Most of the towns suffering were of the smaller class, although four cities of more than one hundred thousand people were bombarded or burned by the Germans. These are Lille, Roubaix, Nancy and Reims. The section swept by the German advance and suffering even worse in the retreat is the most populous in France. It covered about ten thousand square miles. No one has yet undertaken to figure the loss in property sustained in this region. The Germans have still possession of about five million acres of French soil, including seventy per cent, of the iron ore mines and a large part of the coal supply. The farmers are already back at work on a great part of the territory ravaged by the war. Farming under such conditions as we saw, where men and women worked in the fields within range of the guns and amid their constant roaring, or with the eternal white crosses for company, may be more exciting than the usual occupation of the agriculturist, but it must be a sad, discouraging and difficult task. XXI. GENERAL JOFFRE Perhaps no other man in France is so talked of so much as General Joffre. Certainly he is the idol of the French people. They look on him as their hero and savior, and his name is mentioned among them with a sort of half-worship. No other people have ever depended on their leaders as have the French. They believe with the right sort of leadership they can do anything. This is the impression you get in talking to them. They say that since the Franco-Prussian War they have looked forward to the time when they might have a general with Napoleon's genius and some other name--for even the name Napoleon now prevents a man from fighting for France, at least if he is of the royal line. You may be certain that we all looked forward to meeting this great man. We did not meet him after all at close range, having to content ourselves with a view of the busiest man in France as he rode by in an automobile at top speed. General Joffre, as we learned, has been at the head of the French Army for two years before the war. He first came into notice when, at the last grand maneuvers, he jarred military circles and greatly pleased the people by unceremoniously dismissing from their command five gold-laced generals whose methods did not meet with his approval. But Joffre first showed what sort of stuff was in him when he met the Germans at the Marne. It will be recalled that the French, never suspecting that Germany would invade Belgium and having all their military plans laid for mobilizing on the German frontier, were more or less demoralized when they found an entirely new line of defense necessary. They had no railroads built to help reform their line, and the moving of a vast army is a perplexing task. Without a leader in whom the whole army had supreme confidence, and with the German host sweeping across Belgium and hurling back the English, it would have been a hopeless situation.