edged the leading city of Europe in fashion, social life, and care- 

 free gaity. In striking contrast stands the rural village which is 

 utterly devoid of any form of amusement whatever. A moving 

 picture in the villages of Haute Marne would cause more excite- 

 ment than the return of the poilus from the Front, for the people 

 have long been accustomed to wartime conditions. Secular di- 

 versions are pitiably few. In the village wine shops a few kindred 

 spirits may be found mellowed into convivial sociability by some 

 pleasing vintage. In the community washhouse the housewives 

 meet with their baskets of clothes. As they kneel in rows along 

 the scrubbing stones they exchange a few words of neighborly 

 interest. But the amount of time given to mere gossip, as we 

 understand that term is negligible, for there is too much work 

 to be done in home and field. The nearest approach to a social 

 center is the village ecole and the mairie in which a few gather- 

 ings more political than social are held. 



Points of social contact with the outside world through the 

 media of books and papers are few. Newspapers are scarce. 

 Almost all news from the world at large is received in the form 

 of a communique which is read aloud by the town crier. First 

 he beats on his drum to call the attention of the people of the 

 surrounding neighborhood. Immediately groups gather in the 

 doorways and windows are flung open from which heads are 

 thrust, every one listening intently. It is unique to think that 

 the great majority of villagers received their war news in this 

 Avay. After completing the reading, which is done in a rapid 

 sing-song voice, the crier taps his drum and then moves away, to 

 another street. 



Rural Haute Marne is predominantly Catholic. The village 

 church with its stained glass windows depicting scenes from the 

 life of the Saviour, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints, with its 

 ivied walls and high towers suggests peace and repose as well 

 as strength and solidity. Many of the churches date their origin 

 from medieval times. Some of the towns sprang up from Con- 

 vent Communities which flourished in rural places hundreds of 

 years ago. Evidences of their existence still remain religious 

 houses and decaying walls covered with ivy and creeping vines. 

 Most of the niches in the walls are vacant; in a few, saints and 

 martyrs still keep vigil over crumbling masonry and grass-grown 

 gardens in which cattle now graze amid the ruins of farming 

 implements and other debris. Outside the few secular diver- 

 sions mentioned, there exists in the church whatever surcease may 

 be found from the humdrum routine of constant toil. Church 

 days and saints days, days of weddings and funerals are golden 



