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

the Marine at Chateau-Ih1erry are con
, our troops checked the final rush of
,attle that marked the turning point o.
during the ages, but was always re-
stored.
The castle was built during the
ninth century by the Archbishop of
Rheims. The ninth century! Eight
or nine hundred years after Christ.
That castle was begun 900 years be-
fore Rome was sacked by the Van
dals, and about 200 years before one
of the Vikings came down from
Greenland and discovered America.
IT was two centuries old when Will
liam the ConQueror landed in Eng
land, and coo years old when Column
bus discovered America. It was in
existence almost 1000 years before
We declared our Independence of
Great Britain. Nevertheless, 1t was
battered to pieces almost in a night;
and the town and castle are now a
mass of rubbish. representing 10000
pounds of dynamite which the Ger
mans used at the time to blow UP the
Chateau. Some of the arches and
towers are still standing. and the
front of the castle is almost intact,
although its walls are cracked and
unsafe.
A Him Shot In North France
We shall now leave the automobile
to climb up the hill. We wind our
way among ruins that remind US of
Raaihec and Carthage. We wander
through streets which the feudal
knights trod, picking cur way in and
oat of broken stones like those OF
"A quarry. We pass battered white
arch at the entrance of the city. and
stop in q doorway covered with
masses Of green ivy while the camera
shoots.
We climb III, to the castle and sit
down on It's ruins. Beneath US in the
Aisne valley are some of the finest
farming lands of north France. with
Few buildings rising out Of them. we
can count 10 towns within the rang.
of our vjsion-great red blotcbes on
the green and geld under our eyes.
Right below us are portable houses
rooted with sheets of galvanized iron.
and near them the scaffolding and
stones that denote new construction.
Looking over the plain. cur eyes fol-
low the roads that. crawl like white
snakes through the green. The au-
tonobiles that fly over them look like
bugs. The three Percheron horses of
that farm cart are like toy animals
1t koahs Ark size, and the motor
cycle flying behind it is little more
than an ;,nt cL the run.
some New American Work
Most Of the rebuilding is in the
villages at the foot of the hill, and
il is there that one of the latest cen
tiers of the American committee for
the devastated regions is busy at
work. 1t is under the direction of
Mrs. Anton-Smith of Ohio and Wash
ington. and she has with her per-
haps half a dozen American women.
] remember one bright young Phila-
delphia girl who has the same name
as mine. / went With her to the room
where the clinic for babies is held,
and as | looked at the little basket
on scales in which the infants are
weighed J asked her if she did the
weighing. She replied:
NO, I'm not nurse. I'm a
'chauff''
That means she is a chauffeur. for
this little branch of our American
work Nevertheless. she is hardly
out of her teens. and. like the cap
tains of industry who came to Wash
ington during the war, she gives her
services for a dollar year.
The work at Coucy-1e- Chateau is
largely devoted to the teaching If
children. the instruction of the moth
ers and taking care of the poor. The
buildings are rude shacks but they
are beautifully cared for and well
equipped. There is one shop about
twenty feet square where the boys
are taught carpentry, and others in
which girls and women learn domes-
tic science and trades. There Is q
good library, consisting of French
books. which are changed twice a
month, and many children's books.
including Uncle Remus' "Brer Rab-
Bit" which has been translated into
French, with the same illustrations
as are used in America,
Adopt Towns Like Babies
This is only one type of what
America, England and some other
countries have been doing in France
l could fill this paper with the stories
and figures of our own special work.
The great job is being done by the
French. but the contributions of out
siders are beyond the conception OF
those who lived before the World
war. This American committee for
devastated France has already sent
over donations amounting to about .
million and a half dollars. and sup