The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-02-23
PROBLEMS FACING
STRICKEN WORLD
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in Eu-
rope Follow the Great
World War
Article II.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.


that Jay Germany declared war Oh
Russia. The fire alarm rang around
the world. Peasants In the field
Strengthened their backs, listened and
looked into the sun confused, wonder
Ing. Flags were unfurled, bands
played, faces were white, tense and
serious. Men left their work and
talked in groups on the street corners.
Women laid down their brooms, put
aside their washing, and talked In
whispers; sad lights were in their
eyes. Children stopped playing. Some
thing had happened. Evil things were
ahead. August and found France
and Great Britain mobilizing their
sons. The torch was sweeping Eu-
rope-the fire Of death had started.
For four long years-heart-sicken
ing years-the world ran red. Men
waded through mud and blood, fought,
suffered, cursed. prayed, while back
home in the manless houses women
and children worked, cried, prayed
and waited. The world was mad
Death poisoned every breath the
people breathed.
1t is over now, it 10 finished. A
stunned, numbed, weak, heartbfoken
Europe Is again sitting In the sun Of
peace. Europe Ia In dirty black rags.
The black Is mourning, the rags are
poverty. Her face is deeply lined
trenches made by suffering. Her eyes
are downcast and dead. Hope nutters
weakly in her breast; faith has faded
from her soul. Her home ia q house
OF darkness. The fire on the hearth
has turned to cold gray ashes. The
kettle NO longer sings, 1t means. Her
mind 10 weary, her body 10 wasted.
Hunger has robbed her OF her strength.
Her stOckingless, shoeless feet are
blue from the cold. Her lips wear
starvation color. Ice In the winters
wind lashes her shiverin9, half-naked
body. She mumbles az she stares va
cantly into space-shs is tired, 20
tired. As beheld her 1t seemed 70
me that q face 80 troubled and sad
must never have known O smile.
/ listened to her muttsrinas. found
that she was counting. Over and over
again she counted on her thin, hred,
worn hands-shs was counting her
dead
Thinking 81 Her Lees.
She was thinking. Her eyes looked
over the hundreds of thousands Of
square miles Of war zone, slashed
with trenches, pitted and pockmarked
by shells. She sees where they fell.
No tears are In her eyes. Long ago
the hurt had reached the point where
tears dry up. Row upon row, line
upon line, mile upon mile, white
painted wooden crosses mark their
graves. For the most part they were
her youngest born, her most beloved,
who dug deep In the soil to sleep for
ever in the dark dugouts.
As they fell bleeding frsm steel and
lead. choking from gas. writhing In
agony from dre, they proved In the dy-
Ing word they spoke that they were
mere boys, a. they had shown In their
fighting that they were brave men. To
the poppies they intrusted their mes
sage, and the red poppies remember
the last word Of Europe's dying sons,
who went out into the great beyond
with this last word on their lips,
Mother"
She has finished counting; an ache
shudders through her bent body. She
siRhs and sobs, Seven and n half mil
lion of my sons are dead"
Her thoughts turn to the living, her
arms open to receive them, she holds
them to her heart. They have come.
but hewf
Some with sightless eyes, doomed to
Krope through the world In q never
ending darkness q night without stars
or moon; sunless, black, hopeless days.
and these, tso. young men in the very
morning Of their day.
Others sentenced to silence-deaf
and dumb. Never again will she hear
their voices nor will they hear hers.
Still others in wheel chairs. dwarfed.
legless.
More hsbbling on crutches. Hmping
on canes.
Some with empty sleeves.
Many with great scars. where once
was q handsome face.
She sees them all, her heart bleeds
the twisted, the mangled. the torn.
She In counting them, the 12.616.017.
| the wounded Of the war.
Wars FrishtfuI Cost.
Her voice is husky, her hands are
| tired. but she must count on. Six and
q half million Of her sons were marked
missing and prisoners" In the Official
| war score Many Of these have come
back to her. but she does not question
| thsrn-she dare not. Their faces tell
Of the unspeakabIe horrors thsy en-
epxsA, ehs seas In their eyes q deDth