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THE CHILDREN OF FRANCE

MARSHAL JOFFRE

Among all the innumerable expressions of sympathy, all the kindnesses showered by you on France, none touches us so deeply as what you are doing for the orphans of our heroic dead. Our children are our most precious possession, our joy and our hope, and there is no surer way to our hearts than to help these little ones, the most pitiful victims of this war for the liberation of the world. In their name, in the name of our soldiers of France, I thank you, I thank the children of America whose hearts have gone out to their stricken little French brothers and sisters. The memory of what you have done, of what you are doing, will never fade. You have sown the seeds of love and friendship between our two countries. They will flower when they are men and women. Between America and France there is now a tender bond of human kindness and affection that nothing can break.

THE VICTOR OF THE MARNE

ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON
Adown the bright and fluttering street
Let serried thousands throng,

And children march with eager feet
In phalanxes of song,

That Memory to their latest heirs his glorious
deed prolong.

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CHILDREN OF FRANCE

GERTRUDE ROBINSON

Dear little sad-eyed children of France,
Once on a time, when the world was gay,

danced and sang,

In the streets of Paris you
God grant you again a happy day,

Sad little children of France.

Wan little weary-eyed children of France,
In the streets of Paris you knelt today,
Knelt at the sight of a succoring flag,
Knelt in the streets where you used to play,
Heartbroken children of France.

We are thinking today of the long ago,
Kneeling children beyond the sea,
When your fathers came, with hearts aflame,
To us, in the name of liberty,

Fatherless children of France.

Fair by the side of the Red, White and Blue
The Stars and Stripes in your streets are a-blow!
Never so beautiful, now they glow

In the name of that help of the long ago,
Kneeling babies of France.

You knelt in your streets as our flag went by –
Our flag with a glory strangely new.

The stars of heaven gleamed in its folds,
Strewn but today in that field of blue,
For you, O children of France!

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