Putnam patriot., 1921-05-13

preach us with enthusiastic plans for @ re-Visiting of those scenes which were the theatre Of his service in the war. our hrief advice to him would be Don't do it. For just as sGrely as he pictures in his minds eye the piac- es and the people which were the hap py memories that he brought out Of the struggle. just as surely he is going to let himself in for q decided disap- pointmen. Nothing is as it was ex- cept the background of the million activities of the army The returning veteran Of the American Army in l France will find himself feeling very much like an octogenarian who re- turns to the home of his youth There he may find the house and the familiar view, but gone are the treasured faces of hss memory and new and [ fa- miliar race holds the threshold.
 Paris. for all is charm and inter- est. could hardly hold usl 70 anxious were We 10 ee, back te Teursine. the "Garden of France" and the former scene ef the manifold aetivities of the American Service ef Supply. where one of us had spent fen months of ser- vice in those barometer Ike months of 1g1s when the tide of war rose from the despairiug success of the Germans in Che spring to their com Blete r0ut and the Armistice of No aember From the train we viewed eestatieallg each familiar scene Or leans where the blue lights of the air fai8s had ended. Blois. that Waterloo Of officers returned from the front, and finally old Tours with its parallel rivers. it's gardens and chateau2 and guardian towers of eharlemaTne and St Martin
 4 little over three years before VIZ had entered Tours in very different manner. l. had been a aawless day in late April American airplanes how erred over Che old town forty thousand American soldiers and officers were organizing and re-orranizing the ar my's sources of supplies Olive drab motors and trucks rushed down the hlflF HAAAtaH aH taH fAfH#A tAHA HAN HAA# ttfA# TOW streets Sturdy khaki mingled with the horizon blue of the eonyales- cents of a myriad hospitals. The war was being pushed on down here at the lrear with an the organized frenzy 8f the more direct participants a little further to Che eas on the teemlns map ef France
 In returning, in our mind Is e2e We had seen this wartime Tours and while We realized that the American occupation of middle France E n7wa matter of history. ae were certain af "a reminiscent jos .a tHe teyisiuae af many familiar scenes. af reunion. Nifh French friends If that peri9i ai stress aud happy eamradshIp. af ths poignant IoY of recalling here ceH taH small celebration. there mameai of happy relaxation from the eteEnHf Iy dull routine ef barracks life.
 , But it wns not Co be SO Gut ef tAa station into the sunlight of the Erass. less place we walked into the somno# lenec of Sunday afternoon. The horde of army motors had given way to a line of dropping horse cabs. Along the boulovards trooped quiet family groups where before there had been a thousand doughboys and their mad amoiselles" Tours had become once more the quiet. studious, gray old Boston of France" With enviable elasticity she had reverted without de- lay to the calm of pre-war days.
 Wc fled Co the country and In a hitle village high above the Cher we found friends. unchanged except that che war had been good Co them and tbree sons had returned safely from the struggle So ae feasted and toast ed the reunion and talked and talked into the late hours
 The next moralae began real tour af remniseeHee Early we trailcd down between hieh walis that led to Che road to Tours and on the funny httle tram how We laughed a; chat httle tram ln the ald days we jerked along the rlver road lHto town. to= Fother with tHe Touruneelles in their dainty lace caps and black aprons and Che market men all crowded on the back platform and each pulling away at an unruly ani very smelly cigarette of hlack tobacco Every step 1f the way brought back ,o us the hours of army lie There was the Cher and the point Whcrg one snatcaed m.n- ute for sWim before sunset and be- youd the long avenue under the pop- lar trees where one walked ia Che eaol hours pf e4ely evening
 Wt wrat first to t8e old Bar racks "66. -that huge gaa|lranr If gray buildings sgt about a blcas lnn ground where aa worked es @ 8a slept ia The attendant eayaiey stables by neht Oh. boy But those had been the days rher, Vas the ittc house tbat served 4s kitchen for tHe outfit, where one had st56t for .ehoW and read =aH toe HfleH1aHt= ly lhe bulky irgters from home And there had beei. the band that played evrry day at noon lhe tan,z that .aos one hatk Co Broadway or Npsiant
 But all was changed X French seu-