PARIS IN WAR TIME.
Early in March, 1916, a telegram arrived appointing me representative
of Canada on the War Allies' Sanitary Commission. This Commission,
which had been formed for the purpose of mutual assistance and
co-operation in matters of hygiene and sanitation, was to meet in
Paris in the middle of March. It was a splendid opportunity to meet
some of the great medical men and scientists of the Allies, and during
the few days before the congress met I gathered together all the data
that I thought might be of use, as well as plans and photographs.
It was a bright spring day when I left by motor for Paris via Amiens.
We stopped at Merville to call upon my old French friends whom I had
not seen since my leave in Canada, and distributed a number of
presents which had been sent to them from home by my family. They were
greatly pleased at having been remembered by their Canadian friends,
for the French have a real regard for us.
As we bowled along over hill and valley, through the sector occupied
by the British Army, freed of all responsibilities, we felt as though
we were off for a holiday. The area as far as Amiens had recently been
taken over by the British and we were surprised to find that there
were no British troops in that town excepting a few officers. It had,
for good and sufficient reasons, been placed "out of bounds." Amiens
was a real city, the first that we had seen in the north of France; it
had wide paved streets, broad boulevards, double street car lines,
electric lighting and all the things that go to make up a modern city
in any country.
The road from Amiens to Beuvais led away from the front and all
evidences of military operations disappeared. The country in that
region was rolling, well tilled and well wooded. Numerous quaint
little villages, each one different in character from the other,
nestled in the shelter of the valleys. At one place we stopped to pick
the mistletoe from a row of apple trees that were simply covered with
the green parasite; while we watched, away to the west, a gorgeous
sunset flame and die. It was the finishing touch to a day that had
been almost perfect, and we tumbled into bed at the Hotel de
l'Angleterre in the ancient city of Beuvais to sleep the sound sleep
induced by fresh air and sunshine in those who have not been
accustomed to it.
Next morning at ten o'clock we set out for Paris, and, crossing the
Oise at the point where the British had blown up the bridge during
their retreat from Mons, reached the gate of St. Denis in the walls of
Paris at noon. Although every pedestrian and wagon driver was being
stopped and made to show passes we were asked no questions.
Paris seemed cleaner than ever in the spring sunshine and I was more
than ever captivated by the beauty of her buildings. The street market
of St. Denis was thronged with women and had a fair sprinking of
bearded French soldiers. Even at that early date quite a number of
men were seen hobbling about in civilian clothes with service medals
on their coats. We saw many Belgian soldiers but British soldiers were
entirely absent, for Paris, too, was "out of bounds" to the British
army. The very few men of military age seen was remarkable compared
with London, and though the great battle of the war, Verdun, was then
at its very height not sixty miles away, Paris, as far as we could
judge, was not at all worried.
At night the city was brightly illuminated till nine o'clock; then the
lights were lowered. Even at midnight the streets were light enough to
see to get about. Paris had little fear of Zeppelins; they had made
several attempts to reach the city but had failed in all except one
raid. The establishment of listening posts and other devices near the
front for detecting the approach of the airships made it a simple
matter to prepare plans to intercept them and give them a warm
reception, for it takes a fairly long time for a Zeppelin to reach
Paris after it enters French territory. A few weeks before our arrival
French anti-air-craft guns and search-lights mounted on motor lorries
had pursued and brought down a Zeppelin and the Huns had probably
decided that the game was not worth the candle.
Paris, therefore, freed from worry from this source, went its usual
way at night and crowds thronged the Montmartre district, the quarter
inhabited by the student and demi-monde class. Most of the theatres
were in that quarter, and, although the majority of the regular
playhouses were closed, the picture shows and music halls, such as
the "Folies Bergeres" were crowded nightly.
There were two performances a week in the Grand Opera House,
consisting of acts from different operas. The "Comedie Francaise" the
Government endowed theatre, still gave performances at regular
intervals, which in perfection of acting were, as always, unequalled
anywhere in the world.
The Opera Comique also gave grand opera on Sunday afternoons, and the
one performance that I was fortunate enough to see--Carmen--was the
most perfect production of grand opera that I have ever seen or heard.
From the standpoint of the critic I could find no flaw, and though
Carmen is not a favorite of mine, I revelled in the perfection of
staging, acting and singing of this performance. The street and mob
scenes were so realistic that one forgot that they were not real
street scenes; the acting of the singers was so fine that one was
carried away by it and forgot all about the wooden acting of grand
opera customary in America and England; and it was only when the
curtain finally rang down that one realized that the flawless
performance had been but a play.
