Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-02-05
Strange Quiet Now Rests Over
Land Torn by Shot
and Shell.
TRAVELLER AGAIN IS WELCOME
Plain Vegetables and Certain Meats,
Even Choice Wines, Again Are
Pientifui-FriendlyL Lights
s..a al Night.

| land of recent battles is queer land
| now. Over the shell-torn villages and
| blasted woods, the pitted fields and
! ruin of all that once was is a 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 probably the winter will
| have passed before reclamation and
reconstruction are undertaken on a
| large scale.
| Along the roads repaired and re-
| bridged for the allies advance into
| German territory long cannon trains
move slowly and always southwark.
They travel leisurely now, for the need
| of hurry is gone. They bring back
the salvage of battletields, all the
things that go to make war. abandoned
or captured.
Endless Trophies of War.
Truck load after truck load of rifles
and shells, OF water bottles and haver-
sacks, cartridges, machine guns, bayo-
nets and trench knives and pistols,
| mess kits, ovcrcoats, caps an endless
catalogue of paraphernalia are brought
In. The battle zone is still full of it
all, in heaps and racks, waiting sal
| wage.
Now and then come trains Of air.
plane camions burdened with disman-
tied flying machines of every type and
every nation, engine and fuselage and
running gear on the truck and the
great wings on its specially designed
trailer. Some of them are unframed.
but many show bullet holes through
the flail fabric or the ruins of crash.
A fair proportion of them bear the
Maltese cross that marks them boche.
There are trains of captured enemy
artillery, particularly of motor bat
teries, driven and manned by French
men, and these are happy outfits.
| Often the guns are decorated with
evergreens and always the French sol
| diers laugh and wave greeting. AS
they creep through the villages the
| populace fiocks out to view the can
non that for four years sent death and
| devastation to their land, and the
| children Chamber on the carriages and
! out on the grim barrels.
But it is the troops on the way back
that are most interesting, returning
to rest areas or TO their ports of en-
barkation for home. French or Amer
lean, their behavior is the same. AL
ways they greet everyone cheerily or
boisterously and always the French
| officers salute with a smile when they
| meet an American car, while the men
wave and shout La guerre est fms :"
Or a similar greeting. Even the chill
iren cry "Finisi F'inis!" to the pass
ing car.
Travellers Are Welcomed.
Strangest of all are the lights at
night in the hamlets and villages, or
shining friendlily from the isolated
farmhouse, in regions further back.
For so long France seemed deserted
land to the traveller by night. Hour
after hour the press correspondent
has Travelled at night without glim-
mer to be seen in the countryside, and
now from every hill and vale the
CHEEKY windows shine and the villages
are ablaze. The papers devote col
umns to the illumination of Paris, but
it is here in the remote part of France
where war has been that lights al
night seem most wonderful, even II
they are but candle or little lamp
Where once camions or staff cars
doomed lightless in the roads to the
imminent threat of collision, and otter
Its accomplishment, the brilliant head
| lights stab the night.
There in every village now the trav
cling stranger can obtain food, not il
variety, perhaps, but enough an'
very Hospitality. The deprecatory pc
lite and necessary refusal to request
for refreshments that usually We're re
eeived in little han,ets or single farm
has given way to cheerful offering o
what there is, for the farmers know
now that the specter of a winter o
short rations has disappeared. TIL
rationing of certain foodstuffs is sti
IN effect. Bread tickets are necessar
In public eating places, no matter ho'
unpretentious; butter and milk are Sc
dom to be had and cheese is scare,
but of plain vegetables and certai
meats there is plenty, and the light re
and white vines of the country al
forthcoming when demanded.
Al this season there is game in Il
small town markets, hares and ra
bits, venison, red-legged cartridges an
the large French quail and wild boa
1t is high, but not so high as it alwa,
Is at home.