Show They Link in Livi Living g an and DeaH Dea e a Tend en Memory's Fires at Chateau Thierry Y Yf f r q p 4 x f I I 3 v A 1 t Y t Vi r 55 5 C Is r r u Xi A r J Mme Nina stands in a doorway of her beloved chateau at Chateau Thierry in the upper picture With her are Clarence Pierson and his wife Germaine Below is a photo of the chateaus chateau's main entrance 6 A S BY GENE COHN COHNN N NEA EA Service Writer CHATEAU THIERRY France France- Once more the tho Yanks have come and gone Along Along- the slender valley below the long grass waves In the heavy languor of a rainy a autumn Along the river bank the horses drag wearily at Paris-bound Paris boats Along Along- the shore l line ne peasant women women women wo wo- men lean from scows as they wash the family clothes There is not nota a ruffle mUle in in the winding vinding toads roada scarcely a break in the smooth valley valley valley val val- ley floor to recall the me memory nory of shell ravished earth The nand hand of the builder has restored the shattered shattered shattered shat shat- homes to their former quaint- quaint ness They gleam spotless white even on an overclouded day But thero are two here in the Chateau to whom the reunions of the American Legion pilgrimage will wiH for many a i month bring bring- disquiet disquiet disquiet dis dis- dis- dis quiet even in an this valley of pastoral peace You meet the first as you ou come off the train Hell He'll greet you in inthe inthe inthe the best of English With Taxi to the g graves Taxi rater lIes He's one of the fellows left behind when everyone else went ent home or rather hes he's one who stayed behind Clar behind Clar Clarence I ence Pierson once one of Chicago o who came out with a San Francisco company under Colonel Tobin And If It yo youre you're re fresh from the states hell he'll ply you with questions of this and of that Hell He'll take you up to toa toa toa a little shop on one of the snakelike snakelike snake- snake like streets so narrow that the eaves of the buildings seem to meet like Ilke neighbors over I the tho back fence and hell he'll Introduce you to his Germaine-his his French wife When he knows you l better etter hell he'll hentell tell you he stayed because he was wasa wasa wasa a a fellow who ho couldn't leave the dead behind He He had seen them fall fan so many of them so many that had bad not been identified so many that hadn't ever been found I I The war was over but this seemed to him a soldiers' soldiers time peace Job the Job of giving men a grave band and and giving graves graves' a name name So he stayed And married And sometimes he looked beyond the hills and re re- the states One day the task seemed to be done The dead lay in neat rows rowson rowson rowson on the fringe of the once-bloody once Belleau woods Trim white crosses marked them The grass rass was neatly neatly neatly neat neat- ly and gardeners parked the hillsides Folks began to coo colle I in from the states state in touring o I busses His mission changed He would take friends on pilgrimages to the green and white rows and as they went he would auld tell teU them the tales of wartime things he had seen and heard leard He became a liaison officer between the living and the dead Of all aU left behind or staying staying- behInd behind behind be be- I hind none had dedicated himself lf more zealously nor more sadly to a a mission that seemed ended when the last gun was fired Pierson has ne' ne nEr r r deserted says he never will Then the Legion came and with it many of his cronies of toe the old I days Pierson had his hour reliving reliving ing Ing- Ingold old scenes and gorging himself With Ith fresh gos gossip ip The trains I came and went T 3 s Yanks had gone again from tho the Chateau But nut Pierson Pierson Pier Pier- I son stayed behind The other you will meet If you go up to the hulk of the historic Chateau upon the hill Just back of the tho town At night it Is such a place as one would select for a meeting with ghosts The ancient battlements crumble all aU about and into the ground shoot vast underground underground underground under under- ground tun tunnels neils dug back in the seventh century for imprisonment of enemies Here in a battered old place lives Nina the caretaker It is her duty to guard one of the tho oldest and most romantic ruins in France For FOl generations the have been liaison falson officers between n the living and tho the dead Those who come to look are taken about and told stories of the old Chateau Thus it had gone for generations until one day Mme awakened awaken awaken- ed to hear German bullets rg over her roof The had entrenched themselves on the hill 1 above and were peppering the val val- 11 lc ley They told her to leave She refus refused A dozen times she faced death but she would not leavo leave her hel post Then the they moved down the hill and set up their cannon at her door She was arrested as a prIsoner prisoner prisoner pris prIs- oner of war and for 52 days was held in the underground tunnels ho ho knew so well Then the firing ceased And Mme Mine met the Yanks for tn first time They gave her foo food and they gave her clothing clothing- v They nursed her hel back to health She Sho did not soon forget And I for a few hours while the Legionnaires LegIon LegIon- naCres wC were here her herold old friends returned and kissed her on both cheeks They went down the hill hill and and she knows she may never see them again But she can sit up upon n the hillside and remember From the hillside she can see the trains come in and the little auto of Clarence Pierson chug away to towards towards towards to- to wards the battlefield She and Pierson nero hero in th the Chateau see more than the long waving grass when they look down the slender valley vaHey 1 Copyright 1927 NEA Service Inc |