The restaurants on the Rue des Italiens, near the Place de L'Opera in
the Montmartre district were thronged with people. The weather was
warm enough for the crowds to sit at the tables under the awnings in
front of cafes and sip their wine or coffee, and there I spent many a
half hour after my evening lesson in French, watching the crowds
surging up and down the broad sidewalk.
Men were scarce in Paris, particularly men of military age. A few
"Poilus" home on leave, and a number of Belgians, with a sprinking of
other soldiers, were the only evidences of war. The men seen were
practically all over the military age. It was the golden age for the
"has been"; the old man had again come into his own.
The girl of the demi-mondaine was having a hard time of it in Paris.
There was no travelling public such as usually thronged Paris in
search of pleasure and excitement and upon which she had been
accustomed to batten. She was therefore forced to take up with an
older and often inferior class of men which she would have scorned in
times of peace.
Rumour said that many of these women were starving, and judging by the
voracious manner in which they tackled pedestrians openly on the
streets at night there was ample ground for that belief. Men were
followed and grabbed by the arm who had no intention or desire to make
or receive any overtures.
It was so different to what one had heard of the French women of the
street that it came as a great revelation of how the times were out of
joint, and how difficult it really must have been for such people to
obtain the money necessary to live. One would have expected cruder
things in London but such was not the case, though there is this
difference that solicitation is not permitted on the streets of London
while it is in Paris.
Official Paris allows the people within its gates to do as they like
in matters of morals without let or hindrance. And so the "Petite
Parisienne" whose man had gone to the war and perhaps had been
killed, took to the streets again in search of another, and was forced
to take up with men she would have despised in other times.
English speaking people have no idea of the Parisian viewpoint on
questions of morality; in fact our view points are so diametrically
opposed to one another that we have no common ground for discussion.
The average Parisienne of the street is not immoral; she is unmoral,
that is to say she has no morals because she never did have any. She
has been accustomed to look upon herself as a commodity of barter and
trade and we cannot in fairness judge her as we judge women who have
been brought up to other ideals.
As I sat sipping my coffee one evening one of these women leaned
across the aisle and entered into conversation. As she rattled away a
poorly-clad child selling bunches of violets approached and looking at
me placed a bouquet on the table beside me. Mechanically I put my hand
into my pocket for a penny, but by the time I had found it to my
surprise the child had passed on. The woman stared at me and at the
retreating child and asked, "What did she do that for?"
"Perhaps because I smiled at her," I said.
The woman asked no more questions but got up and walked away; the
child's action had touched her as it had touched me and I like to
remember that on four different occasions little French children,
strangers to me had given me in this same sweet way flowers that they
might have sold.
The English soldier was popular in Paris. Before the city had been
put out of bounds for the British Army it had been a favorite resort
of men and officers, who had made a great reputation with the
Parisians for being courteous, kind and liberal. The Belgians on the
other hand were quite unpopular, being openly called "dirty Belgians"
and, judging from my own personal observation, there was a certain
amount of reason for this disrespect.
Towards nine o'clock, when the lights were lowered, the genuine
Parisian who had been dining in the cafes began to go home, as did the
successful women and their consorts, causing the crowds to become
perceptibly thinner. Those women who had not been successful,
redoubled their efforts, and it was really pathetic to see the
attempts of some of these poor outcasts who were little more than
children, to capture their prey.
At midnight the Place de L'Opera was absolutely deserted. On two
occasions I watched this strange fascinating panorama of human life
and emotion, forgetful of the time, and found myself quite alone there
as the clock struck the midnight hour. Alone I watched the moonlight
streaming down upon the Grand Opera house transforming it into the
purest marble.
I wondered whether it was all a dream. Could it be really true that I
was there in Paris in the middle of the great war? Was it possible
that the greatest battle of all time was taking place at the very
moment not sixty miles away? Yet it was a real "Bon soir" that a
passing gendarme gave me as I strolled homeward past the great bronze
shaft erected by Napoleon in the Place Vendome and now towering black
in the white moonlight, while the river Seine shimmered like molten
silver in its way to the sea. It was really true but it was one of
those times when a soldier in Europe finds it very difficult to
accommodate himself to the violent contrasts which he is constantly
meeting, when transferred suddenly from the war zone back into the
peaceful life of the civilian.
The quiet and dignified Hotel Lotti on the Place Vendome was described
in the guide books as frequented by the French nobility and the
aristocracy; the claim proved to be correct for when I was there two
French countesses, an English knight and a Duke had apartments there.
