Wars I Have Seen (22 page)

Of course these days when there is no way of getting new books I have to read the old ones and fortunately I have great quantities of detective stories and adventure stories and each one of them now has a different meaning, it is one of the real most important things about war, the making geography come alive, and lots of places in the story books are real now which is a pleasure. Of course getting frightened again and again is not always a pleasure, is not at all a
pleasure, when I heard last evening that the primate of Poland had been taken away from the abbey of Hautcombe it was frightening, one is always a little frightened just a little and this evening the maid said that there were some people in the kitchen would Alice Toklas come down to see them, who are they, we asked, and she answered passing strangers, well actually they were American citizens a brother and a sister who had been here for some time, in the village, American born of French parents who had come back to Marseilles and the boy had already been rescued by the Swiss consul and now once again they were taking him, so we told the sister, to take the train to-morrow to Lyon and to see the Swiss consul, which she will do, and as I say everything is a little frightening, and then there are stories well they are a little frightening, enough said, they are a little frightening, especially if the dog stays with them, well it is a little frightening. The Swiss are very comforting, they really are, they have just given us a passport of protection, and the mayor’s wife is very comforting, she is Swiss, and she and I sit and talk together, and she tells me, that she does not care for the higher clergy she thinks they think more of palaces than of humanity and that the lower clergy think more of eating and drinking than anything, to be sure she said the poor dears are very poor as they have to give so much to the bishops, well anyway that is the way she feels about it and she is a little frightened too but she is very comforting. Last night the local baker was bringing us some beans and some flour, and he came late and banged at the door of the kitchen which was closed and the cook came up frightened and said it is Germans, no I said I guess it is Bonaz which is the name of the baker and to be sure I was brave because I knew he had intended coming, so the two servants went down and opened the door, and Jeanne the maid said that they were neither very brave their legs shook inside their skirts, and the baker laughed, he likes a joke and he knew that he had scared them. To-day the end of February things look as if things might be going faster, and the birds have come, they all say here they have never seen so many spring birds, including quail, and they suppose that the fighting
has scared the birds out of Italy and out of Germany and that is the reason there are so many of them.

Rabbits have no habits that is the reason that we prefer hens. Besides hens lay eggs, which is a pleasant habit.

To-day a man said to me the hunting dogs are all going crazy because they cannot hunt, because we cannot hunt, the time will come I said and he said yes this autumn.

Spring is here, it is the first of March nineteen forty-four and spring is here, well not quite here but pretty well here, and everybody feels a little more hopeful, they are all wishing that it would be over without France being invaded, and I guess we all feel like that, it is all right to be liberated but it would be so nice if it could be done without bombs and fighting on the soil of France. Madame Gallais says we are all selfish we cannot help feeling that way about it, but anyway it is not for us to decide so why worry, all you want to do is to buy as much as you can so when it does come every one will have enough to eat in their cupboard, so that even the poor dog can have a bone. Everybody is coming back from Paris, that is to say everybody has been there and everybody has come back and they all say life has gotten pretty normal there and they all also say that you can have all the vegetables you want, there are lots to buy and not dear. Well in the country you can have meat and fish and eggs and butter but no vegetables, vegetables do not come until June, so in every way the French people defend themselves that is they lead their normal life. I remember once Virgil Thomson saying that the only thing the French respect is longevity, the power to go on, indeed it is the only criticism French people ever make, if they think you have talent they say continue like the nice story of the nigger, in all the schools that is all any master ever says is continue, keep on, and once in a military school, the master came along and one of the students was a Negro and the teacher said in surprise, why you are a Negro, yes said the Negro, well then said the teacher, continue, in other words go on being it. And so the French continue their normal life. The Topses the other day told us that the German authorities were complaining of the aspect of Paris,
nobody would know that there was a war, and it discouraged the German soldiers who were there on leave. The prefect of the Seine said but what can I do, French people will lead their normal lives whatever happens, and they do lead them, what can I do, whatever you do they will lead their normal lives it is their way, and that is why the French can always rise from the ashes, they rather like it to be like that, it makes the leading their normal lives just that much more exciting.

