The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1921-01-14
There Is Not Much Change Ex-
q Oeptin the Spaces Between
49,, the Villages.
SHOWS HAVOC uNDISTURBED
The Soldier Who Goes Back to He
puuout in the Woods Is Likely. to
Find That Only the Rains
Have ,Rsshapsd It ss5

II
New York.-To any American com
ing back from France these days, the
first greeting from quondanI mem
Der OF the A. Il. 4. Is always this:
"Well, hOw's 1t look over there
Changed muchi"
To which, utter some futile short
lived notion of describing the great
mutilated stretch of France, with its
million discouragements and It's thou
sand and one evidences of renewing
life, the returning wanderer must
needs answer:
mo, not much"
For the impression that the old bat
tletieIds make Is Of havoc undisturDed.
paralysis incurred Alexander Wooh-
colt writes in the North American
Review. The soldier who goes back
to his old dugout In the woods near
Grand Pre- is likely to find that only
the steady rains have rcshaped II, that
the, old helmet the shell-hit. blew from
his head still lies where II fell two
years ago and more. The villages OF
the Meuse, the OurcQ. the Vesie ana
/ the Alsne look much as they did when
the American troops trudged out OF
them for the last time. 1t Is true that
the rubble Is gone from the streets
and the litter Of stone has been re-
duced to neat piles Of assorted pieces.
Here and there rough new cottage
has been fashioned from the materials
Of It's demolished predecessor. Al In
tervals there are unfamiliar shacks
and barracks But on the whole. Mont
faucon and Fere-en TardenOis and Ju-
vigny--they all look much as they did
When thu yanks started home. Vaux
that little Marne village which the ar.
tiIlery behind the ninth Infantry blew
10 bits In the excitement OF June. 1918
.a.-vaux has only one newebuiiding. IL
is not much Of q building at ihat--just
shack OF wood and taxpayer. AND
rsH N not a dwelling at all. IT 10 q
buvette.
Where improvemsnts Are Seen,
Il Is In, The spaces between the VII
lagos that the change Is so remark.
able. You see II even in the rolling
land OF the Argonne and the blasted
countryside Of the Chemin-des-Dames
/, For almost everywhere. some tillins
has been done ! - sts s@t
Visitors to the American graves near
Juvigny In the spring pf 1919 maryeled
In Ard that the old quarries along
the ravlne on the side Of the town
which had once served as divisional
headquarters. message centers and
,dugouts In time Of battle, were then
serving az homes for the first six o.
the returning families, 30 that children
were playing with the useless gai
masks cut In front while Spartan
perez neiges rbloomed at cave 90
frances and the weeks wash fiappet
in the wind.
Now another winter and another
summer have gone BY. The fields near
by have been largely cleared OF thei
wire and shells and have yielded som'
food and a little income to Juvigny
Perhaps 200 people are back In thu
town.
II is because Of this scantiness o
reconstruction as far as home. build
ing goes that. as you walk along I
ruined street. Juvigny seems de
serted city. But It Is hardly that ant
you realize as much with something
OF a thrill when In clearing ami'
the rubble, you come upon a barracl
and catch through the windows tn
undesirable drone Of childish voices
II Is a school and glance through
the window shows row on row OF pig