The Hotel Lotti is next door to the Hotel Continental and is owned by
the former manager of that Hotel. Both the Hotel Continental and the
Meurice across the road are supposed to be particularly fine and
"splashy."
Shortly after we came, the Prince of Serbia arrived in Paris and
stayed at the Hotel Continental. At the same time representatives of
all the allied governments arrived and stayed at one or other of these
hotels. There was a guard of Serbian soldiers always at the entrance
to the Continental as well as a crowd of onlookers which sometimes
swelled to tremendous proportions. The newspapers chronicled the
movements of the Serbian prince and when it was announced that he was
to leave the hotel the traffic on the street was blocked with cheering
crowds.
If I heard the Marseillaise sung once I heard it sung twenty times by
the throng on the street below my windows, for the Prince of Serbia
was the symbol to France of that brave people whose valour had won for
themselves immortal renown and had captured the imagination of the
French people. The French are certainly a nation of hero worshippers
and though they no longer recognize an official nobility they do
dearly love a title.
The same kind of demonstrations took place when Lord Kitchener and
Asquith drove through the streets. Everywhere they went the roads were
lined with the dark blue uniforms of the national guard, the gendarmes
and some of the territorials in their light blue service dress.
Then French soldiers lining the route across the Place de la Concorde
on the day when we drew up to see Lord Kitchener, Mr. Asquith, General
Cadorna of Italy and other foreign representatives pass, looked small
and insignificant in their, to us, sloppy uniforms; yet those were of
the race "who had threshed the men and kissed the women of all
Europe"--the soldier, which through all the centuries since the time
of Julius Caesar, had shown the most consistent fighting ability of
any nation in Europe. Their soldiers at that very moment were fighting
for their very existence and week after week were pouring out their
best blood in torrents on the battlefield of Verdun, demonstrating to
the world the possession of qualities which we had prided ourselves
belonged to the Teutonic races and particularly to Britons,--the
quality of "sticking it."
They are a wonderful people, the French, marvellous in their spirit
of self sacrifice. The French woman does not weep when her son or
husband goes to war. No, he goes to serve "La Patrie" that word for
which we have no synonym, the something which is greater than
everything else, for which all must be sacrificed with joy. France is
a name to conjure with; it is an ideal as well as a country, for it
embodies all that Frenchmen have fought and died for in all the
centuries.
Paris had never before seemed half so clean, but this is the
impression that you always get when you return to it. Perhaps it was
the contrast with the filthy, muddy streets of the little northern
villages in the war zone,--streets traversed daily by hundreds of
motor lorries and thousands of men each of whom brings in, from the
surrounding country, a certain amount of dirt.
On Sunday morning towards eleven o'clock the great avenue--Le
Bois--leading towards St. Cloud, was crowded with the better class of
Parisians, all wending their way to the woods and parks for the day.
They were there in tens of thousands, on foot and in taxis, and very
frequently carrying lunch baskets.
Never does one see such a smartly dressed crowd of women as one sees
in Paris. No matter what the combination of colour, no matter what the
style, they look well, for they have the national gift of knowing how
to wear their clothes. Even the widows in mourning, and there were
many of them, looked most interesting. French women have a grace of
carriage and know how to walk, which is in striking contrast to the
majority of English, Canadian or American women. It is the ensemble
which gives the Parisienne that air of distinction which is so
characteristic.
The children were dressed in the styles which are usually seen only in
the fashion plates and as much pride and thought was evidently spent
upon them as on the dress of the mothers themselves. The French
children in Paris are particularly well behaved and obedient.
The trees in Le Bois were just bursting into leaf on that first Sunday
of mid March. The rented boats on the little lakes were filled with
young boys and their sweethearts, and they splashed up and down and
ran into each other, and made much noise after the manner of people of
that age under similar circumstances the world over.
Crossing the Seine we ascended the hill to the race course of St.
Cloud, from which a magnificent view of Paris is obtainable. It was a
splendid situation for the French Canadian hospital established there
under the command of Lt.-Col. Mignault of Montreal.
The French authorities did not want the wounded from Verdun to come to
the Paris hospitals, for it might depress the people too much. So,
though Verdun was at its height, no wounded were seen in Paris and the
hospitals in fact were almost empty at the time. And as the Parisians
did not see any evidence of great losses through the presence of
wounded, it was quite natural to conclude that there could not be many
wounded. If not why worry, for the newspapers were full of the
tremendous casualties inflicted on the enemy? The French army must be
very good to be able to hold the German back like that, must it not?
