Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-05-21

er will return. This is shown or
every hand but not moreHso than by
those who help to guide the destnies
Of this republic and sent our boys
forth to battle. Vcimont's whole con-
/ gressional delegation watched with
pride the record of the Green Noun
tain boys on the fields of France, and
when they made the supreme sacrifice
they sent back to the sorrowing
homes words of comfort and hope.
Congressman Dale, whose son, Tim
othy c. Dale, has done a noble SER
vice in the medical corps since June,
1917, on the eve of his recent trip
to France with Mrs. Dale, volunteer
ed to visit the hospital and grave
of a Green Mountain Boy and sends
to the parents the following eloquent
description of one of the cemeteries
where rests the American dead. And
the letter is published with the hope
that it will bring to other Vermont
and American homes whose boys
sleep "over there" a better knowledge
of their last resting place and the
sentiment of love and pride for the
BOYS, thoughtful kindness and SYM
pathy of the American heart for
those whose great pride in American
valor is Swallowed by an ever present
sorrow:
Mr.. C. c. Lord,
st. Johnsbuly, VT.
Dear Friend:
We went a few days since to Poit-
iers, place in which few people at
home had any interest until one day
we cared very much about it because
many of our wounded boys had been
carried there. In all France, with
localities made of vital interest
through centuries to the present day,
there are none to which the hearts
of YOU parents of hundred and more
of our soldiers go out as they do to
this one place where the cross bears
the name of your heroic boy.
Poitiers has for long been visited
by tourists to view the fields where
Clovis, in 507, won the victory which
led to the recognition of the Frank
Kings in the country which came to
be called France, and to kneel at the
shrine where st. Martin early in the
fourth century, assembled the first
monastic community in what is now
France, and to render homage where
Charles Martcl defeated the Mahome-
tans and saved Christcndom. A thous-
and years before Columbus crossed
the sea, pilgrims sought Poitiers for
inspiration, and under the influence of
the same spirit which lives on fore
ever, we took our way to the new
part of the old cemetery which is
now a shrine to Americans because it
enfolds some of our own boys who
came overseas and died for civilian
ton and Christendom. Among an
Gent and massive monuments to he
roism, their plain white crosses stand
to mark a sacrifice which in its purity
of devotion lives superb to crown the
centuries.
Our course by automobile from
Tours followed the old Roman high
way for sixty miles to Poitiers. At
the hospital, Major Ernest l.. Bell,
the physician in charge, received US
with the gentility and courtesy for
which officers and men in the medi-
cal corps have a reputation. The
hospital is efficiently and comfortably
equipped. 1t is a long way to have
brought the wounded men three
hundred miles in ambulance and hos
pital train from the Argonne, but
those were terrible weeks in the last
great drive and the base hospital
behind the American and French |
fronts were crowded even TO distant |
places.
From the hospital we rode slowly |
through the narrow streets OF the
city of some forty thousand inhabi-
tants, and by the stone monument
with its bronze figure holding aloft
Il light and quite similar to the stat
lie of Liberty in New York harbor.
1t was erected years ago, but it's in
scription "AuX Defensus de Ia Lii
berte," has significance today, new
and deep, and beyond thought when
it was carved.
By way of st. Pierre Cathedral,
we came to the River Claire, beyond
which the city rises by tree lined
streets, terraced parallel to the river,
to the eminencc where are the az
tilclry quarters and the great bronze
statue of the Madonna overlooking
the city and the far off green plains
laced by white rivers. Beyond the
stone bridge our way crossed another
road called the Chemin DIES Martyrs,
leading to the chamber in which we
found the tombs of thirty-seven of
the earliest Christian martyrs.
We left the car by the gate of
Pierre Levee cemetery which is en-
closed by high stone walls, and
walked by the little chapel and up
the broad avenue lined with cypress
trees. Long years of constant care
have been given to the enclosure and
over the oppression which comes
on entering such place, there
brOoded n sense of restfu1 quiet