It is very funny the way everybody and anybody can feel about anything. Take the mountain boys, did I meet two of them when I came back from my walk up a part of the mountain this afternoon, they both looked rather tired and then we said how do you do in passing, everybody carries heavy sacks on their backs these days, nothing means anything, and some say, that they are back in the region and some say no, and some say the Germans are back in the region and some say no, and anyway it is evening and nearly midnight and I will be listening to the last news just before going to bed, again. It is funny the different nations begin their broadcasting I wish I knew more languages so that I could know how each one of them does it. The English always begin with here is London, or the B. B. C. home service, or the over seas service, always part of a pleasant home life, of supreme importance to any Englishman or any Englishwoman. The Americans say with poetry and fire, this is the voice of America, and then with modesty and good neighborliness, one of the United Nations, it is the voice of America speaking to you across the Atlantic. Then the Frenchman, say Frenchmen speaking to Frenchmen, they always begin like that, and the Belgians are simple and direct, they just announce, radio Belge, and the national anthem, and the Frenchman also say, Honor and Country, and the Swiss so politely say, the studio of Geneva, at the instant of the broadcasting station of Berne will give you the latest news, and Italy says live Mussolini live Italy, and they make a bird noise and then they start, and Germany starts like this, Germany calling, Germany calling, in the last war, I said that the camouflage was the distinctive characteristic of each country, each nation
stamped itself upon its camouflage, but in this war it is the heading of the broadcast that makes national life so complete and determined. It is that a nation is even stronger than the personality of any one, it certainly is so nations must go on, they certainly must.

Spring seems to find it impossible to come, we are all getting sad, this is the middle of March, neither spring nor the end of the war can come, but boulders cropping up in meadows is always romantic and makes it look like a park, even if it is on the side of a mountain, and the fact that it is romantic is consoling, I do not know quite why it is consoling but it is consoling, boulders great big ones with ivy on them or tiny trees are always consoling when they are scattered about in a meadow, they are. The wind blows and the wind is icy cold and the spring does not come, they say that the seasons cannot come as they should, because cannon changes the clouds about, first they change the birds about and then the clouds, there is no doubt that they the bombardments do change things about. The days follow one after the other and the time passes so very quickly, it is hardly possible to get accustomed to one day before it is over and then it is the next day and then it is Friday and we listen to the resumé of the week by the Swiss commentator and then the week is over, just like that. Then Chinamen did invent gun powder, there seems to be no doubt about that, and the French and the Americans automobiles and flying, and the Italians wireless and there does not seem to be any doubt about that, why not, there does not seem to be any doubt about that. Just now nobody thinks about what century it is, they just wonder when it will be over, they just wonder. There is no doubt about that.

I was just listening to an account by one of the American generals of the simple things for which Americans are fighting and the first thing they mention is that you can be in your home and nobody can force their way in and authoritatively frighten you and do whatever they will, I think it is very extraordinary that an American general can so simply understand that that is the horrible thing about an occupied country, the uneasiness in the eyes of all young men and in the eyes of their fathers mothers sisters and
brothers, and wives, that uneasiness because at any moment they can be taken away at any moment, their papers can be all in order and yet, and then papers can not be in order and also, and just now our neighbors were telling us of a young man we had known him very well in Belley and later here, and he would go out to the nearest town to buy bread, and his mother said no do not, and he said but mother my papers are in order and he went and he did not come back, he was sent, his mother does not know where and his papers were in order and yet, and it is extraordinary that the American general should understand that that is what any American could fight for, that nowhere in the world should those who have not committed any crime should not live peacefully in their home, go peacefully about their business and not be afraid, not have uneasiness in their eyes, not. I do think it very extraordinary that the American general should have so simply understood that. It is now the middle of March and spring has come and with it a little courage, they do think now that it is not going on the war is not going to go on for years and years yet, they do begin to think that, they are not hopeful yet, it is hard to be hopeful, after five years very hard, they are not hopeful yet, but they do lead their lives, and they do think that now perhaps it will be over some time. It is Sunday to-day and our maid Jeanne who is not a hopeful person came in just now and said they say in Culoz that the Germans are retreating, where we said, why in Russia, she said, so they say, they say it in Culoz, but of course we said, ah yes she said, they do say it to-day in Culoz. Well that does mean they do not any longer expect it to go on forever, and as I went walking to-day, they all began to talk crops and potatoes, and planting, to be sure when the French people can begin to dig up the soil and plant vegetables they always feel more cheerful, and to-day is the day to do that, so even if Culoz had not decided that the Germans were retreating in Russia, still they would begin to feel more cheerful they just naturally would now that they can dig and plant, they must do that.

