Passed by the censor : $b The experience of an American newspaper man in FranceWilliams, Wythe
History
Passed by the censor : $b The experience of an American newspaper man in France
Williams, Wythe
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
The next day was a Sunday. On Sunday all Brittany goes to church,
and when one is in Brittany--well, one goes to church too. After the
service I walked through the churchyard, which is also the graveyard
of the village. It was so quiet, so restful and far removed from the
world and the war, that I was content to remain there, for the eleven
soldiers not guarding the cable were disporting themselves on the beach.
I found a wonderful old wall at one end of the graveyard. It was very
old and overgrown with moss and ivy. It was a dozen feet high and
crumbling in places. I did not know then that the wall was one of the
sights of that countryside, but I did know when I saw it that I was
looking upon the record of mighty tragedies. For it was covered over
with little slabs, sometimes almost lost to view under the climbing
vines. On the slabs were written the names of the men of the village
who had gone to sea and never been heard of again. The dates were
all there and the names of the ships. On several were the names of
two or more brothers--on another slab were listed the males of three
generations of one house. There were hundreds of names, the dates going
back nearly a hundred years. Over many slabs with more recent dates
were hung wreaths of flowers.
It is called the wall of the disappeared.
I read all the slabs with keenest interest; this record of toll taken
by an element more resistless even than war. Indeed the battles of the
nations seemed puny against the evidences of inexorable might written
on the wall of the disappeared.
Near the end of the wall a woman was praying. She was all in black,
with the huge Breton widow's cowl drawn over her head, so that she
looked like a witch in Macbeth. Above her head I noticed a freshly
painted slab newly fixed in the wall. I read the inscription over
her shoulder. The date was September, 1915. Instead of the name of a
fishing boat that went to pieces in a gale off Iceland, was recorded
the man's regiment, followed by his name and the words, "disappeared in
the battle of the Marne."
The morning following I awoke early, with the sun and the sea sparkling
at my window. I got into a regulation bathing suit and rushed down
the old stone jetty for a plunge before breakfast. The water was so
fresh--so full of life--the day was so wonderful--that I forgot all
about the twelve soldiers, the old woman whose wounded son was coming
home to die, the soldier of the battle of the Marne whose name was on
the wall of the disappeared.
There was no such thing as war as I dived off the jetty's end, deep
into the cold, clean water. I opened my eyes under the water and could
see the rocks on the bottom, still many feet below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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