South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-10-09
Artillery Tears Off Roof, Blasts
Walls and Destroys Church
Built in Middle AgeS-Ger-
man Wounded Burn to Death
BY III. j. PHII.I.IPS-

BY III. J. PHILLIPS.
RHEIMS. France, oct. 9.-One OF
the most beautiful palaces OF Chris
tianity. a marvellous piece Of archi-
lecture, centuries old, the receptacle
for art treasures and one Of the show
places Of Europe-that was the cathe-
dral Of Rheims few days ago.
A mass of wreckage, broken ma
sonry and blasted statuary, the funer-
an pyre OF wounded soldiers-that is
the cathedral Of Rheims today.
j have just inspected the ruins
the havoc wrought by German shell
and fire.
Americans cannot grasp the full
meaning TO Europe of the destruction
OF the cathedral Of Rheims. In 1T the
Gaul glimpsed the handiwOrk of his
ancestors and 10 him It moved CEN
turtles forward to only yesterday. lie
would not so much as mar its exterior
with a scratch. To destroy I-he
could not imagine such a sacrllege.
But il is destroyed
The outer roof is gOIe-buTned.
The inner roof alone hides the black
ened interior from the sky. The walls
are masses Of crumbling ruins.
The high altar alone remains.
But the cathedral Of Rheims is
still beautiful. And it Will remain
beautiful until every stone and slate
has been obliterated. Wreck and ruin
that il is il stands out i'm solemn,
silent protest that the god Of war
should triumph over the god of hu-
mainly
Wounded Burn to Death.
But there are even worse horrors
than material ruin-hOwever historic
and sacred-to be seen among the
black mass of cinders that covers the
floor of the nave several inches deep.
The remains Of three human forms
lie there. black and cindered shapes.
with the arms drawn up above the
head, the clothing burned off them,
the heads scOrched TO a horrible
urelessness-the form is a man
the substance is ashes.
The fate of some of the German
wounded in the cathedral is even
worse than heretofore described.
From q priest / heard the full
story There were 130 German wound
ed OF these - were consumed in
the flames started by the artillery of
their own countrymen Two Of these.
say some. and the priest is not quite
clear about IL himself. were dead be-
fore the fire began. having been killed
1,v one Of the earlier shells that struck
the cathedral
one was TOO OdQIE WOUNDED To
move and met a frightful death. help
less. forced To lie with his eyes fixed
in horror on the flames leaping
towards him over the fiercely blazing
straw that his German C"mrades had
carried there 20 be the lel that was
20 burn him living
The remaining wounded were so
slightly injured that they were able to
walk about. When the fire began
no
south side of the nave, where they
had had a kitchen TO cook their food.
BUT here they were caught between
two CONGREGATIONS. for the medlaeVai
archbishOps palace. which joins on to
the cathedral at this side, was set on
fire by the shells, too.
Masonry CruSheS Soldiers.
Some of them. 10 judge from the
condition i'm which their bodies were
found. were crushed by failing ma
Sonrv: one. a sergeant. whose swollen
and blackened body still wears the
Uniform that the flames have licked
off the forms of most of the rest, was
apparently suffocated by smoke.
There they lie. the unfortunate
wretches. part OF the sacrifice TO
MOloch. deliberately burned alive by
their own comrades. Every shell that
fen on Rheims cathedral was shell
thrown away from the point of view
of military utility.
7 picked up the belt that had be
longed TO one of the distorted shapes.
1t was scorched by the flames. "Gott
NIT uns" God with Us) IL bore upon
the buckle. That is the motto of the
German army, but il read oddly there
amid the charred ruins of one of
Gods fairest temples.
The Able Camu gave a full account
of the burning of tie cathedral TO
several officers who had come in to
see the wreCkage and TO myself.
1T was all over i'm an hour" he
said. can hour from the time the first
spark caught To the time when the
cathedral was the ruin you see It
now. There were two fires. The first
started i'm the scaffOlding about 4
O'Clock I did not note the time eN-
aCtly: I was too busy. I hurried up
the winding stairs 10 the roof with
one or two others.
I'VE had only four buckets of
water. nut we managed TO put IL out.
Then we came down again. but we
had hardly reached the floor of the
nave when there was another alarm.
This time the roof. struck by another
shell. was aliEht at the west end, and
the wind, blowing from that quarter.
drove the flames along the rafters in
side the ceiling Of the nave
Tried 90 Catch Sparks.
I'VE rushed mp again. but it was
flaming all along we could do moth