Of the hill today / seemed TO see that
boy from the South pushing his de-
termined way through the under
brush and out from the shelter of the
trees, on and on and ever on. He
was not chasing the Germans and
trying TO kill them because he hated
them. lie had no Unborn enmity for
them or any other race on earth, but
down in his simple home of comfort
and humble plenty he had heard that
the liberty of the world was in dam
ger and he had followed the drum
ming guns that beat to the pulse OF
his own heart because he wanted TO
forever put a stop to such doings in
the world.
Thousands Like Him There.
blood of her own brave people. has
given him and thousands of Ameri-
cans like him a last resting place.
What is all the splendor of all these
sacrifices. made but yesterday, bring
ing to the troubled world today.
When we left the battlefelds in
Belleau Wood, we rushed back to
Paris along the clean smooth roads.
We reached the city just as the boys
were beginning TO shout the last edi-
ton of the evening newspapers.
'All about the Peace Conference" d"
the boys cried, and when l read what
the papers had to say concerning
diplomatic and secret and clever
manipulation OF this and managing
of that l wondered IL the boy from
Mississippi would have not been just
little puzzled to make out what it
was all about.
The victory is won. the war is over
and he lies dead in Belleau Wood.
And now?