The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-05-20
Tour of French Battle fields, Scenes ofGreat American Victories, Reveals Few Radical Changes

erces by any one of the two million Americans who fought in France. Now. two years and half after fighting ceased, we present our readers a vivid pen pic ture of the more famous battle grounds made ever memorable by American vic tories. One of our staf's Paris Bureau men has just completed q Journey over the ground and his report is the latest word on the subject.
 copyright, 1921, by THE NEW YORK HERALD.
 Paris. Saturday. TN every hamlet, town city in ths United States which can boast of a IL branch of the American Legion, or even a casual gathering of three or fou- former wearers of 70 D." you can choose your odds that some time during the even ing some one will suggest in reminiscent tones:
 Say, Bud. do you remember Montfau- con?" Or it may be Chateau Thierry, or Naux or Soissons, or Bony, or Fresnes, or Luneville-in fact, any of the hundred-odd points east of Paris where the American army fought the Germans
 And Bud with a faraway look in his eyes. will reply wistfulIy:
 "Remember it? I should gay do! That dugout on the north side of the hill nearly made me permanent casualty I wonder if the fronts just the same as ever.''
 Take it from this newspaper, Bud, it is-and, then again, it isn't! From Cha teau Thierry and sossons to the frontiers of Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg changes have been wrought. Here ordinary life is being revived; there whole villages have been hopelessly abandoned. Here can be found constant evidences of gratitude for fo western world; there gratitude is impos- sibIe as those whose lands were invaded by the Germans have lost faith in their own capacity to "come back and are seeking easier lives in villages and towns untouched by the horrors of war.
 Here constant efforts to rebuild national power; there. in the war torn regions which bore the brunt of the first German onslaught. even the danger of death has not been en- tireIy removed, for trenches and dusouts still contain an unchanging quota of unde- stroyed explosives. Here increasing com fort; there incomp parable mIsery-but with it all a general spirit of fatalism and even some confidence that Frances ruins will some day be entirely repaired and France herself rise to greater power than she has known since the days of the Sun King.
 Chateau Thierry as It Is To-day;
 
 The douehboys and marines who aided in the winding up of the Watch on the Rhine will not all be able to come to France this year, or perhaps for many years hence But they will come, and it is only meet that they know what they may expect when they do arrive.
 Certainly for many years to come the chief interest of Americans. whether soldiers |0a rod in surrounding Chateau Thierry, where Amer ican valor and ingenuity received its first critical test in the great war and where the German hordes were finally convinced that their dreams of occupying Paris were ot the fimsiest sort of structure.
 Close to Paris, only hour and a half iy train and less by automobile, the visitor is given e startling proof of what the war meant to the home owners of France, while numerous military cemeteries which stud the whole region tell their own story of heroic effort to save the worlds capital from the Eastern barbarians. With a vfsion of Cha teau Thierry and its countryside of ruins the average tourist seldom cares to see more Of the war torn areas
 A few may visit the batt1efields of the Ar eonne or St. NihcI: others may be attracted to the Nosgss, where individual divisions completed their training for more serious work under the tutelage of adjacent French divisions; some may go northward to Sois- sons or eveu to the scene of the valiant at tscl5s which gained the Hindenburg tunne, for, the allied armies-but these will Ee the ones who are attracted by the fact that some members of their families gave their all in the final advance. Railroad communication to other areas than Chateau Th1erry all work against tine creation of new pilSriTna ge centres notwithstanding the fact that in many areas the American effort was greater even more costly. than in the region nearer Paris and history text books of the future will place the activities of MOutfauCon- Va rennes Fresnes-en- WoeVre on a parity with the mightiest onslaughts of the civil war and second only in the history of the con fict with Germany to the four years hero ism of the defenders of Verdun or fpres- Scared Scenery Much the Same
 As When the Doughboys Departed
 The returning veteran of the fighting around Chateau Thierry wilI-at least until Germany begins to pay for the damage she has caused-fnd the scenery badly scared. but much as he left 1t in 1918 The htllsides surrounding VauN and Bouresches and es- pecially the famous Hill 204, from which the Germans lookod q down upon Chateau Thierry with covetous eyes. are still marked by the sheu torn tree trunks. while thousands of shell holes only partially filled by Nature s kindly attempt to conceal the memories of the past to-day prove the bane of the local farmers existence. Thousands of these holes have been filled in by the farmers them selves but along the outskirts Of NauX can be found the trace of the opening barraEe which prepared the way for the Ninth In