Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-12-14
" Associated Press.)

fehting in that vicinity around Dec.
5th, and has just reached here:
Elsewhere the fighting has been as
violent as here in the Vosges, but here
as nowhere else, is the poignant dis
tress of mothers with French sympa-
thies, having sons fighting in the
German ranks. The two nations which
shared the Alsation population after
1870, are now setting cousin after
cousin, uncle against nephew, and in
many cases brother against brother.
One of the six-inch shells that the
Germans were sending from Cernay
over the Engelburg into this old AL
sitian town crashed through the roof
of modest dwelling on the bank of
the Thur. A column of black smoke
shot UP through the hole and cloud
of dust poured into the street through
a big hole in the front wall. Neigh,
bors brought out a woman covered
with dust, stained red by stream that
flowed from a cash in her scalp. She
clutched a piece of pasteboard in one
hand. While some of the rescuers
washed the red-stained dust from her
face she watched others bring out her
husbands lifeless body.
Held Two Sons Photographs.
"If you could see what they have
done to your father" she cried bitter
ly, gazing at the cardboard, land
what has become of your home, you'd
turn your guns the other way" What
she was looking at was a photograph
of her two sons in the uniform of the
Prussian infantry.
While those who adopted French ma
tionality have escaped all German in
fuences, the younger generation on
the German side of the frontier has
unquestionably become more indiffer-
ent to the mother country. The re-
suit is a situation which is illustrated
by the foregoing incident.
The material sufferings of Alsace,
from the Vosges to- the valley of the
Rhine, resulting from the alternate
occupation by Germans and French,
have been briefly related in dispatches.
The fighting around Thanh was parti-
cularly severe; all the way down the
valley of the Thur, along IS miles Of
alternating ridges and gulleys, every
inch of ground was stubbornly con-
tested; the possession Of 1t proved to
be costly for both sides. The French
are now installed here for the second
time since August Is. They had push
ed as far as Colmar about the time
of the taking of Mulhausen, but were
forced back again when the occupying
forces were weakened to reinf rec the
armies in the north The Germans re-
captured Cernay, and then began
systematic, incessant bombardment OF
this ancient town.
Inhabitants Chung to Town.
In two months 950-6-inch shells
have been thrown into Thanh, and
200 into the vineyards to the north
sixty houses have been destr-y ed and
many others partially demolished.
MANY of the streets are blocked by the
debris of crumbling houses. Yet the
inhabitants have stuck to the town,
occupying themselves with the aid OF
the French soldiers, in restoring such
houses as it is possible to repair. The
cathedral of Saint Theobault-a real
level of architecture, with some fam
GUS stained glass of the fifteenth cen
turv-has thus far escaped damage,
though a dozen shells have fallen near
the structure.
It was a little to the northwest OF
Thanh, up the valley Of the Thur. that
the Second battalion Of chasseurs-a-
MED Digit infantry accomplished
one Of the heroic feats OF the war. The
story of it is told by David CASTOR, a
veteran of the Moroccan campaign,
with seven medals pinned on his
breast. who engaged as volunteer at
the outbreak of the war.