This emotional prelude was now followed by a definite crusade for the elimination of German goods.  Anti-German societies were formed all over the country.  Backing these up are dozens of other formidable organisations, such as Chambers of Commerce and Business Clubs.  Typical of the campaign is the formation of a Buyers’ League which is intended to assemble all persons who will take a resolution never to buy a German product and be satisfied for the remainder of their lives with the French manufactured article.

Wherever you go in France, you find some concrete and striking evidence of the Anti-German wave.  When you get a bundle from a Paris shop, you are likely to find stuck on it a brilliantly coloured stamp showing a pair of bloody hands holding a number of packages, the largest one labeled “made in Germany.”  Under it is the sentence in French reading:  “Frenchmen, do not buy German products.  The hands that made are reddened with the blood of our soldiers.”

There is great variety in these stamps, which are used on letters and packages.  One of the most popular shows a helmeted German with a brutal face holding a smiling mask before his visage.  In one hand he holds a bundle marked “Made in Germany.”  On this stamp is the inscription:  “Mistrust their smiles—­in every German there is a spy.”

Still another and equally popular stamp pictures a soldier with bandaged head standing by a prostrate comrade and pointing to a fleeing German.  The inscription reads:  “We chase the Germans during the war.  You, civilians, will you allow them to return after peace?”

One stamp used much throughout the Provincial French cities shows a woman in deep mourning weeping over a grave marked with a cross surmounted by a red soldier cap.  The woman is supposed to be saying these words:  “French people, buy no more German products.  Remember this grave.”

A companion stamp shows a figure representing the French Republic and holding the tri-colour.  The flag is attached to a spear with which she is piercing the breast of a German eagle on the ground.  At her side is the national bird of France, the Cock, crowing triumphantly.  Underneath are the words:  “Refuse all German products.”

Similar in idea is another dramatic conception showing a white robed female figure holding a battle axe in one hand and pointing with the other to a burning cathedral.  Her words are:  “Frenchmen, do not consume any German products.  Remember 1914.”

Most of the large French cities have their own Anti-German stamps which are enlarged and used on billboards as posters.  A typical city stamp is that of Lyon, which shows a Cock in brilliant colours standing proudly in the red and blue rays of a white sun.  Attached is the legend:  “National League of Defence of French Interests—­The Anti-German League:  Buy French Products.”

The City of Marseilles has a stamp showing the French Cock standing on a German helmet surrounded by the words “Anti-German League.”  Elsewhere on the stamp is the inscription:  “No more of the people—­No more German products.”