So Paris was optimistic and the wounded went elsewhere to the country
where it was said the air was much better than in a large city like
Paris.
The French Canadian hospital, however, was not going to be done out of
the work that they had come so far to do, and demanded patients. As
the hospital was situated in the suburbs (where the air was presumably
good) permission was granted and it was filled with wounded from
Verdun on the following day.
Though not fully completed when I saw it, the hospital was in running
order. It consisted of a series of wooden huts arranged in the area
behind the grand stand, and had just enough shade trees around to
shelter the huts partially from the sun. It was always a marvel to me
to see soldiers recovering from what have always been considered to be
fatal wounds. I saw one man that day at St. Cloud who had been shot
through the centre of the forehead two days before at Verdun, the
bullet coming out of the top of his head, and leaving the brain
exposed. The man was sitting up in bed reading and when the wet
dressing was raised by the surgeon one could see the brain pulsating.
Of the meetings of the War Allies' Sanitary Commission there is little
to be said because they were of a technical nature, and chiefly of
interest to scientists. The first meeting was held on March the 15th
and one was held thereafter every afternoon for the next three weeks,
with the exception of Sundays. About thirty-five delegates were
present altogether, representing the civilian, naval and military
services of Russia, Italy, Serbia, France, Belgium and Great Britain.
At each session some subject on sanitation was discussed according to
a program decided upon the previous day. Some countries had already
had experiences with certain epidemics, which were quite unknown as
yet to the other allied countries; in such a case the experience
gained by one country in devising ways and means of stamping out an
epidemic would be of great interest and practical value to the other
countries.
A striking example of this was the experience of Serbia with typhus
fever. Typhus is conveyed from man to man through the bites of lice
infected through biting some one who already has the disease. Serbia
had had a tremendous epidemic of the disease both in the army and in
the civilian population, and had had to resort to all kinds of
improvised means of controlling lice when their regular disinfecting
apparatus had been lost or destroyed during their retreat. Naturally
the experience of Serbia was of the greatest interest to all the other
armies which were also lice-infected but had had no typhus fever as
yet.
All the discussions were conducted in French, and curious to relate
the non-French Allies understood one another more readily if possible
than they did the French themselves, largely due to the fact that the
latter talked so rapidly. Many scientists of great note were present,
among them being M. Roux who had succeeded M. Pasteur as chief of the
Pasteur Institute in Paris. He was by far the easiest speaker of all
to follow,--so easy in fact that I constantly congratulated myself on
my knowledge of French when he was speaking, only to sadly admit when
the next Frenchman began that I had still a long, long way to go.
Every morning the five of us who were representatives of the British
army, Australia and Canada, met and drafted our joint report of the
previous day's meeting for submission to our respective governments
when the Congress would be over; many days of labor were thereby saved
since the report was complete when the meetings ended. This used up
the mornings, and the regular meetings took up the afternoons till
five o'clock. Every evening I took a lesson in French conversation so
that there was not much time for sight seeing even if there had been
anything to see. It was in reality three weeks of hard work yet I
managed to see quite a bit of Paris and of what was going on in our
spare half hours and the two or three half days during which no
meetings were held.
Some of the delegates were very remarkable men. The Frenchmen were all
scientists of note. One of the Serbian delegates had been continuously
in the battle field for four years and was thoroughly tired of war. He
was a handsome and very interesting man. In fact all the Serbs whom I
saw in Paris were big, fine-looking men.
The chief Russian delegate was a prince, a lieutenant-general of
cavalry, and a wonderfully well informed scientist. Though a man over
sixty years of age and without a medical degree, he seemed to be
perfectly informed in every question relating to bacteriology,
chemistry, sanitation and medicine and would put the average notable
medical officer of health to shame. He was to all of us a perfect
marvel. He spoke English and French fluently and had the keenest sense
of humour of any member of the congress, constantly enlivening the
proceedings by his witty and humorous remarks.
One day the Commission visited the French storehouses in Paris, where
all the drugs, medical and sanitary supplies for the French army were
kept. Something of the magnitude of the war being conducted by the
French could be gauged by the enormous warehouses, packed to the roof
with medical supplies for the army.
We also visited the series of wooden buildings being erected to house
the Red Cross supplies sent to France as gifts from other countries.
The Canadian building was the only one completed and stocked and we
were shown that as a sample of the others; all the French
representatives were very careful to explain to me individually that
Canada had been very good and more than kind in remembering France.
