Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1921-03-17

IitkiG VCdoduko ~ bUIUIaTy SCHOOLS
Who Saw the War Tell What They
Remember Of It and What They
Thought-vaIuabis to the Future
Historian as Well a. to the PsychoI.
ogist Of the Present-Letters Show
Remarkable Gift Of Observation.
GOurnay-sur-Aronde Is q township
OF 700 people, situated In the Disc
department a short distance from Las
s'gny and Ressons-sur-Matz one Of
4 &c villages which have known for
years the worst devastation. the
worst misery.
A short time ago, while visiting the
ruins OF Lassigny and its Country
Community Center" l expressed re-
gret that nobody, neither the director
of primary instruction nor any school
inspector In the devastated regions,
had thought Of Conducting kind Of
8 inquest written by the children of
these regions; Of asking the little
peasants In the primary schools who.
had seen the war what they remem-
WI IL anu thcy tuOukHt. i
thought that some future historian. as
we'll as. some psychologist. at present
might find In some thousands Of these
compositions little library of a very.
original type and Of the highest Value.
- NJ. Delacourt, schoolmaster at GOur-
nay-sur ArOnde, knight Of the Legion
of Honor, and an eX-soldier who had
Just come hack to his little school
from the front read our suggestion In
the Primary Education Review, found 1t
good and hns utilized It In his classes.
A few days later l received. with
group OF compositions, the following
letter:
A 'Nine-Year-oid Historian.
II am sending you the compositions
just as they were handed In, without
correcting either grammar or spelling.
] must ask you to make many allow
ances for my poor children. They
were compelled to flee twice before the
enemy. some of them three times.
Since they have been shifted about
from one end Of France to the other
they have hardly been to school most
of them did not even know how to
read a year ago" :
The Youngest of all is Maxine Pic
ard, nine years old, who had q big
brother killed In the war. The teach.
er has taught him the events he could
not remember. He knows what the
victory Of the Marine is. hut his own
memories begin only at 1915. when he
was five years old. He remembers
exodus OF 1914.
an 1916 we came hack to stay in
our house. 1t was destroyed" :,
At seven. In 1918, Maxine Picard
was struck by the disorder Of the
fields. where people had dug trenches.
where they had brought tables and
made listening posts along the para
net "little holes for one man dug
ainng the edges" But the schoolboy
tells us that "the country is gradually,
being repaired" and since at the mo-
ment he was finishing his composition
the teacher probably was speaking Of
the loan. he remembered his master's
explanations. which form the end Of
his theme
France has suffered severely be-
cause she had not enough money to
pay for her soldiers and munitions
and II Is for this we should love her,
and lend her money to pay what she
owes to foreign countries"
This at nine years old! ::
child's View Of the War.
Louis Lefevre Is ten:
"ln 1914 papa was mohilized. We
heard the cannon roaring far away.
Three days later we had to leave with
almost nothing. We couldn't take any.
thing, as there was no room In the
carriage. At night we heard airplanes
sailing over our heads, we heard gun
shots. we had to 60 to bed all dressed.
One night we had to go to bed In the
street. Uhlans were passing and we
left for the Seine-Inferleure. The next
day the country was taken by the Ger
MANS" i
They fled to Eeufchatel, then to
Dieppe, ION the shore Of the Atlantic
ocean," The youngster. too young to
remember himself, tells what his par
ents told him about this journey, but.
like Maxine Picard, he remembers his
emotions on returning, burned chairs,
with the ashes still there" and that
the goat had stayed in the stable.
Marcel Denain, eleven years old,
took things with less philosophy. He
had seen war and understood 1t. And,
with a good. small. firm handwriting,
he knows already how to narrate, and
observes the beginning of the bonn
bardment of his village with sol:
dier's GOODNESS.
II noticed that after the cannon fire
of the Germans black clouds formed,
while the French guns made white
Ones" !,
Skirts and High Heels Cause Mishaps.
Tight skirts and high-heeled shoes