The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1921-01-29
There Is Not Muchve Aanse Ex-
cept in the Spaces Between
the Villages.
SHOWS HAVOC uNDlsTURBED
The Soldier Who Goes Back ID His
pusout in the Woods Is Likely to
Find That Only the Rains
Have Reshaped 1t.

New York.-To any American COM
ing back from France these days, the
first greeting from quondam men,
Der of the A. E. F. is always this:
We'll, how's it look over there? |
Changed much"
To which, after some futile short |
lived notion Of describing the great
mutilated stretch Of France, with, its
million discoaragements and its thou
sand and one evidences of renewing
life, the returning wanderer must
needs answer:
mo, not much"
For the impression that the old bat
tlefelds make is Of hayec undisturbed,
paralysis uncured, Alexander Wooll-
colt writes in the North American
Review. The soldier who goes back
to his old dugout in the woods near
Grand Pre- isilikely to find that only
the steady rains have reshaped it,. that
the old helmet the shell-hit blew from
his head still lies where it fell two
years ago and more. The villages OF
the Meuse, the Ourcq. the vesie and
the Aisne 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 its demolished predecessor. At in
tervals there are unfamiliar shacks
and barracks. But on the whole, Mont
faucon and Fere-en-Tardenois and Ju-
yigny-they an look much as they did
when the Yanks started home. Vaux
that little Marine village which the ar
tillery behind the ninth infantry blew
ito bits in the excitement Of June, 1913
-Vaux has only one new building. 1t
Is not much Of building at that-1ust
4 a shack Of wood and taxpayer. And
1T is not a dwelling at all. It Is q
buvette.
s. Where improvements Are Seen.
u It is. in the spaces between the vii.
lagos that the change is so remark.
able. You zee It even in the rolling
land of the Argonne and the blasted
countryside of the observation-disclosures
For almost everywhere some tillins
has been done.
z Visitors t0ffe American graves neal
Juvigny in the spring OF 1919 marveiee
20 snd that the old quarries along
the ravine on the side of the town
which had once served as divisional
4 headquarters. message centers ant
dugouts in time of battle, were theI
sar-:ng as homes for the first six O
the returning families, SO that children
were playing with the useless ga
masks out III front while Spartan
nerce-neiges blooined at cave en-
frances and the weeks wash fiappe'
in the wind.
Now another winter, and anothe
summer have gone by. The fields neal
~ have been largely cleared Of thei
wire and shells and have yielded som
Good and little income TO Juvigny
Perhaps 200 people are back in tn
town.
roconstructfon as far as home buiic
80 coes mat. as you walk along
;nea street. Juvigny seems d.
.a-ted city. But 1t is hardly that an
va,, reolize as much with somethin
Of thrill when in clearing ami
the rubble, you come upon Darrac
"a catch through the windows II
srn,stakable drone Of childish voice
- :" school and q glance throug
~ - ,,,,aaow shows row on row OF pi