The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-10-16
RUINED COUNTRY
EAST OF PARIS.
Two Months Ago II Was a Land Of !
Plenty, But Now II Is a
Waste and 10
Abandoned.
HAVE NOTHING TO EAT
Water is Scare and Children Must
Die for Want Of MIX While
Men Are Busy
Killing.
HAVE NOTHING TO EAT

Staff Correspondent
CHATEAU TIL ERRY, FRANCE,
Oct. 1.-(by mail to New York;
from Paris eastward to the frontier
and northward to the meadows Of
Holland, there is nothing but ruin.
Two months ago this country was a
land of plenty, another Garden of
Eden. smiling under the sun. Today
it is a waste.
In the hotel where write this,
there is no gas and no electricity.
am writing by the flicker of q candle,
one lone candle, Tor even candles are
scarce.
When started out from Paris. an
attache OF the American embassy
said as word Of warning: Take
plenty OF food with you; you prob
ably won't be able to buy any for
love or money where you are going.
And take as much water as you need.
II you don't. you'll come back here
with enough typhoid germs in your
system to fill dozen hospitals"
He wasn't exaggerating. Later my
food running short, Twas forced to
travel thirty-five miles southwark,
nearer the edge Of the world IS biggest
battlefield, to get something to eat.
That is why l am here at Chateau
Thierry.
On the tottering walls of scissors
were such notices as this: Food is
lacking in Scissors and other neces-
sites are equally hard to procure.
Strangers and all persons not inhabi-
tants of this city are ordered to leave
by noon today l had lunch In
scissors at what in peace times.
would have been a coy little hotel.
Now it was almost in ruins, German
shells having battered down the big
gest part of 1t. l turned the tap in
the wash room to wash my face and
the yard and tried the faucet of the
hydrant there. The result was the
same.
There Is no water in Soissons,"
the hotel keepers wife said. "The
bridge is blown up and the city wa
ter pipes crossed the bridge"
Where do you get your water
them" asked, From the Aisne?"
For washing purposes. yes" she
replied "Our drinking water we
must bring from spring about
mile away. We would not dare drink
the Aisne water; there are too many
dead men and horses about"
l washed up from the water from
the Aisne-just little was given me,
for the Germans were on the hilltops
overlooking the river and sent shells
down whenever they saw people APP
preaching the stream.
Everywhere there are dynamited
or shelled bridges burned or shelled
houses: trampled farms, deserted
villages. From scissors to Chateau
Thierry I tried to get something to
eat. There was nothing to spare.
What food there was, was reserved
entirely by inhabitants; for strangers
there was nothing. At one village
only a wine shop was open. The
keeper was woman. There, was
nothing to eat in the shop though
the shop keeper said / might have
some coffee IL could drink it with
out sugar. When l asked ii there was
any brandy, the bar woman laughed
1.-THE greatest armies In the world"
she said, "have four times passed this
village. The French retreating; the
Germans advancing; the Germans re-
treating and the French chasing
them l have one bottle Of Jamaica
rum left which I hid. l take that
with my coffee"
If the stories told me In the neigh
borhood of Rheim, Epernay and else
where are half true, Americans are
going to find champagne hard to get
pretty soon. They say the Germans
took special liking to champagne.
Many cellars were emptied. Private
stocks suffered with the rest IL the
word Of the people I talked to along
the routes may be believed. Certain
ly saw green bottles everywhere.
l saw them in the bitches by the
roadside; in the fields: floating in
the Marine, the Grand, NORM and the
Aisne
save in the larger towns. Each mile
northward from Chateau hierry,
stranger finds it harder and harder
to get the needs in the way of food.
For two days, just out of Rheims,
1 ate with the soldiers and slept
with them. Their food is plentiful
and wholesome. The French sol
-diers' bread is delivered to him in a
hard, round loaf, weighing about two
pounds. This he calls his "boule de
son"-(bran balD. Twice a day he
gets hot meal, about 1880 in the