Evening star., 1941-07-16
Third OF q Series.)
Nv ROBERT ]. CASEY,

Nv ROBERT ]. CASEY,
Foreign Correspondent Of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
SO the people of Chicago took
sudden fright and in a blind panic
ran out onto the highways. They
left their dinners on their tables or
still cooking on their kitchen stoves.
They left the water running in their
baths, their doors open, their lights
turned on In some of their living
rooms the monographs went on
PLAYING or the untended radio sets
continued to blat warning of wrath
to come They fled as they were,
some of them in dinner jackets, some
half dressed. The sick got up from
their beds, the lame staggered out
on their crutChes. If they had
money they took it. If they had
none they went anyway.
Along about Joliet some alrplanes
came along and killed hundreds OF
them with machine guns and bombs.
BY the time they had come to
Bloomington thousands OF them
were collapsing from fatigue. illness
and hunger. - They were going
10 st. Louis. they said, - because
thev would be safe in st. Louis.
Whatever other factors have
tended to make the evacuation of
Paris the wars most indelible mem
ory. the absolute imposSibility OF
1t Is not the least. While you moved
In the big retreat, wet and hungry
and miserable as every one else
was. you felt that 1t couldn't be
happening at all. 1t was fantastic
that any one born in South Dakota
should be out there counting the
bombs on French road. &.
And 1t was no less fantastic that
ParisianS should be there. None of
this could be true. But OF
course all of it was And those who
took part in it will never be done
talking about 1t, because nothing
remotely like it is ever going to
happen to them again.
Never Too Old a Story.
It's year now since the great
flight ended-a year that seemed
longer than couple of lifetimes.
What happened on the clogged roads
of France as the Germans came
might be considered pretty old news,
but YOU feel no more hesitation dis
cussing it than you would in adding
to the evidence on the flight of the
Israelltes from Egypt-if you had
anything TO add For this, the most
astounding mass migration in the
history of the world, our cultures
outstanding epic of human suffer-
ing and human cruelty. was first of
all a movement of frightened in
dividuals who suffered and possibly
died as individuals. They were
elements in a stupendous hegira
only because fear was common to
all of them. and the lash of the
Nazis and the constructions of the
roads forced them to march shoulder
to shoulder, stranger with stranger.
The picture of this unbelievable
thing will some day be completed,
not through any chorus of the
masses, but in mosaic of the little
things that little people may tell
about what each of them saw and
did in those fearful times
A few Of us had been down on
the Italian front until just before
Mussolini declared war. We had
come back from the Alps TO a Paris
already smitten, inarticulate. plunged
m Stupor. The streets were as
empty as If plague had swept the
place-although the exodus had not
vet begun-and what people one
met in the cafes or hotel lobbies
were detached and silent.
Favorite Haunts Closed.
made tour of the district with
IN walking distance of the Place de
L'Opera to see if I could find any,
body who knew what was going on.
There was nobody in the Crillon-
not even Fritz Thyssen. the inventor
Of Hitler, who stayed there unchal-
]enged for several weeks. There was
nobody In the Meurice, either. The
front door of the Lotti was locked.
. I remember that there had
been lot of Italian walters in the
Iotti.
I wasn't sanguine when ! stopped
across the empty echoing lobby of
the Ritz and down the long allev
10 the bar, which had been the
loudest haunt of non-home- going
Americans ran into the bartender
who was closing up tor the night.
1t was then s pm. Harry New
York bar didn't have anybody in it
either except bartender who said
that Harry had gone away some
where. That night the blackouJ
really worked along the Boulevard
Des Capucines. The restaurants
and cafes were closed or half lighted.
The movies near the Madeleine
opened briefly, then gave it up.
There was no automobile traffic in
the streets.
There was no traffic of any kind.
The Champs Elysees looked like
the approach to AngkOr Vat.
The next morning saw the begin
ming of the retreat a movement
like that of SNOWFALL going down
hill. 1t was a bright, beautiful day.
From the terrace of the Cafe de La
Paix you noticed that the sun shin
ing through the arching chestnut
trees had splattered the boulevard
with greenish light. You'd never
had chance to notice that until
the street was deserted
Begin Heading South.
Across the sunny square OF the
Place de L'Opera people began to
come singly and unhurriedly, but
oil of them headed toward the
south-sged boulevardiers meticul-
ously dressed, gray-haired women
IN neat but old-fashioned silks
You got the impression that these
were social ShutinS. the victims of
economic revolutions or other wars
who never went out of doors except
for necessity. One old lady stopped
Ut the cafe terrace and asked the
direction to the Rue de La PaiX
which began just across the street
She gave one the impression that she
uas as mIlch q STRANGER tn IL az If