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A SOLDIER’S MOTHER IN FRANCE
A SOLDIER’S MOTHER IN FRANCE
By RHETA CHILDE DORR Author of Inside the Russian Revolution INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright 1918 The Bobbs-Merrill Company PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. To the other mothers; I dedicate this book. Rheta Childe Dorr. September, 1918 A Soldier’s Mother in France...
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CHAPTER I WHERE THE LONG TRAIL LED
CHAPTER I WHERE THE LONG TRAIL LED
On the lapel of my coat I wear a little pin, a pin with a single star, ruby red on a bar of white. My only son is a member of the American Expeditionary Force in France. More than a million American women wear pins like mine. Some have two stars, three, even four, and every one covers a heart heavy with anxiety and foreboding. That little service pin which mothers wear, fathers, too; sisters, sweethearts, wives, is a symbol of sacrifice. It should be something more than that. My star has come to
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CHAPTER II I ADOPT THE AMERICAN ARMY
CHAPTER II I ADOPT THE AMERICAN ARMY
Looking back over my three months in France, most of the time spent in visiting American military camps, some experiences stand out above all others. One, a precious personal experience, gave me my first insight into the splendid idealism and individual worth of the enlisted men of our army. I had gone to France a newspaper correspondent, without a single plan, without even a hope of seeing my soldier son. I had no intention of using my privileged position to seek him out. I did not know where h
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CHAPTER III SEEING AMERICA OVER THERE
CHAPTER III SEEING AMERICA OVER THERE
Vacation days are always swift flying, but that vacation week I spent in Aix-les-Bains with my soldier son broke all the records for brevity. The day of departure came almost before I realized that we had been fortunate enough to meet. We left Aix within a few hours of each other, my train first. I had a last glimpse of the boy standing on the station platform waving his cap and smiling. How is it that we can smile at such moments? Perhaps only because we are a little something more than dust, b
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CHAPTER IV PIONEERS, OH, PIONEERS
CHAPTER IV PIONEERS, OH, PIONEERS
The man on sentry duty on that section of the huge unfinished wharf was in a bad humor. He was in a very bad humor. If a stray cat or dog had appeared on the wharf at that moment he would probably have kicked it. As it was a woman in the khaki-colored uniform of a war correspondent, the sentry contented himself with roaring a challenge that brought her up standing. Having produced her pass, he stood aside with a scowl, shouldered the rifle which had been pointed at her most menacingly, and made
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CHAPTER V WE FINISH WHAT CÆSAR BEGAN
CHAPTER V WE FINISH WHAT CÆSAR BEGAN
A standard joke, used with several variations in French music-halls, is to the effect that “the English only leased their trenches for three years, but the Americans have bought theirs.” This witticism is a tribute to the amount of solid preparation the Americans have made and are making and to the marvelous feats of engineering which are progressing rapidly from southern and western France clear up to the battle lines. We own, temporarily at least, seven miles of docks and wharves in one great
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CHAPTER VI GOING TO SCHOOL IN THE ARMY
CHAPTER VI GOING TO SCHOOL IN THE ARMY
Ridiculing and belittling the American army in France is no longer the great indoor sport of the German government. It was the last one the government has left and until lately it was played desperately with the view of diverting the minds of the people, and keeping hope alive in their sinking hearts. The German newspapers, of course, are rigidly censored. Not a word of war news is ever published except that which emanates from headquarters. Nevertheless, the German people, who are not fools, no
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CHAPTER VII OUR BOYS DISCOVER THE PAST
CHAPTER VII OUR BOYS DISCOVER THE PAST
“ Voilà ,” said the old French general who sat opposite me in the Bordeaux express, “behold the prettiest sight in France.” He pointed through the open door of the compartment to two soldiers who were standing in the corridor smoking their after-luncheon cigarettes. One of the soldiers wore a horizon blue uniform, a little worn and stained with hard usage, although the boy was barely twenty-one. The other soldier’s uniform was brand new O. D. cloth, made in America. The two stood beside the wind
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CHAPTER VIII THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
CHAPTER VIII THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
