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V19270 FRENCH REFUGEES FLEEING INTO AMIENS FROM THE SOMME 

    In the densely peopled regions of Belgium and northern France over which the tides of the German invasion advanced and receded, tens of thousands of women and children were forced to flee before the enemy, carrying with them little or nothing of their possessions.
    In front of every German advance during the World War, like leaves before a wind, these throngs of fugitives filled all the roads of France or were crowded into the fields beside them by the columns and trains of the French, or British, or Americas troops advancing to meet the foe.  They were there in countless multitudes when the tide of battle first swept down from the borders of Belgium in 1914, when the German armies made their last desperate plunges westward.
    The unfortunate whole we see before us, crowded, with a few poor little personal belongings, upon the rough floor of a bumping farm wagon, are some of those who made their way into Amiens when the Germans broke through the 5th British Army in March, 1918.  In spite of their misfortunes, the steadfast courage and patience of the typical French peasant is in their faces.  "C'est la guerre," ("It is the war,"), with a little shrug of the shoulders:--that phrase summed up the philosophy of resignation of the French vil-lagers and country people in the face of appalling personal calamities.  And in such a spirit lay much of the unflinching endurance, the unshakable courage, which finally won through to victory in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

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