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Show i .TjAg AMERICAN allGH. (Copy- for Thia I:pa.rlm):ni .Supplied by t.h AmtTlcan I.fKiun Nhwh Srvlct. ) CHERISH WORLD WAR RELIC Pillar From Altar of Church in Ruined Village of Belleau at National Headquarters. one of the most treasured of the many World war relics being gathered ut the American Legion's national headquarters, Indianapolis, Ind., Is that Just received from the battlefields of France. It Is n pillar from the altar of n church which once siood In the ruined vllluge of Belleau, adjacent the famed wood of that name, near ! Chateau-Thierry. The wooden pillar bears honorable scars, those suffered when scores of German high-explosive shells crashed Into the llltle church. One shell frag- i U A h A i " 4 1 fet.v. f It 'A ;3 ' ' v -N S Eelleau Church Pillar. ment nil but tore the pillar In halves, but when the marines and the infantry infan-try had driven back the enemy and recaptured the town, far beneath the mass of stone and mortar the altar was found intact. Upon returning to their devastated home the French villagers looked upon the little altar as a good omen and set about to clear up their ruined church building. Later they removed one of the altar pillars, and after ap-. propriate ceremonies, sent it to America Amer-ica as the gift of appreciation of the commune of Belleau to the Yankee regiments, through their organization of tli'; Legion. The pillar is C! refully preserved at the Legion's headquarters, headquar-ters, protected by the French and American flags. |