OUR PART IN THE GREAT WAR
[Illustration: Leon Mirman, the Governor of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and the
refugees for whom he cares.]
OUR PART IN
THE GREAT WAR
BY
ARTHUR GLEASON
AUTHOR OF "YOUNG HILDA AT THE WARS," "THE SPIRIT
OF CHRISTMAS," "LOVE, HOME AND THE INNER LIFE," ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1917, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved, including that of translation_
_into foreign languages_
To
_FRANCE ON JULY 14TH_
_Three years of world war draw to a close, as France prepares to
celebrate the birthday of her liberty. Never in the thousand years
of her tumultuous history has she been so calm, so sure of the path
she treads, red with the blood of her young men. She has never drunk
any cup of joy so deeply as this cup of her agony. In the early
months of the war, there were doubts and dismays, and the cheap talk
of compromise. There were black days and black moods, and a swaying
indecision. But under the immense pressure of crisis, France has lifted
to a clear determination. This war will be fought to a finish. No
feeble dreams of peace, entertained by loose thinkers and fluent phrase
makers, no easy conciliations, will be tolerated. France has made her
sacrifice. It remains now that it shall avail. She will fulfill her
destiny. Time has ceased to matter, Death is only an incident in the
ongoing of the nation. No tortures by mutilation, no horrors of shell
fire, no massing of machine guns, can swerve the united will. The
"Sacred Union" of Socialist and royalist, peasant and politician, is
firm to endure. The egoisms and bickerings of easy untested years have
been drowned in a tide that sets towards the Rhine. The premier race
of the world goes forth to war. That war is only in its beginning. The
toll of the dead and the wounded may be doubled before the gray lines
are broken. But they will be broken. A menace is to be removed for
all time. The German Empire is not to rule in Paris. Atrocities are
not to be justified by success. Spying will be no longer the basis of
international relationship. France faces in one direction. She waits
in arms at Revigny and along the water courses of the North for the
machine to crack. That consummation of the long watch may be nearer
than we guess. It may be many months removed. It does not matter.
France waits in unshattered line, reserve on reserve, ready to the
call._
_Only once or twice in history has the world witnessed such a spectacle
of greatness at tension. It is not that factories are busy on shells.
It is that everything spiritual in a race touched with genius has been
mobilized. Fineness of feeling, the graces of the intellect, clarity of
thought, all the playful tender elements of worthy living are burning
with a steady light._
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The author was enabled to visit Verdun and the peasant district, and to
obtain access to the German diaries through J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador
of France; Frank H. Simonds, editor of the New York _Tribune_, and
Theodore Roosevelt, by whose courtesy the success of the three months'
visit was assured. On arrival in France the courtesy was continued by
Emile Hovelaque, Madame Saint-René Taillandier, Judge Walter Berry,
Mrs. Charles Prince, Leon Mirman, Prefet de Meurthe-et-Moselle, the
Foreign Office and the Ministry of War.
CONTENTS
PAGE
TO FRANCE ON JULY 14TH v
SECTION I
AMERICANS WHO HELPED
I. THE TWO AMERICAS 3
II. THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE HOSPITAL 14
III. THE FORD CAR AND ITS DRIVERS 34
IV. THE AMERICANS AT VERDUN 55
V. "FRIENDS OF FRANCE" 72
VI. THE SAVING REMNANT 83