SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH GAS-MASKS
The firemen, reinforced in March, 1915, by thirty-two of their comrades from Paris, devoted themselves, at the risk of their lives, to fighting the flames caused by the bombardments. Unfortunately, their courage and devotion were often unequal to their task. For instance, twenty-two separate fires occurred on the night of February 22, 1915. Their task was rendered still more difficult by the fact that the Germans often fired on the burning buildings to drive off the men who were trying to save them.
On July 6, 1917, the President of the French Republic fittingly acknowledged the magnificent bravery of the firemen by personally decorating their flag with the Croix de la Légion d'Honneur. At the same time he conferred this dignity on the city (see p. [2]).
After remaining closed for several weeks, the schools re-opened. Until then, the children had been too much in the streets looking for aluminium fuses of shells, out of which they made rings, or for scraps of stained-glass from the broken windows of the Cathedral. The first school, called the "Maunoury" school, was installed on December 7, 1914, in a wine cellar of the firm Pommery, Boulevard Henri-Vasnier, near the Rond-Point St. Nicaise. On January 22, 1915, the "Joffre" school was opened in the cellars of Messrs. Mumm, 24 Rue du Champ-de-Mars. Then came the "Albert I." school, in the cellars of Messrs. Krug, 5 Rue Coquebert, and the "Dubail" school in those of Messrs. Champion, Place St. Nicaise. In addition to the underground schools, open-air classes were conducted. The underground schools, in which the teaching staff, exclusively voluntary, lived permanently, together with the school-children and their relatives, were situated in the most exposed and frequently bombarded districts. The "Dubail" school was struck three times: on March 6, 1915 (by an 8-in. shell), and on March 25 and October 25, 1916. Luckily there were no victims.
The schools were quite close to the enemy lines, the distance varying from about two-thirds of a mile to a mile and a half.
In 1915 and 1916, the examinations for the "Elementary School Certificate" took place in July, as usual. In 1915, the ceremony of the Annual Prize Distribution, which had not taken place at Rheims for ten years, was restored, the book-prizes for the pupils coming from every corner of France.
CARDINAL LUÇON, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS, COMING OUT OF THE CATHEDRAL
The victualling of the town, thanks to the co-operation between the Municipal and Military Authorities, was effected with regularity. There was never any shortage of bread. The butchers' and grocers' shops remained open. The milk-women and hawkers donned their helmets and continued to push their carts through the streets. The market-women remained at their stalls. The nuns of St. Vincent-de-Paul, whose convent had been largely destroyed, ensured the service of cheap meals, organised by the Municipality for the poor. The undaunted inhabitants had their daily paper ("L'Eclaireur de l'Est"), edited by M. Dramas, a courageous journalist, whose printing-house was early wrecked by shell-fire, but who continued almost single-handed to issue his paper.