There is one thing our soldier sons are learning in France that is more valuable than the French language or history or any mere knowledge acquisition. Our men are learning the true meaning of nationalism, love of country and the flag. Of late years we have had in the United States such a deluge of talk about “internationalism” that our young men had almost reached the point of being ashamed to feel patriotism. An insidious propaganda of pacifism, beginning in elementary schools all over the cou
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CHAPTER IX OUR FOREIGN LEGION
CHAPTER IX OUR FOREIGN LEGION
“ Do they really call you Sammies?” I asked one of the first soldiers I met in France. “They call us the foreign legion,” he laughed. “I don’t blame them, either. They expected American soldiers to be American, and we handed them an army made up of forty different nationalities. Come to think of it, that is America.” “I never realized it before,” joined in a young sergeant sitting near. “My family has lived in Massachusetts for nearly three hundred years, and I always thought of myself and other
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CHAPTER X THE GENERAL HIMSELF
CHAPTER X THE GENERAL HIMSELF
If you talk with the American soldiers, as I did both in their rest billets and their camps, you will find they have the clearest and most definite understanding as to their business in Europe. It is to win the war. I never met a man who had the slightest doubt or hesitation about it. They know it will happen. They say to you: “Why, the general himself says so. ‘Germany can and must be beaten.’ The general himself said that.” “The general himself,” of course, means General Pershing. He is to the
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CHAPTER XI GENERAL ALLAIRE’S FINEST
CHAPTER XI GENERAL ALLAIRE’S FINEST
“ I know that my boy is being well cared for in his regiment, and I’m not afraid of what may happen to him as long as he is on duty. But what about his off hours? What is to prevent him from falling into bad company?” I know that this thought has troubled the minds of many mothers of soldiers now in France. And no wonder. Ever since the first training camps were set up in this country the most lurid tales have been spread abroad about the alleged immorality of the soldiers’ off hours. Some of th
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CHAPTER XII INTO THE TRENCHES
CHAPTER XII INTO THE TRENCHES
There comes a day when our sons cease to be soldiers in training and become fighting men. It is a day looked forward to with dread by those at home, with eager enthusiasm by the soldiers. I have seldom met a soldier who had not something uncomplimentary to say of the powers for not sending him more promptly to the front. The weeks spent in rest billets, that is, the training camps, seem endless to the men. Every move forward is hailed with joy. But progress from one village to the next is exaspe
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CHAPTER XIII WRITE TO HIM OFTEN—BUT
CHAPTER XIII WRITE TO HIM OFTEN—BUT
One morning, in a big American camp in France, I witnessed the arrival of a long-delayed batch of mail from home. No words of mine can describe how joyfully it was received. Officers and men alike were children in their happiness. They sang and shouted while the letters and parcels were being distributed, and afterward a deep silence fell on the camp while the letters were being read. Alas for those who received no letters that day. My heart ached for them, and I want to urge, as part of the pat
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CHAPTER XIV WHEN THEY WIN WOUND STRIPES
CHAPTER XIV WHEN THEY WIN WOUND STRIPES
Somewhere in France the soldier son for whom I wear my service pin lies wounded. A few hours before I sat down to write these words I heard the news, and almost as soon as the first shock had passed I thought to myself how much worse I should feel did I not know what wonderful things were being done for him at that hour. I said, I must hurry, hurry, and tell all the women I can reach, other women whose sons have been wounded, some of the reasons why I can think about my soldier with a heart full
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CHAPTER XV FIGHTING WOUND SHOCK
CHAPTER XV FIGHTING WOUND SHOCK
“Base Hospital No. —— “Amex Force, France “Dear Mother, “You ought to see your soldier son now! He looks about as military as a smoked ham, and feels like—but my well-known delicacy halts me. Never mind, I’m all here—barring a few pieces of bone that don’t matter, and I have gained the honor of having been in the first wave of the first Americans to go over the top at Cantigny. “Incidentally I have the bullet that hit me, and one boche helmet. I would have got more but my trip was short and
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CHAPTER XVI HOW THE WAR AGAINST TRENCH FEVER WAS WON
CHAPTER XVI HOW THE WAR AGAINST TRENCH FEVER WAS WON
