The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-26

oat fields, each of which contains so
acres or more. The town folk own
a tractor and other farm machinery
in common, and are producing larger
crops than in 1914. The peasants will
probably erect huge barns of brick,
rooted with red tiles, such as stand
amid the grain in other parts of the
new agricultural regions, crimson
landmarks of the reconstruction that
has been going on since the armistice.
The new village will be like the
old one, except that it will have to
conform to the building regula tons
now laid down by the government
The French peasant does not want
modern houses. and he abominates
the big windows and the sanitary
methods which our people advise. AS
a result. the government has had to
insist that none OF the towns adopted
up except in accord with the govern
ment plans.
A Pot Of Feudal Gold
have talked with Miss Belle Skin
ner. of Holyoke. Mass. who is spend
ing something like quarter of a
million dollars in rebuilding the little
town of Hattonchatel in the Meuse.
She has practically no control over
the reconstruction, although she has
done much by her suggestions to
make the houses hygienic. j do not
believe that she could design a door
step and have ii approved. ana as
for putting in big windows and bath
rooms, the people object.
1t was in the ruins of Hatton-
chatel that the men digging the new
founda lions discovered a great pot
OF coins which they gave to Miss
Skinner. The coins were the savings
of a French peasant of ages ago.
They were of all denominations and
some of them were coined in the
middle ages. 1t was one OF the
numismatic finds of the century. and
ancient pieces of money TO the Ma
tional Museum in Paris.
Alan SeeEer's Rendezvous
And just here l wish to pay a
tribute to Alan Seeger. the boy who
of all others, perhaps. best typifies
the spirit Of our American youth
during the World war He was a
child of four when / first met Mss
father and mother in Mexico City in
1892. and was just %, when in
bayonet charge on the German
trenches in Belloyen-Santerre he was
killed. 1t was only several weeks
after the war broke out that he
entered the French foreign legion
in which he fought to the day of
his death. Reared in the lap o.
luxury, schooled in the United States
and France, a graduate of Harvard.
and closely associated with the best
intellectuals of Paris. before the war
came his name had become known
as a poet through his "Juvenilia."
With no knowledge of hardships
and of delicate heath, he jumped into
the thick of active field service, slept
in the trenches. did sentry duty and
fought again and again until his
death rendezvous came. His con-
sitution hardened under the terrible
gruelling that such soldiers had; and
he was strong enough to write some
of his mostt wonderful poems on the
very eve of battle. He wrote better
and better up to the day he was
killed, and his work will last as one
of the literary landmarks of tie war.
His poems have been collected and
published by Scribners. and sold to
such an extent that the royalties
from them have already amounted to
many thousands of dollars. Most of
this sum Mr.. and Mrs. Seeger have
given to the Bellies Lettres branch Of
the American library in Paris: and
the remainder they are donating to
the libraries now being established
for the French by the American COM
mittee fer the devastated religions.
The French have so appreciated Alan
Seeger that they have given 100000
francs to establish a monument to
the foreign legion, consisting of
pedestal on which is his statue by
one of the leading sculptors of
France. This is now being made, and
it will soon be erected in the Place
des Etats-Unis, where President
Wilson lived while at the peace con-
ference.
/ close this feeble tribute with
two verses from "The Rendezvous
with DEATH"
at have a rendezvous with death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rust
ling shade
and apple blossoms fill the air.