The Russian Prince, who objected strenuously to this trip, vented his
satire during the whole of the afternoon. We would, perhaps be ushered
into a huge warehouse packed with wooden boxes to the ceiling, when
the Prince would adjust his eyeglasses and looking them over with a
comprehensive sweep of his hand say to me, for we travelled together
that day,--"Ah, yes, boxes! how very interesting! do you know,
Colonel, nothing gives me greater pleasure than spending the afternoon
looking at piles of boxes?" Each syllable was so clearly and
distinctly enunciated that the simplest remark made by this born
comedian of a Prince was perfectly delightful, and we had a joyous
afternoon together.
Pasteur is a name reverenced by one and all in France. The first
question asked when you are introduced as a scientist to Frenchmen is,
"Do you know our Pasteur and his work?" and when you reply in the
affirmative they beam on you and look as if they wanted to kiss you.
The Pasteur Institute was devoted entirely to putting up the various
sera, vaccines and other material required by the army in the field.
We were shown over the Institute by M. Roux, the Director. The
reverence with which each foreign delegate removed his hat as he
approached the rooms where Pasteur had lived and worked was most
impressive to the resident of a country where there was little
reverence for anything in the way of ability of any sort except that
for making money. Pasteur is buried in a mausoleum in the Institute
and numerous tributes from societies and great men the world over
testify to the esteem in which he was held by the thinking portion of
the world.
One particularly interesting feature of the work of the Institute was
the manufacture of a certain poison for rats in the trenches. Rats are
a great nuisance and a possible source of plague to the armies in the
field. In the Autumn the rats come into the trenches where there is an
abundance of waste food, and are particularly numerous where there is
lots of water near which they like to breed.
The method used to kill them is quite ingenious. The rats are fed at
a certain time every day for about ten days, at the end of which they
will come in large numbers almost on the minute. The poisoned food is
then placed for them and a large proportion of the rats are destroyed.
Where poison has once been tried it is useless to make any further
attempts with the same poison for a long time to come, for the rats
will refuse to touch it. The wholesale method outlined has been found
in practise by the French to give the best results.
Our trip to the French front in the Champagne was interesting. Leaving
the station one morning at eight we arrived at Chalons-sur-Marne about
eleven and visited a couple of hospitals there. The hospitals were
well equipped, and some of the surgical devices in use were new and
exceedingly ingenious.
The most vivid impression which remains of those French hospitals,
however, was the lack of fresh air in them; seldom have I breathed a
more vitiated atmosphere. Though it was a warm, pleasant day outside,
every window in the hospital was closed tight.
It is another indication of the strong scientific contradictions
sometimes met with. Though, in theory, the French are most excellent
sanitarians and as a country revere the name of Pasteur, while we have
forgotten, if we ever did know, the name of Lister, in practice they
are about as poor a nation in practical sanitation as it is possible
to be. Imagine a hospital, thoroughly equipped and clean as a new pin,
with such bad air that one of our party fainted and another had to
leave in a hurry to escape the same fate.
After an excellent lunch at the town hotel we left by motors and
char-a-banc for the field hospitals. The drive of some twelve miles
was made over the chalk plains of the Champagne and the dense clouds
of white dust, raised by the cars ahead, half smothered us. The only
trees on this rolling country were scrub evergreens and only enough of
these had been left for cover, the rest having been cut for stakes,
and pit props. Through these bits of woods and across the open country
ran the numerous white ditches used for reserve trenches.
The field hospitals themselves were as fine as I have ever seen in
equipment and appearance. They consisted of series of huts, well laid
out and with walks planted with trees and shrubs from the surrounding
country. That was the artistic touch that made French field hospitals
look better than the British hospitals. Wells had been sunk for
hundreds of feet in the chalk, pumping engines installed, and
disinfection chambers and baths built with a capacity of a thousand
men a day.
While there we saw German aeroplanes being shelled and were much
interested to note that the anti-air-craft fire of the French gunners
was just as bad as that of the British.
On our return we visited a French mobile laboratory at Chalons, and
were much struck by their method of running it; like our own Canadian
laboratory they carried all their equipment in boxes which were
conveyed by a single motor lorry.
We arrived in Paris at midnight tired and sleepy to find my trusty
"Rad" waiting for me, and we drove home a load of thankful friends,
while the rest of the delegates searched in vain for taxis which were
unobtainable at that time of night.
A small item appearing in the Parisian journals on the following day
made us think. It read, "Chalons-sur-Marne bombed by aeroplanes."
