SCHOOL IN A CELLAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2581, 1 October 1915, Page 9

SCHOOL IN A CELLAR

Much has been said of the attitude of indifference to artillery fire which civilians in the war areas soon acquire while, pursuing their daily callings. With shells screaming overhead, French peasants continuo their agricultural occupations as if the conditions were entirely normal. Cows are milked, land is ploughed and crops are reaped as usual. In some of tho French towns within the war zone there has been a return to normal conditions in many respects, though the soun.ds of battlo are constantly heard. In the Paris "Temps" a lady who recently visited Rheims gives a description of a school which is held in a cellar so as to be safe from bombardment. "Imagine a large basement, sufficiently well lighted by daylight to need for tho moment no lamps," she states. "Imagino nearly 200 children botween two and twelve years divided into five classes, and working with as much calm and application as if tlioy were in their ordinary classrooms. The elder pupils, both boys and girls, were preparing for their certificate examinations. Their copybooks were models, with no trembling of tho hand writing, though several shells had already fallen on the house. "The little ones of the Maternal school, rosy-cheeked and laughing, were grouped round the excellent woman who looks after them so lovingly. One of them, who is not two years old, had not, the mistress told me, missed a single day. I had provided myself with some bon-bons, and tho eight of _ the white bags caused far moro excitement in the cellar than the bugle calls up above which announced tho approach of a hostile aeroplane."