Ruperts Land Girls School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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Ruperfs Land College Magazine Fete de St. Jean, which was of a very pretentious order, and a great crowd had gathered to watch it. It had been the first of its kind since the war, and the evidence of sorrow was shown everywhere by the crepe veils worn by the women and the black frocks of the children. . We motored back to Lille going by Ypres Cwhich is one mass of ruins owing to the many battles fought therej, Mt. Kemmel, Bailleul-the lace centre of Flanders-and Armen- tieres. i Arriving back at Lille we took the train to Arras. All along the railroad the destruction and desolation are indescrib- able. Arras had suffered terribly, there was only one hotel and we were glad we had secured our accommodations before- hand. The French are famous for their comfortable beds,'so that bare floors and curtainless windows did not trouble us, for we knew that what we had was luxurious, considering the con- dition of the country. ' We motored all day on June 28th, which was my sixteenth birthday, in the direction of Vimy Ridge and Lens. The destruction along this line was terrible and all the wells had been poisoned, so that not even a glass of water could be indulged in with safety. I can assure you that Winnipeg water would have tasted good that day. ' We visited Bois Carres cemetery, which is not far from Arras, where a Winnipeg boy whom we knew very well was buried, and we had the opportunity of planting some flowers on his grave. With Arras as our headquarters, we spent three days motoring around the surrounding districts, where we saw much that was interesting and also much that was trying and depressing. We proceeded to Albert, motoring along the Somme, where may places are marked only by mine craters. On the way we saw a big dugout, which was from eighty to one hun- dred feet below the ground. It housed over three thousand soldiersand their equipment. It was lit by electricity and also had telephones. I am sure the soldiers must have thought it a palace, but we were glad to get out of it. .At Albert we stopped at a Y.M.C.A. Hostel and had a re- freshing lemonade, which was the first we had tasted since leaving America. We motored on to Amiens, where we spent the night. In the morning we left for Paris and spent one day there. We took the train for Saar Valley, which is a ten-hour run from Paris, arriving in Saarbrucken on the evening of July lst, where we spent a few days with ex-Mayor Waugh and his family. The comparison between the desolation of France and the beautiful growth of Germany is striking. Germany is like 24

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A Rupertls Land College Magazine Canadian Boat Song. The Indians and Esquimaux also have their songs and chants, and probably, in a few years' time, our country will be famous for its folk-songs. ' The marching songs of different countries are always interesting. The nineteenth century military type of music is shown in The Girl I Left Behind Me. Modern songs, as those of the Great War, belong to this class. It's a Long Way to Tipperary, and Keep the Home Fires Burning, will long be remembered, and they are truly marching songs, being simple, primitive and sentimental, just as are all the earlier ones. These few examples of national folk-songs show that long before operas, which are attended by the more or less educated class, were being composed, popular music was developing. The songs illustrate the character, life, trials, occupations, and joys of the people 'who used to sing them first, and as such are treasured today. They were not the care- ful work of great composers, but the spontaneous voice of the people. I MARY MACHRAY, Matric. II. MY VISIT T0 THE BATTLEFIELDS With my parents and sisters I left London on June 25th, 1920, at 11.30 a.m., arriving in Dover at 1.30, after which we had a splendid voyage across the Channel to Calais. Arriving in Calais we took the train to Calais proper, where we went for a drive, and our first view of German des- truction was a tumble-down school or convent, which the Ger- mans had bombed when it was full of children. We left for Lille by train at 6 p.m., arriving at 8, and spent the night at the Hotel d'Europe. The next morning our courier informed us that we had occupied the suite of rooms used as headquarters by the Crown Prince of Germany and General Ludendorf during the German occupation of that city. After breakfast we motored around Lille, which we found not so badly destroyed as other places. Then we followed the Roubaix road, where the destruction and desolation on all sides was terrible for many miles, in many prosperous towns not a single building remained wholeg the people lived in cellars that would give them any kind of shelter, and also in dugouts the soldiers had used. We motored right on through Tourcoing, where the fighting had been less severe and the country had recovered to the extent of cultivation. After leaving Tourcoing the next place reached was Menin, which is situated half in Belgium and half in France. We haltedhere for some time to watch the procession of la 23

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Ruperfs Land College Magazine a great big garden, the sight of which made us feel very bitter towards the Germans after the terrible destruction of the war area. After a delightful week spent with Mr. and Mrs. Waugh we returned to Paris, where we spent another week. Then we returned to London via Calais and Dover on July 14th. I VVINONA MILTON, Matric. I. .........,..... NOVA SCOTIA The early history of the Province of Nova Scotia has been well written by eminent writers and is, no doubt, fairly well known to all Canadians. There is, however, just one little feature about this history that many forget, and that is the fact that, with one exception, Nova Scotia can boast of the oldest settlement in North America. The little town of Anna- polis Royal was founded by a Frenchman in 1604 and called Port Royal. Tradition has it that a small settlement was made in Cape Breton as early as 1541, but this may not be authentic. The struggles between the French and the English for possession of what is now Nova Scotia, from the year 1604 until it was finally captured by Col. Francis Nicholson for the English in 1710-the concession being later confirmed by the Treaty 'of Utrecht-makes some of the most interesting read- ing in Canadian literature. Some of the remains of the old forts, that figured so conspicuously in this history, still exist today, and are visited yearly by thousands of interested tour- ists. Port Royal remained the seat of government until 1749, when Halifax was founded, a civil government being estab- lished in that port by Col. Edward Cornwallis. The expulsion of the Acadians in 1755 by the English, on account of their refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the then English King, is possibly the best known fact of the history of the Province. This story will, no doubt, out- last that of any that has for its theme an historical event on account of the way in which Longfellow has set it down in his poem Evangeline In fact today the Province, or at least a section of it, is better known to our neighbors across the line as The Land of Evangeline than The Province of Nova Scotia. Few people who visit the Province miss seeing this famous section, and indeed few are disappointed. Although Longfellow had never personally seen the country of which he wrote, he was given such an accurate and detailed picture of it that his story remains today one of the most meticulous des- criptions of any land or people. Although Nova Scotia is small as compared to any of the large Western Provinces, it contains within its boundaries pos- 25