Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1920-11-25
CLAIM. old HOMES
French Peasants Repairing Dew
astation Of War.
Cheerful Sights Seen in Districts Rav.
aged by the Hun HOrdes--Nsw
Villages Arising From
Heaps Of Ruins.

La France is ian American maya
zine which aims to promote Franco
American sympathy and understand
ing, says the New York Times, and is
conducted by group Of public-spirit-
ed citizens. Recent numbers have
contained notable records Of the re-
vival of agriculture and industry in
the devastated region, photographs
showing the progress which has been
made In rebuilding churches and
canals, and significant statistics as to
the great recent increases in taxation,
thanks to which France hopes to fund
and eventually wipe out her wartime
debt. Most Impressive of ALL how
ever is the story of French failure
as told by Claude Riviere.
In certain devastated districts the
villages had been so thoroughly pull
verified and the soil so completely
blasted that it seemed impossible to
repopulate them. Not a house was
remaining, nor a tree and instead of
the familiar green heritage there came
"a curious yellowish grass, utterly I'M
like anything seen before in this part
of the country" With characters
tically dramatic instinct, the authori-
ties planned to keep these districts
as they were, and especially such
places as had been the scene Of signal
and memorable examples of German
barbarity They were to be an exam
pie and warning-the 'red zone"
But these dramatists reckoned with
cut their hero-and heroine. Deep in
the heart of the zone rouge. amid
scenes of volcanic" devastation. NJ
Riviere saw through his field glass a
tiny green square upon a distant hill
side.N 1t proved to be a cultivated
field. ian oasis In the desert" Dis
regarding the new law which protect
ed" the zone rouge, peasant had re-
turned to the site of his old home.
had himself removed the unexploded
shells from his soil-24 of them were
lined up by the road-and so he had
established himself as producer once
more, if only on a tiny strip. I'VE
have always plowed the land" he said
to NJ Riyiere; 1--WE must pillow again"
In what was once the village of Nan
teuil la Fosse. NJ. Riviere found an
old woman who was somehow man
aging to live alone in the dismal wreck
of her home, though she had to walk
ten miles to buy food She said sim
ply that she wanted to die, in her own
house veux MOURN dams. ma
maison." A more cheerful sight in
the zone rouge is village which for
merly housed 800 people, all but FIVE
of whom have returned.
A correspondent of the London
Times bears similar witness. The
most recent battlefeM guide book con.
tains a picture entitled "All That Is
Left of HOoge-the Signboard." But
the traveller finds that new HODGE
is already rising upon this site Of so
many bitter scenes In the battles for
Ypres. Even the local guides have
their troubles. One of them, having
announced TO his tourists that Guile
mont was so completely destroyed that
no attempt could ever be made to re-
build It. discovered upon reaching the
site that four houses had been erected
in his brief absence, and were already
occupied, the children playing In the
streets.
From the nation to which such
things are possible much is to be ex-
pected. Heroic as it was in war, 1t
has equal vigor and tenacity in the
arts Of peace.