National Affairs: MERCI, AMERICA

Forty-nine well-packed French “Hommes 40—Chevaux 8” boxcars arrived in the U.S. last week, and were greeted by crowds like this in Washington, D.C. The “Gratitude Train” was the French thank-you to the U.S. people for $20 million in food sent to France on the “Friendship Train” in the grim winter of 1947. For its museums and schools each state would get a boxcar loaded with 10,000 gifts (the District of Columbia and Hawaii would share the 49th) including valuable paintings and objects of art, and a conglomeration of keepsakes. Samples : one of Napoleon’s swords, an old bicycle, a wedding dress, a stuffed squirrel, a funeral wreath, two mannequins in the uniform of the Garde Républicaine,