Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1921-04-22
REMOVING THE SOLDIER DEAD.

Prominent Americans now in Eu-
rope are protesting against tho re-
moval of the bodies of the American
soldiers from tho cemeteries in
France, Tho Government promised
the families of the soldiers during
the war that when peace was ostab,
lishcd they would be given the priv
ilege of having the bodies of their
loved ones returned to America.
Many have taken advantage of this
and thousands of bodies have been
exhumed and shipped to America.
In letter to the New York Times,
Owen Wister, writing from Paris.
says:
"The other day, on my way to visit
Quentin Roosevelt's grave, l stopped
at the American cemetery near
Nesles. In smooth surf and among
white crosses cape ugly holes. Out
of these there were being dragged
what? Boys whom their mothers
would recognize? No! things with
out shape, at which mothers would
collapse. = This something can
not be cmbalmed, 1t is sprinkled
with disinfectant and shipped to Ho-
boken. They are dragged
from soil their sacrifice made sacred
and where, as company, they lay
in peace, their graves tended, their
memory historic and precious to
France. Now many go to the pot
ter's field. Such as are claimed are
taken to some family graveyard and
will soon be forgotten. Those who
mourn for them will be dead, too.
Had they been left in France they
would have been cherished as long rs
France endures.
"Three weeks ago I saw our great
cemetery at Ronange. Its grass was
green, its crosses white, and peace
and beauty filled it. In mid-May
forty per cent of those buried there
are to be dragged up and Romange
will look like an old mouth-half
teeth-half gums"
1t is not hard to appreciate the
feelings Of the grief stricken rela-
tives at home who feel that they
would be comfortcd Ito have the
bodies brought back. But there is an
other side to the picture. When Gen
eral Lee was asked to lend his sup
port to a movement to remove the
Confederate dead from Gettysburg
to their homes, he declined. saying
that he thought the fitting resting
place for soldier was on the field
of honor where he made the supreme
sacrifice.
Writing to the New York Times
on the subject of the removal OF
bodies of soldiers from France
Thomas Nelson Page also says:
mo more impressive tribute tc
American valor and American love
of freedom can be imagined thar
these cemeteries. Nearly every ont
speaks of it. Some are larger, some
are smaller, but wherever they are
one thrills at the sight of those ly
ing there, with thrill that nothing
else gives.
"Tho largest we say was the grea
cemetery at Romange, where ovel
$4,000 of our boys lie with the Amer
lean flag floating above them visibl,
for miles across the country they de
| Tended. We were led within thre,
minutes to the especial graves w,
had gone to see, so perfect is the re
gistry; but in fact as we stood among
they. all were especial. One felt per
sonal pride in every gallant spiri
whose mortal dust reposed there.
I'VE were told that the bodies ar
to be exhumed. Standing there |
!. seemed incredible. 1t seemed desecra
tion to dig them up. 1t would be i'm
possible could those who loved then
best see their present resting place
Lying on the old battlefield the
reDresent each one American il
France, and France will never fol
: get them. Lying there they will re
peat through the years TO Franc
the great truth that Pershing spok
when he said, Lafayette we ar
here" If our people could only kno,
how glorious they seem here the
would leave them to represent ther
on the field Of their glory"
Yellow Danver Onion Sets 2
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THE TIA ZEWETT QTYDprv ~