Show howalt w it looks I 1 now in france rai tance there Is not much change except captin in the spaces between the villages SHOWS HAVOC undisturbed the soldier who goes back to his dugout in the woods Is likely to find that only the rains have reshaped it new york to any american coming coining back from france these days uia 1110 darst greeting from a quondam member of the A E P F Is always this well hows it look there changed much to which after some futile short lived notion of describing the groat great mutilated stretch ot of france with nith its million and its thousand and one evidences of renewing iffe tile the returning wanderer must needs anamer anavi er no ko not much for the impression that the old b battlefields at tle fields make Is of havoc tui bed paralysis uncured alexander writes in tile the north american review the soldier who goes back to his old dugout in the woods moods near grand pre is likely to find that only tile this steady rains hale reshaped it that the lie old helmet the shell hell hit blew from his head still lies where it tell fell two years ago and more the villages villa of the meuse the the vesle and the aasne aisne look much as they lid did when the american troops trudged out of them tor for the last time it is true that the rubble is gone from the streets and tile thy litter of stone has been reduced to neat piles of assorted pieces etere and there a rough ne new cottage has been fashioned from the materials of its demolished predecessor at intervals there are arc unfamiliar shacks and barracks but on the hole mont faucon arid and fere en lardenois arid and ju vl ragny ny they all look much as they did when the yanks started home vaux that little marne village which the artillery behind the ninth infantry blew to bits in the excitement of june 1018 1918 vaux has only one new building it Is 18 not much of a building at that just a shack of wood and tarpaper and it Is not a dwelling at all it is a buvette bevette bu vette where improvements are seen it Is in the spaces between the villages that the change is so remarkable you see it even in the rolling land of the argonne find and the blas blasted ted countryside of the chemin des de dames for almost every everywhere whore some tilling has been done visitors to tile the american graves near juvigny in the spring ot of 1910 1919 marveled to find that the old quarries along the ravine on the side of the town which had once served sered as divisional headquarters message centers and dai diluents bouts gouts in time of battle were then serving berv ng as homes for the first six of the returning families so that children were playing with the useless gas masks out in front while spartan perce helges bloomed at cave entrances and the weeks wash flapped in the va wind ind now another winter minter and another summer bummer have gone by the fields nearby have been largely cleared of their wire and shells and have yielded some food and a little income to juvigny Ju vigny perhaps people are back in ILI tile the town it is because of this scantiness of reconstruction as far as home building ili goes that as you walk along a ruined street juvigny reema a deserted city but it is hardly that and you rearte reaze as much with something of a thrill when in a clearing the bubble rubble you come upon a barrack and catch through the windows the unmistakable drone of childish voices it is a school and a glance through the lie window shows row oa row of pig pi lulled failed girls anil and black smacked boys declaiming the fact that the amazon la Is a river in IAni crique du sit slid or that celon is an island here the lie tea comes collies flow school in a barracks laboring laborin with thern patiently ills his brow furrowed fly by his sense of tile time that has been lost aou ou pee ae a fall icily young frenchman perhaps lie he was a corporal tit nt verdun hon tile the arnil stice was signed As the alie american in france sees all the preposterous havoc and blight still in force ho be finds thinking of pleasant suburbs back in america comfortable well fed america of tidy la lawns an and children hildre romping off to school of country clubs and poker games and silk stockings find and esquen dered wealth and of people who say oil forget about the war and ana lie he begins to feel a certain tingling resentment sediment seni sent ment tit at america but then the train trail wheezes into paris and his taxi whirls hlin him away to boulevards all gay with bustling aco ale and restaurants elih groaning tables bles and such food and drink fi as q only the old world knows lie ile see luxury and ea case e and extravagance on oil every side and lie realizes tile then that ill all the and forgetfulness it in the world Is not american |