The middle of March and it is as if it were almost most likely to end some time, the winter and the war, the war and the winter.
We like to take the train to Chambery, we always see something or somebody, everybody travels, the French people do like to go up and down on trains, and to stand and wait in stations, and there is so much of that. Day before yesterday we were waiting at the station at Culoz and among them all was well he certainly was an American, only an American could wear his hat like that, only an American could balance his body like that, and he had a pinched nose like a certain kind of an American boy has and he was about twenty-five and he had a pack on his back and he did not notice anybody and he stood on the edge of the platform very near where the train was to come along, and I said to Alice Toklas do not notice him, we naturally of course did not want that anybody should notice that we noticed him, but if any of the French people did notice that he was not a Frenchman, well nobody noticed him and we supposed he was going somewhere probably into the Haute Savoy, perhaps yes, and we carefully did not notice where he went but he undoubtedly he certainly was an American and it was the tenth of March nineteen forty-four here in the station at Culoz.

It made us feel funny, and yet it was so natural it certainly was. It reminded us of nineteen eighteen when we used to see the American soldiers in the south of France a. w. o. ling absent without leave and they would say to us are there any military police around here, and we used to tell them well not just here but they had better look out in the next town, but that was a joke compared with this, we do hope he got safely to where he was going.

You meet so many people from so far away any day and you meet no one, but then railroad stations and trains are made to do this thing and they do it.

Spring snow is prettier than winter snow. This the first real day of spring and I can say so. Spring snow is prettier than winter snow. Yes and no. This spring it certainly is, there was no winter snow and there is spring snow and everybody well not everybody but quite a few are beginning to be hopeful again, that spring snow is prettier than winter snow.

Some one in the village just told me that the German station master, they have two at the station here, which is for a small town an important one because you change there for Italy and Switzerland and Savoy and the south, and so it is important and as many very many German troop trains go through they have a German station master. To-day the middle of March nineteen forty-four he said to the French trainmen, in three months Germany is going to go smash caput, and then instead of going back to Germany I am going to stay here to celebrate with the French, back there in Germany they have nothing to celebrate and they do not know how to celebrate but you French do, so I am going to stay here and celebrate with you, naturally nobody said anything but it was comforting not that he was going to stay to celebrate but that in three months time he thought the French would be celebrating. When I tell the story everybody says a little sighfully let us hope so. Hope deferred, we have felt sure so often but at last the Russian steam roller that was to roll in the last war and did not looks like being one really being one. I have to explain over and over again that the Americans even if they have not taken Rome have the airplane bases where they can go a bombing and without that bombing the Russians would not be able to roll, I get impatient and I say you French you have such old fashioned ideas of war, you just think about land fighting and taking places but we Americans we believe in destroying the production of the enemy. Yes they say, yes that is true, but, well they do wish that we would take some and go faster, but I tell what I always told them that Americans like a long preparation and then when they are really ready then something does happen, look at Tunis I say you complained just like that then, yes they say convinced but not believing and I understand I do understand because five years is a long time for their prisoners and themselves, and said one of them and if the allies win will our prisoners remain in Germany as hostages, hostages to whom I asked indignantly, I do not know she answered, I just wondered would they stay on as hostages, no America will insist that they be immediately released, oh she said if America will do that. It is always
hard to understand anything but at the end of five long years understanding gets more and more difficult there is no doubt about that, yes and no, spring snow is prettier than winter snow, certainly this year we all do say so.