FRANCE AT WAR 



BY RODERIC MARBLE OLZENDAM ' 



SECRETARY, VERMONT FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



FRANCE at war is a vast and illuminating subject 

 which will undoubtedly in the future fill many 

 volumes full to the brim with events and episodes, 

 with battles, with tales of heroism and daring of forti- 

 tude and courage, of sacrifice and suffering such as the 

 world has seldom known before, but through which the 

 people of this great Republic have passed cheerfully, with 



active enthusiasm for the war, but to have a clear con- 

 ception of France at war, a vivid impression of the 

 activity of the past three years, it is absolutely necessary 

 to set foot on French soil and proceed step by step from 

 southern France up to and through Paris and beyond tq 

 the little villages with their narrow winding streets and 

 further still to the long country roads down whose tree- 



A LANDSCAPE BY MARS 



The charmingly picturesque little village of Chaules, which once cuddled in a forest in the district of the Somme, has been completely obliterated 



by heavy shell fire, and this pathetic scene is a common one now. 



head and heart high and an indomitable courage un- 

 equalled. 



To tell of France at war in one brief article neces- 

 sarily limits the writer to a hasty scanning of the sub- 

 ject and the omission of many details which might other- 

 wise prove interesting. We .rnust wait until the volumes 

 of history are turned from the pen of the historian be- 

 fore the tale will even begin to be unfolded. 



One may read all the books and magazines, all the 

 papers and periodicals on the war, as well as listen to 

 all manner of speeches intended to arouse interest and 



bordered cobble-stoned aisles the Germans marched in 

 their retreat from Paris. 



The entire French nation is at war, not merely the 

 soldiers, but everybody, men, women and children, all are 

 engaged in some capacity. France has lost over a mil- 

 lion of her best men in dead and wounded, and France is 

 a small nation compared with America. Then add to 

 this solemn fact the fact that the majority of the battles 

 have been waged on French soil, French hamlets have 

 been laid low and French fields rendered useless, and 

 you begin to get a glimpse of what she has undergone. 



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