The Washington herald., 1921-05-29
NJ I S S

/ TOMORROW Is Memorial
Day-Here Is the Story of
One Graue in France, a
Mothers Pilgrimage, and
Its Strange Ending.
TINE great days are past and Belcotreaux
sleeps In the sun. Yet once. not so
u long ago. 1t was almost part Of Amer
ica. with boys In khaki outnumbering its
simple provincial French Inhabitants and
svarmtnx tumultuously through the Grande
Rse-Main street. you Ike. 1t was not for
-hess memories that had come there: It
-r.s rather for . Gothic doorway and for an
altzr-pi IN the Church Of St Roch, attrib-
utsd, quite falsely. I feel sure. to PHILIPPE do
Champagne
Indeed I bad como 10 Europe determined
not 10 visit battlenelds, but instead to revive
the days when 1t had been possible to lounge
careIessly and happily in any corner of that
admirable continent and to believe seriously
that gray carvings and faded paintings had
any Importance in the world But in Main
street-Grands Rue, II you LIKE had met
defeat For In this picturesque curving
thoroughfare In imagination one could not
but hear the tramp Of the boys feet and
hear their gay laughter as by night they
must have come home from the Cabaret
hondatn-
Family In the air still hung some pleasant
perfume Of that odd great republic of the
west whose sons had once enjoyed the mea-
ger gayeties Of Belcotreau1
say meager advisedly and indeed with
special reference to the Cabaret honddin, .
peculiarly squaHd and grim little cafe which
had discovered my first evening in the little
city. lay claim, however, to being not
only an expert to town pleasures but also
q philosopher concerning them And real
lied that In dun little Belcotreaux any gayety
v2s better than none. and that even the
tesolats little sale with q corrugated iron
rcof and the almost more desolate ladies who
occasionally obliged with . song bright
ened the night
realized also that with laughing crowds
Of boys in khaki seeing life" in France
against all odds. the wretched place might
indeed have sparkled- So much for Belco-
treaurs poor pleasure center we pass.
We are to return to it
It Is indeed at the very heart of the small
story have to tell. a story which links Bel
eotreaux with a fairly inconspicuous village
In Northern Ohio. \ linking only possible
upon q planet absurdly small we havs
ell lately come to recognize this earth Of
ours to be.
Ny nrst evening" had intended II should
be my last-had been spent as has been
Indicated, partly In the Caboret Mondatn
listening to q lady ridiculously called Miss
sunshine-ta tribute. I felt. to the American
occupationSwith a worn, dissipated, yet at
tho same time lovely and tragic face. sing
ballads In that sharp. cracked voice of the
cafe concert. partly IN the Grande Rue
watching the moon come up behind the
Church Of St Roch-
I remember thinking that these two pleas
ures though DIVERSE, must have been those
Of many 4 boy by turns happy to be in
France and homesick to be In America And
as went slowly TO bed with my broad win
dow wide open upon the silent town.
thought. had perhaps not thought BE-
fore. OF all the random memories Of this fair
land which must live In the hearts Of young
men at home who walk our American streets
with outward hint that they remember
such towns as Belcotreau1-even Miss Sun
Etttns and her songs, perhaps.
Such emocseos and such meditations are
not unusual; lay no claim to their betray-
ing any fash Of genius. Yet believe It to
b true that the story Of the interplay Of
influence upon America and Amer
ioa upon Francis not yet written nor even
undarstood- The small tale have to tell Is
safy tie slightest contribution to It
had meant to 30 On after lunch the next
day to Riem, = small gem Of q town mostly
unversd by tourists Meanwhile I idled the
morning away in BeIcetreaux There il
nothing much to report except that It was
market day-elways an agreeable, bustlinx
event In . small French town. I stin be-
revs the alleged PHILIPPE de Champagne to
Be not authentic There Is. however, a most
pleasant, dirty tangle of narrow streets
around St Roch's church and by the river
some lovely and unsanitary half f-ttmbered
cottages with the smallest dooryards imas-
Unable. capable Of holding. perhaps. two rose
bushes or . half dozen Of pink perennial
phlox-
always IKE lingering by a rivers brim.
md that morning most contentedly did so,
wondering Idly whether to philosophically
minded young man. who was no longer very