One day last January four companies of so-called non-combatant soldiers of the American army in France were lined up to listen to an address from their officers. The men were members of the field hospital and ambulance service. Their officers were army physicians. Working with them were other eminent physicians, members of the medical research department of the American Red Cross. This, or something like it, is what these physicians said to the soldiers: “Men, we have set ourselves to find out t
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CHAPTER XVII THE GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD
CHAPTER XVII THE GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD
John Smith , of Harlem, gave five dollars to the Red Cross during the last drive. It was a big sum for a man with his responsibilities and a small income to part with, but John gave the money, and all over the country men like him, women, too, and children gave what they could to help the wounded and the desolated across the seas. I want to tell John and the others how their money was spent, and I shall ask them first to go with me to a huge basement room of the Gare du Nord, the big north stati
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CHAPTER XVIII FRANCE APPROVES THE EGREC EM SAY AH
CHAPTER XVIII FRANCE APPROVES THE EGREC EM SAY AH
The Y. M. C. A. has started a new drive both for money and for workers. John R. Mott, general secretary of the National War Work Council of the Association, has announced that they must recruit four thousand new workers for France and Italy, and of course they must have money to support the work already going and that to be started soon. The exact sum has not yet been announced, but whatever it is the people of this country will give it. To give to the Y. M. C. A. is to contribute directly to th
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CHAPTER XIX BEAUTY AS USUAL
CHAPTER XIX BEAUTY AS USUAL
Before the war there were few European peoples of whom we knew less, whom we misunderstood as thoroughly, as the French. We had a French tradition in the United States once, but that was long ago. New Orleans, St. Louis, and Charleston, South Carolina, were to a certain extent French cities up to the time of the Civil War. Old family names, the names of streets and squares, even a few monuments bear witness to this. But even in New Orleans the French tradition is now only a shadow. We have had l
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CHAPTER XX BLED WHITE
CHAPTER XX BLED WHITE
Mr. Hoover tells us that we must save more food. Especially more wheat. With all the sacrifices we have voluntarily made, with all the ingenuity women have used to save food and still keep their families well nourished, the women are called upon to do more. As far as wheat and a few other staples are concerned, Mr. Hoover tells us that our shipments abroad are only now beginning to approach the “minimum requirements” of our soldiers and of our allies. I know that many housewives the country over
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CHAPTER XXI THE REPATRIATES
CHAPTER XXI THE REPATRIATES
Evian-les-Bains is a charming little French town situated near the Swiss frontier. Before the war Evian was a health resort, rivaling Aix-les-Bains, farther south, in its stimulating climate and its medicinal baths. It was a place where the rich and the comfortably circumstanced of almost every country in Europe went to regain lost health. Now it is a place where some of the most miserable people in all the world may be seen. For Evian is the place where Germany returns to France those French me
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CHAPTER XXII FRENCHMEN, NEVER FORGET
CHAPTER XXII FRENCHMEN, NEVER FORGET
With Madame Avril de Ste. Croix I visited the house of mercy in Paris where women and child victims of German soldiers find refuge. I visited this house and I saw there that which made me an implacable foe of any peace except on terms of extinction of the power that caused this war. “We have very few here now,” said Madame de Ste. Croix. “I mean compared with the first three years of the war. When the Germans think themselves victorious they are ruthless in their treatment of women and of civili
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CHAPTER XXIII THE NEW WOMAN IN FRANCE
CHAPTER XXIII THE NEW WOMAN IN FRANCE
The long-distance gun which has been bombarding Paris has not terrorized the civil population, as the Germans intended. I was in and out of the city for a month after the gun began to do its deadly work, and I can attest to that fact. But I remember three occasions when the wrath of the Parisians rose to such a height that I shuddered to think of the retribution that was piling up for Germany. The first time was when a shell struck an historic old church, killing seventy-five Good Friday worship
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CHAPTER XXIV POUR LA PATRIE
CHAPTER XXIV POUR LA PATRIE
