A mass of German troops bear an enormous egg striped in the black, white, and red of the german flag. Atop the egg, a cannon is fired by troops with a Hungarian flag. The target, diminutive in the distance, is Paris, Eiffel Tower gray against the brown city.
The watercolor is labeled,
Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918
Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918
The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso.
The card is a Feldpostkarte, a field postcard, from Asbach Uralt, old German cognac. Above the brand name, two German soldiers wheel a field stove past a crate containing a bottle of the brandy under the title Gute Verpflegung, Good Food. Above the addressee is written Einschreiben, enroll, and Nach Ungarn, to Hungary. The card is addressed to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Hamburg, 1918-03-30. A Hamburg stamp also decorates the card.
A hand-painted postcard by Schima Martos. , Germany on registered fieldpost card, 1918, message: Red Egg for Paris, Easter, 1918.
The German advance in Operation Michael in the March, 1918 nearly broke the Allied line, and threatened Paris, putting it once again in range of a new German supergun capable of hitting the city from 70 miles away.

Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918



Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918



The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso

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Friday, January 8, 1915

"Day by day the limping figures grow more numerous on the pavement, the pale bandaged heads more frequent in passing carriages. In the stalls at the theatres and concerts there are many uniforms; and their wearers usually have to wait till the hall is emptied before they hobble out on a supporting arm. Most of them are very young, and it is the expression of their faces which I should like to picture and interpret as being the very essence of what I have called the look of Paris. They are grave, these young faces: one hears a great deal of the gaiety in the trenches, but the wounded are not gay. Neither are they sad, however. They are calm, meditative, strangely purified and matured. It is as though their great experience had purged them of pettiness, meanness and frivolity, burning them down to the bare bones of character, the fundamental substance of the soul, and shaping that substance into something so strong and finely tempered that for a long time to come Paris will not care to wear any look unworthy of the look on their faces."

Quotation Context

Conclusion of 'The Look of Paris', the first chapter of Edith Wharton's Fighting France. Wharton writes of the look of the city from mobilization in August 1914, through the disappearance of men from the city, the arrival of refugees, and the arrival of the wounded in January and February 1915, wounded who initially had been diverted from the capital, but now make their grave presence felt and visible.

Source

Fighting France by Edith Wharton, pp. 40, 41, copyright © 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1915

Tags

Paris, Wharton, Edith Wharton, 1915-01-08, 1915, January, February