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Show THE STORY OF THE POPPY The following literature has been released by the American -Legion Auxiliary, that we may better understand the true' mean- .,' ing of the poppy. On .Saturday, May 24, millions ' of Americans will wear the blood-red blood-red poppy of Flanders Fields in memory of those gallant American Ameri-can boys who sacrificed their lives in the World War. We. hope that every person will wear a poppy on that day, for in no more fitting way can we give expression ex-pression to the honor in which we hold those men who died that j American ideals milit live. We ' hope, too, that under every ' breast which bears a poppy-will beat a heart which understands j :he beutiful symbolism of the ' little flower. empty form. It is no idea de- . veloped in the mind of any man ? and pushed to public acceptance l by clever promotion. ' The idea j of wearing the poppy in memory of the World War dead sprang up naturally as the little wild j , poppy grows in the fields . of j France and Belgium. It took root1 j spontaneously in England, Can-' ada, France nnd many other parts of the world as well as in the ; ' United States, until the flower j became the almost universally recognized symbol of the World War sacrifice. i The little wild poppy was the i one touch of beauty which survived sur-vived amid the hideous destruction destruc-tion along the World War bat- : tie front. At the edge of the trentches, beneath the tangled ; barbed wire, about the ragged shell holes and over the fresh graves, it raised its brave red blossoms. It seemed to be the one ' immortal thing in that region where death reigned. The sold- , iers of all nations came to connect con-nect the poppy with thoughts of 1 heir dead comrads. ' . ! The idea was such a delicate and beautiful thing that only a poet could, give it its first concrete con-crete expression. The poet to whom the inspiration came was " Col. John McCrea, ' a Canadian medical officer. Soon to lie beneath be-neath the poppies himself, he wrote those imperishable lines: "In Flanders fields the pop- pies blow, , ..;. Between the crosses, row on ; row " : '':: '- Even before the men returned from the war the perfect little poem had winged its way around ' the world, carrying the picture of the poppies waving over the graves of the heroic dead. The returning soldiers brought th vision of the poppy fields back with thelin, indelibly engraved in their hearts with the memories of the comrads they had left in shallow war graves. Like a flower flow-er springing from an unseen seed -the poppy appeared everywhere : with a sacred significance. It became be-came the flower of remembrance for the men who had poured out their life's blood around the roots of the little wild flower of France. Although 12 years have now passed since the last man was i laid to rest beneath the poppies, J the flower has lost none of its j meaning. Its beautiful symbolism still stands as the perfect tribute I to .the men who gave their lives in the cause of democracy. I Through the work of the Amer- ican Legion and the American j Legion Auxiliary it has become also a means of aiding the living i victims of the war. Not every- -one can make a pilgrimage to the I war cemetries; not everyone ean t pay homage at the tomb of the j . unknown soldier, but . everyone i can wear a poppy. If your heart a beats quicker at the memory of the deeds of America's heroic dead, place a bright rep poppy of ' remembrance over it on Poppy Day. It.ZllZl |