Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-25
GOLD STAR MOTHERS
ARE INVADING FRANCE
Mental Peace and End to Anxiety Fore
seen i'm Journey to Foreign
Burial Grounds.
Continued From First Page. }

brought soil from his native State to
put q bit of it on the graves OF It's
fallen sons. blind GIRL from Cali
fornia. who was State chaplain of the
Legion Auxiliary there, completed our
party.
We sped along the banks of the
tragic and historic Marine to where
. decade ago, has quite rebuilt itself.
Six miles out of the town. around the
base of the hill that bears Bellesu
Woods, graceful rows Of Snow-white
marble crosses, curving in conformity
with the lay of the land, cover o tract
of "a acres that belong to the United
States. This Is the Aisne- Marine Gene
terry. Here sleep forever 2.26S men who
died In the early fighting Whereabouts.
q number, amounting to about 10 per
cent buried there who are known only
to God"
A former American soldier Is in charge
and the French girl he has married
grows flowers for his comrades graves.
The Stars and Stripes float from tall
Flagstaff. And the "a acres Is as care
fully developed and tended as is that
similar hillside that slopes down from
the Capitol in Washington and faces
the broad stretch of Pennsylvania ave-
ten; it has kept faith-and there is no
lack of visible proof of Its measure Of
the sacrifice of the Gold Star Mothers.
A little further on Is the Oise-Aisne
Cemetery, where 5000 sleep. their rest
ing places reverently tended. Many OF
these were of the Rainbow Division
which fought over this ground In July
1918. Here among the rest stands q
simple marble cross which bears the
IS ~
Brunswick, N. j., who wrote:
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can makes tree.
A little farther on, in q wheat field
with no road leading to 1t, accessible
only after a tramp over plowed ground
Is the grave Of Quentin Roosevelt, lying
where he fell and buried by the Ger
mans, with the wheels of his wrecked
plane to mark the spot. His relatives
have put slab over his grave and OH II
are chiseled the words. He has out.
scared the shadow of our night" Nearby
is the town of Chambrey, where they
have set up fountain for man anC
beast, with an inscription which reads
He Is not f1t to live who Is afraid tc
die" Thus does the brave spirit Of the
Roosevelts call Others to a courageous
acceptance OF their losses.
Rheims Cathedral Repaired.
On past Rheims, where the noblest oil
cathedrals stood battle-scarred but un-
bowed. Its wounds were in the process
of being healed through the bounty Of
an American philanthropiSt who wa:
paying the bills while SculptorS and ar.
chitects lent love to their labors thai
this masterpiece Of past ages might &C
unblemished to the future, and where
sturdy Joan Of Arc, who had here
crowned q King, stood guard out front
on her chiseled charger
Then to Verdun. where four square
miles of battlefields have drunk more
human blood than any other area II
times its size since the world began
Here are rolling hills around Vaux ant
Douaumont, much like those OF Vir'
ginia, across the river from Washington
| They used to be covered with trees, but
! they are barren now. Captured and re-
captured We're these fortS-Deuaumon
l6 times. One stands there on the
| crest of q ridge, from which can be Seel
| forth to die, and III doing so took Will
them SOC, 900 Germans. In this area
buried by the merciless churn Of shells
still rest the fragments Of that which
once went to make up what they were
The Trench of Bayonets stands on yon'
| der hili-most dramatic OF war monu'
ments. And who could harbor petty
personal grief, thought. In the pres
ence of tragedy so colossal.
Each of the 5000 Gold Star Mother:
| who go to France this Summer vii
| make some such trip as this out OF
Paris They will travel in groups Of q
or so, in comfortable BUSES, the partie:
being made up In accordance with this
locations Of the graves they are to visit
VIII Visit 8 Cemeteries.
There are eight Of these cemeteries
altogether. There is the Aisne-Marne
at Belleau Woods and the Oise-Aisne
which I have described. Then there
is the Meuse-Argonne, biggest Of them
all, at Romagne, 20 which I was bound
The st. Mihiel Cemetery is In this same
general direction, 10 miles from Paris
and 80 from Metz and Nancy, over
close to Germany, The Somme Gene
terry, with 1900 graves, Is near st
Quentin, farther west. Suresnes, the
Arlington of France, Is just outside OF
Paris. Flanders Field American Gene
terry, with 36S graves. Is In Belgium
while 437 Americans are buried ct Brook
wood, near London.
The road climbs into the hills-n one
follows the trail the 42d Division made
Argonne-a trail marked as though by
the wrath of q destructive God. When
I was there rusty barbed wire still
spread its tangle across open fields
Snakelike scars that had once been
trenches, now filled In, wound thell
way like wrinkles Of hard experience
across the face of nature. The forbid
ding bulk of juggernaut tank still
lay in ditch where 1t had reached It's
farthest north. Here broken, dead
trunks of trees, areas OF upturned
chalk-white soil. vegetable growth less
than decade old, marked q region that
had known intense bombardment. Yon-
der was an unsecured area where the
fighting must have been light. Argorne
Forest itself appeared such o tangle
that one wondered how 1t could have
become battlefield.
Montfaucon 10 Be Preserved.
The town of Montfaucom, near which
my boy was killed, Is to be preserved
forever by the French as the Germans
left ia ruined church, fragmentary
walls of the houses Of the people. shell
pitted streets. on the contrary, Ro-
magne, q little further on, has been
rebuilt by the government and Is as
shining and new and glittering in paint
as an architects model OF q planned
out town.
It was gray in the twilight as we
drove through Romagne and six miles
out the wide road to the Meuse-
Argonne American Cemetery, the big
gest of them all, which was the end
of nv tourney. Darkness had quite
enveloped It by the time we reached
its Hostess House.
We stood on the steps and looked out
over the lily pond and parklike land
scape to the eight plots Of graves, in
each of which nearly two thousand men
lay sleeping, my boy among them.
why should they be there?" ] sohbed,
while the little French wife of Super
intendent Walter Shields. service man
nj Richmood Wa led me awAY to NV