In one of the most widely read of French magazines I came across a story which illustrates the wonderful spirit and loyalty of the French mother. She loves her children with a devotion unsurpassed anywhere. But more deeply and more deathlessly she loves France. The story was contained in an article written by a French correspondent who witnessed the repatriation at Evian-les-Bains of a large number of women and children long held prisoners by the Germans. Among them was a woman and her two littl
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CHAPTER XXV BY WAY OF DIVERSION
CHAPTER XXV BY WAY OF DIVERSION
I shall never hear that musical classic, Where Do We Go From Here? , without remembering a young lieutenant I tried to be a mother to in France. I really led the young man terribly astray, and but for a bit of luck at the end I might have got him court-martialed. The whole thing grew out of the fact that so many of the men in France are mobilized that they haven’t enough left for train conductors and station guards. You can travel for hundreds of miles in France and never have your ticket taken
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CHAPTER XXVI WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME
CHAPTER XXVI WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME
Should you happen to be in Paris or in any other French city in the early spring, you will witness an amusing and at the same time an inspiring sight; the carnival of the military class of the year before going into training camps. France has lived next door to a burglar nation for nearly half a century. Ever since Alsace-Lorraine was stolen from her in 1871, France has known this, and she has therefore retained the system of compulsory military service. Every year, on the eighteenth of April, a
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CHAPTER XXVII WHAT KIND OF WAR WORK
CHAPTER XXVII WHAT KIND OF WAR WORK
Mrs. Rothschild , of Kensington Palace Green, a street in an exclusive residence district of West London, is president of a society for the distribution of Jewish literature among English Jews serving at the front, or wounded in hospitals. Not long ago the society held a large mass meeting in a seaside resort where many wealthy Jewish people go in summer. The object of the meeting was to raise money, and Mrs. Rothschild made a special journey from her country home, a distance of twenty or thirty
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CHAPTER XXVIII THE DARK OCEAN LANES
CHAPTER XXVIII THE DARK OCEAN LANES
In the quiet little hotel which is my home when I am on this side of the Atlantic, there have been staying until recently a group of army nurses. There were about one hundred and thirty of these nurses, fine, strong, skilled women, and they were in New York on their way to France. They didn’t know where they were to be stationed. They were a California nursing unit and their goal was a base hospital—but in what part of France the base hospital was to be located, they knew no more than I did. All
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CHAPTER XXIX CLEMENCEAU THE TIGER
CHAPTER XXIX CLEMENCEAU THE TIGER
It must be plain to everybody, even to the people of the German empire and her vassal states, that the allies will certainly win the war. The only thing that could possibly alter that fact would be for one of the great powers, England, France or the United States, to make a very serious political blunder. We need not be afraid now that such a thing will happen. We know that President Wilson will stand firmly by the policies which have brought him fame and gratitude throughout the civilized world
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CHAPTER XXX FROM ALL FOES, FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC
CHAPTER XXX FROM ALL FOES, FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC
No statesman is so great that he is admired and supported by his entire community. Monsieur Clemenceau, the splendid prime minister of France, who has done so much in a few short months to unify his nation and to bring the allied armies together under one commander-in-chief, is no exception to the rule. He has with him in the Chamber of Deputies the solid vote of the right and center, the conservative and moderate vote, and he has also some of the left or radical vote. He is opposed by the radic
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CHAPTER XXXI LAFAYETTE, WE’RE HERE
CHAPTER XXXI LAFAYETTE, WE’RE HERE
One of the great moments of this war was when General Pershing, newly arrived in France, was escorted in state to the tomb of the man who, in his ardent youth, left the most luxurious court in Europe, crossed the seas and offered his sword to George Washington. The President of the French republic, the commander of the French army, with other dignitaries of the state and army, were in that escorting party, and when they approached the tomb they paused in silence, with bared heads, to hear what G
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