Whether the aeroplanes that we had seen being shelled had carried back
word that an expedition of some sort had been seen coming and going
from Chalons in a large number of motors and whether they had
suspected that it was the congress including Lord Kitchener, Mr.
Asquith, General Cadorna and others will never be known; the fact
seemed to be that Chalons had never been bombed before our visit.
The saddest and at the same time the most inspiring sight that it was
my privilege to see in Paris or during the whole war was during our
visit to the institutes for the maimed and blinded soldiers.
The institute for the maimed had for its purpose the starting out in
life afresh men who had lost arms and legs in battle. The French are
at the bottom an exceedingly practical people even if they do not
appreciate fresh air as they might. They discovered very quickly that
the first thing necessary in the treatment of disabled soldiers after
they were ready to leave the hospitals was to make them realize that
they were still valuable and useful members of society. To this end
the soldier was fitted out with the best mechanical appliances in the
way of wooden arms and legs that it was possible to give him; and it
was characteristic of the French people that they had these
artificial limbs made by the disabled soldiers themselves. This saved
the labor of able bodied men and gave interesting and necessary work
to the disabled soldiers.
The trades being taught were basket making, brush making, piano
tuning, draughting, typewriting, tailoring, tinsmithing and so forth;
while classes in reading, writing and other subjects were held for
those who were deficient in these requirements, and anxious to learn.
And here the astounding observation was made that in certain cases
uneducated men have been able to learn more in six months than the
average child learns in as many years. In such cases the individual
has an extraordinary power of assimilation and simply "eats up"
everything put before him. The maimed men were all happy and smoked
and sang at their work. They were heroes still.
The school for the blind was, in some ways, of quite a different
character. At the time of our visit there were about 350 soldiers in
the school, learning to be self-reliant and useful citizens. Naturally
it is a much more difficult task to teach a blind man than a maimed
one that he is still a valuable asset to his country and the first
weeks in the Institute are frequently devoted to convincing him of
this cardinal fact. When he has learned to dress himself, get about
alone and begins to learn a trade he becomes convinced of this truth
and the victory has been won. For the appalling future facing him of a
life in total darkness dependent on a wife or parents is too terrible
a one for any man with any self respect. Unless new hope can be given
them they face the prospect of becoming drunkards, beggars and
parasites on society. And the principle underlying all this work, is
to make the blind man feel that he is yet a self-reliant, valuable
citizen of "La Belle France."
[Illustration: THE CAMOUFLAGE.
Anti-aircraft artillery disguised against enemy observers flying
above.]
How it is working out a glance at the men in the various buildings
clearly showed. Here was one group of men wearing smoked glasses
feverishly manufacturing brushes; as they worked they whistled. In the
next room another group was mending the seats of rattaned chairs; in
the next they were making raffia baskets; in the next willow baskets,
chairs and tables. Another lot was learning to set type for books for
the blind; others were learning typewriting, piano-tuning, barrel
making and boot repairing.
Perhaps the most interesting of all were the men learning to be
professional masseurs: This is a particularly suitable profession for
the blind because it depends for its success altogether on the sense
of feeling, and these chaps rubbed and manipulated each other's
muscles and joints in the most approved expert style, using one
another as patients. Some of the blind graduate masseurs were already
practising their profession in Paris.
One recent arrival was being conducted about the garden by one of the
white clad nurses, who was evidently trying to comfort him in some of
his bad moments. The poor chap looked heart broken and one felt, even
though dimly, something of his Gethsemane as he realized that the
glory of the sun and all the beauties of nature were no more for
him,--that before him was only night eternal. Yet a moment afterwards
when the supper bell rang the rattle of canes on the walks and the
sound of scores of men whistling and singing as they came from all the
buildings round about proved most convincingly that hundreds of others
had gone through this same struggle and had come out victorious.
My visit to the Institute for the blinded soldiers was to me the most
inspiring experience that I had in France, strange as that statement
may sound, for it showed more conclusively than war itself the
infinite capacity for courage that exists in almost every man. Yet the
sights that we saw--so terribly pathetic--made one realize as never
before the truth of the epigram "War is hell."
When we again passed through the gates of St. Denis on our way towards
our "home" in the field, it was a sunny day and all the fruit trees
were in full bloom, making a broad belt of white for three or four
miles around Paris. With the exception of a stop at the cathedral of
Amiens to see the wonderful old stained glass windows, unequalled by
any in Great Britain, we travelled steadily all day without incident
and reached our little home town near the Belgian border by five
o'clock to find that all was well.