Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-02-16
MEATLESS HAM
BONE COSTS6
NOW IN FRANCE
Richie Describes Sad Christ
mas in Hunger-S Stricken
Devastated Districts
of France.
By ROBERT WELLS RICHIE,
Universal Service Staff Core
spondent.

BY ROBERT WELLS RICHIE,
Universal Service Staff Core
spondent.
Paris, Dee. 25-(By Mail, De-
layed.-Will you call this stale
stuff, you folks at home, who will
read this about the time the last
stew has been extracted from the
bones of the New Years turkey?
viii you be SO completely launched
in the new year and with the holi-
days so far behind you that a story
about what Christmas meant in
France will have no more interest
for you than last years results in
the worlds championship series? If
SO, Of course | would not write this.
Without question there is a preva
lent belief at home that this is the
most happy Christmas France or
any of the agoniZed countries OF
{ Europe has seen for four years.
Peace has come, you say; therefore,
everybody in the land swept by the
flame Of war must be happy and full
of rejoicing. True, a great weight
OF terror has been lifted from bowed
shoulders over here, and every
where there is reborn light of con-
lidencc in the eyes OF folk who've
drained to the very lees all mag
Unable suffering and horrors. But,
after the throes Of war through
which France and her allies have
passed the softer moods of peace
have not come automatically with
the signing of the armistice.
In ono OF the Partisan papers yes
terday appeared an editorial head
ed, lust a Ham Bone" | worried
through that editorial with my linz
tied facility in the French and drew
therefrom a Christmas lesson which
was perhaps the strongest this holt
day season ever gave to me. The
editorial said that in the devastated
districts around Lille and Cambria
the poorer classes were paying two
and three francs for a ham bone
stripped entirely of the meat; that
they boiled the bone two and three
times and considered the resultant
broth luxury.
After these boilings," the edi-
torial went on to say, the bone it
self is split and the marrow, if any
remains, is given to the sick"
The Sober Truth.
Here is the sober truth, told me
by French soldiers who have just
returned to Paris from the devas-
tated areas: The north of France
from the Belgian border to Verdun
is in a worse state in the matter of
food now than under German domi-
nation. Because of scarcity of trans
portation facilities the government
has not been able to put sufficient
quantities of provisions into the
devasted areas to keep the popula-
ton out of want. Northern France
is starving.
Not only does food lack, but coal
is very scarce; thousands whose
homes were destroyed are without
adequate shelter; clothing and furni-
ture are equally wanting; medicines
Tor the sick are being supplied in
part by the medical corps of the
English and American armies. Here,
IN the. wreokage of war, there was
no Merry Christmas.
Belgium in Same State.
Nor are conditions greatly differ
ent in Belgium A dispatch from
Brussels in lie Matin of today said
that because of the embargo Hol-
land had put on the expectation Of
cheese and meats to Belgium there
was great suffering through all the
little kingdom. The Germans, as /
know from personal observation,
carried away with them all the cat
tie they could find; even chickens
and geese were not too paltry to be
overlooked by German foraging
parties turing the great retreat of
the autumn.
Even though the Belgian Relief
Commission still functions at top
pressure, every mouth cannot be
fed.
For all Of France another element
in the situation made for sad
Noel" Not > single man has yet
been demobilized from the French
army, though the opposition to the
Clentenceau government has forced
this question to a serious issue in
the chamber. This means that
more than 100000 homes were
without fathers, husbands or sons
this Christmas.
No, folks at home, this was not
very Merry Christmas over here.
You who sat down to turkey and
plum pudding must remember mis-
cry still exists in Europe, and when
another call comes to help relieve
it do not believe peace has put an
end to charity