Show PATHETIC FIGURE AMONG WAR RUINS lone aged woman Is sole innab bitant left in french village NAMED LADAME INDOMITABLE all who survived hun carnival of rage and rapine which swept the place left long long ago american army headquarters in france in the charred village they call her la dame indomitable not a bad name tor her either there Is a great gun in the french army called indomitable the enemy has trained its heavy weapons on this giant cylinder of destruction but old indomitable still belches its deadly hall upon the and so the old lady 0 was named after this famous gun writes don martin in the new york herald I 1 saw her the other day in the reconstructed ted ruins ot her once comfortable house two artillery officers american have with her she takes care of their rooms shines their boots and leggings and puts on a button now and then when they know nothing about it then when she Is not busy at home she rashes dishes for the army canteen or performs more laborious service tor all of which she receives ten cents an hour that Is enough she doean doesn t need much she begins her dally routine at he in the morning and finishes at seven in the evening then she walks two miles to a shop to get her allowance of bread and after ten when her boys are in bed and asleep she throws herself on a bed of boxes and old clothes with one blanket tor covering and sleeps villages only inhabitant la dame indomitable ts the only inhabitant left in the village it Is no place for women children all who survive the hun carnival of rage and rapine left long long ago the old folks dragged a weary way from the humble aged stone buildings in which they and their ancestors had lived for many generations yes for hundreds of years soldiers occupied the town then the germans came three times the quaint village was taken and re taken the gaunt remnants of the old dwellings could tell frightful stories of slaughter and magnificent tales of valor so can la dame able but she says little she just works she wants to help france officers told her a long time ago she could go anywhere she wished even the grandeury grandeurs gran deurs of paris were pictured to her in the hope that she might be lured from the abode of danger in which she resides but why should she go no im not old she ays im only sixty five or maybe seventy I 1 m a strong woman yet but when I 1 carry water this long long distance and then walk to the boulangerie boulan gerie for bread sometimes my heart beats too fast maybe but all so there she stays she has been seen away up on the brow of the hill looking down on the german held territory one does not need glasses to see it she trudges along shell swept broadi when it Is necessary as it often Is A shell may hit me yes perhaps sometime but we all have our work to do waves of deadly gas swept over tho stricken group of ruins from time to time la dame indomitable has her mak an officer gave it to her it Is the best the office s see that she gets the best her two american artillery officers hurry to their billets when the gas drifts into the village they have nothing to do there aliey just go to make sure that their hostess Is safe I 1 had a cup of chocolate with her in her house and learned her story I 1 do not think she ever told it before thanked by general when the war was just at the be ginning she said in french 1 I had three bons they hurried off to get their uniforms and rifles then I 1 waited one day our soldiers came pouring into the town they had been driven back by the germans many were injured I 1 took as many aa I 1 could in my house and made coffee tor them you see my house was better before it was struck by shells while I 1 was making coffee a big shell struck this house and billed some of the soldiers another one had both legs taken off I 1 helped them all I 1 could but they went away and the germans came they are cruel but I 1 am old so I 1 am alive then our boys came again and I 1 made my house a hospital it was struck twice more and I 1 was hurt a little too but not much I 1 don t want to leave I 1 have lived here all my life and here Is w here I 1 shall die the eyes of the old lady glowed under the spell of a thought she had not yet expressed A french general came and thanked me for what I 1 did for our soldiers she said then long after he wrote me a letter saying I 1 was a brave woman and had brave sons I 1 have the letter you may see it |