Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-12-24
CLAIM old HOMES
French Peasants Repairing Dev-
aStation of War.
Cheerful Sights Seen In Districts Raw.
aged by the Hun Hordes-New
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 a group of public-spilit-
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 inci eases 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 a 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
che familiar green heritage there came
"a curious yellowish grass, utterly UNI
uh, anything SeeIi before in this part
of the country" With a characteris-
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 a Warning-thc "red zone
But these dramatiSts rcckoned with
out 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. II proved to he a cultivated
field, IAN oasis in the desert" Dis
regarding the new law which protect
sd the zone rouge, Il peasant had re-
turned to the site of his old home
had himself removed the uneXploded
shells from his sOil--2i of them were
lined up by the rOad-and so he had
established himself as a producer once
more, If only on tiny strip. eve
have always ploWed the land" he said
TO NJ. Riviere I'VE must pillow again"
In what was once the village of Nan
teuil la Fosse. NJ. Rivere 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-"Je veux MOURN dams ma
maison.' \ more cheerful sight in |
the zone rouge is a village which for
meriy housed 500 people, all but five
of whom have returned.
correspondent of the London |
Times bears similar witness. The |
most recent battlefield guide book con- |
tains picture entitled, "Al 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 |
Gpres. Even the local guides have |
their troubles One of them, having |
announced to his tourists that Guile |
mont was so completely destroyed that |
nv "ttChiPt toutu CNei De uldue 10 re- |
build 1t, 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-
peeted, Heroic as it was in war, II |
has equal vigOr and tenacity in the |
arts of peace.