The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-05-08

based on a French original by its
German author and reprinted in this
country In the edition of the Lduiag
Age for April 16 of this year:
JEANNE D'ARc ON LONG ISLAND.
From Paris, by way of German
channel, comes the following comment
regarding a statue OF JEANNE p,ARc
said to have been recently placed in
a church at Elmhurst, Long Island.
Introducing the anecdote with the
obser yation that no such statue has
been set up in England, and that the
incident has been featured as an indi-
cation Of Franco-American friend
ship. the narrator says:
1.-THE statue has a history. The
details are not even yet fully known.
One of the boulevard dailies has
merely limited at the story
"'Soldiers of the Sixtieth Regi-
ment OF the United States Infantry
took the statue home with them.
"'They did not collect public SUBJ
scriptions and commission sculptor
to make it.
Neither are such statues of more
than life size commonly found in
antiquary shops.
$50 our Paris newspaper remarks
that 1t is surmised that some French
commune is mourning the loss of
one of it's works of art.
"'Of course, this paper says, no
one would accuse the soldiers Of
stealing such monument. (The
German comment is that this is a
charge reserved for the Hum
1.-The Americans carried off the
statue in an excess of enthusiasm.
as a memorial Of the sacred cause OF
the Allies
AS this undisclosed German writer
says, the statue Of st. JEANNE D'ARc
recently set up on Long Island has
a history, but it is not a tale OF
footing which his comment
suggests. 1t involves, instead, a rec
ord Of friendship and mutual esteem
marked by transaction in which the
French and American,
may well take pride.
For four years the memorial under
stood on the firing line in
France, midway between the villages
Of Ban-de-Laveline and Wisenbach,
which together form a single parish.
In 1914 the pastor Of the two villages
was taken prisoner by the Germans
and held hostage for the good conduct
)f Wisenbach, which was occupied by
them during the entire four years of
the war. Ban-de-Laveline thus was
left without a priest.
When the American Expeditionary
Forces arrived in France the Slxtieth
Regiment of Infantry, an organization
Of the Regular Army serving in the
Fifth Division, took over the trenches
which ran through the village of Ban
The chaplain of this reg
iment was the Rev. Father WARD G..
S. L. D., an energetic and
devoted priest, who, finding the village
without pastor, sought and obtained
from the American army command
and from the bishop of the diocese
permission to perform the duties OF
the village parish in the hours ht
could spare from his military Office
This labor he did without impairment
of his work In his regiment.
Upon the return of the American
Expeditionary Forces D their HON,
Father MEEHAN resigned his commits
sion to become pastor of new
parish then being organized in Elm
hurst, and which was to come into
being June 1, 1920. No name had as
yet been chosen for the parish, ant
the canonizatlon Of st. JEANNE OAR,
on May 10 Of that year suggesting
that her name be given to 1t, thi
was done, the Angllcized form, 81
JOAN or ARC, being used for this pur
pose. The parish was the first In til,
United States, IL not in America, t
bear the name.
In recognition OF this the statue o
st. JEANNE D'ARo which had stood OF
the firing line in France near Ban-de
Lavelne was presented by the poo
pie OF that village to the parlshioner
OF st. Joan of Arc In Elmhursi
and IL now ornaments the church ed
flee, testifylng 10 the services Il
France of the American soldiers an
to the respect and affection In whicl
Father MEEHAN Is held by the
French flock to which he ministers
while on duty with the Sixtieth Rec
iment abroad.
The statue came to this country Il
January of this year. 1t was crecte'
and solemnly blessed Sunday, Janu
airy 80. Father MEEHAN officiatec
assisted by the Rev. Father JONI
FINN, his successor as chaplain Of th
Sixtieth United States Infantry; tn
Rev. Father X. j. HAMILTON, fir
chaplain of Brooklyn, and the Re,
Father JAMES MCMAHON, rector o