New-York tribune., 1914-09-28
Dead Officers and privateS
Together Go Into Com
mon Trench.
MCUTCHEON TELLS
OF DESOLATE SCENES
Houses Battered and Deserted,
Streets Full Of Wreekage and
Villages IN Ruins.
BY Join 7. MCUTCHEOM.

main column Of the German army was
The distance was eight miles, y
splendid road running along the French
| frontier, and at one place passing
through the little Belgian frontier eus'
! Lomshouse town. II was necessary 10
reach Beaumont before dark, for It
would be dangerous to approach the
| German outposts after dark Our
progress was handicapped by our horse,
which was very tired, and which could
hardly make more than five miles an
hour.
The road was beautiful, as most Of
the Belgian main roads are, with great
trees on each side and with patches
of forest and we'll cultivated fields IN.
terspersed along tha way. But now
the road was grim in It's broOding
silence and in its devastation. -.
The road was deserted, and al it
passed through the Bois d'Avesnes 1t
was inexpreSsibly lonely. At the top
of each slopihg hill were hastily con-
structed barricAdeB end Rt the bottom
were distractions Of tree branches in.
tertwined with barbed wire, which still
lay where the FreAch had placed 1t a
day or two before.
At a great gateway in q long drive.
way that led between sefnbre trees to
a distant chateau. in the forest there
Was a French Uniform and scattered
heap OF French equipment.
BfeastwoFks Pltlfuliy Futile.
A little further along in. the road
there were brush breastwofks thrown
across the top Of hill. They looked
pitifuly futile against determined ad-
vances. Lying at one side was the
coat of q French officer.
A few hundred feet beyond lay the
/ broad, silent square of the little town
of Montignies st. Christobhe. 1t was
woful in It's look Of devastation. The
houses fringing the side of the square
were battered and deserted.
! The street was Uttered with wreck
age. The peaceful villagers we're gone,
driven away by the shells that had
| beaten down their homes and trans
formed their quiet village into q mass
of ruin. The gashes made BY the
shells appeared on every house--huge,
ragged holes through solid walls, shat
tered windows and wrecked roofs.
! Across this sleepy town, directly be-
| tween the opposing ridges, occupied BY
| the French and German cannon, had
shrieked the shells which had made
an inferno Of little Montignies st.
Christophe for a few hours. Then the
/ French were beaten back, the Germans
marched through and the little town
was left alone with its dead.
We stopped for some time to study
the town and the raVaGes Of war A
peasant appeared from some place and
we stopped him. He said there had
! been about 5000 or 5000 French, and
7 he did not know how many Germans
I many more, he thought. 1t had been q
! terrible fight. The French were beaten
/ back, with many killed. Along the way
/ side we saw many pieces OF French
| uniforms and equipment, dropped by
! the French in their frantic retreat.
| At the edge Of town stood covered
cart, within which we're the bodies Of
| two French soldiers, their heads on
! the floor Of the cart and their feet
| resting on the seat. An evercoat had
been thrown over their faces. Two viii
layers were preparing to bury them.
( OF in a field some more villagers were
| digging a hole, into which the bodies
/ were to be thrown, II was unspeakably
| pathetic.
Horrors of War Brought Home.
Somewhere there will be French
mothers and wives and sisters who will
wonder what has become of these two
men. Weeks will go by with no word
from them. They will be reported
| missing, but whether dead or as pris-
oners will not be stated. They will lie
in their shallow grave in the field near
little Belgian town, with grave un-
marked and name perhaps unknown.
C,,nk A 6annA gAan,6 - ketpn kn,,,n Al a
| horror Of war more vividly than any
thing else. 10 WAS terrible, the silence
and the tragedy OF It.
The German army buries all its dead
on the battlefield. No bodies, either
high or low in rank, are sent back home
20 che relatives. All rank Is lost when
eficere and pFivHtes together 60 into
the trench which iB to be their last
resting place. The son-in.law Of the
President Of the Upper Rhine Provinces
was killed al Liege. A notice Of his
death was sent to his relatives, and
they went at once in an effort TO re-
cover the cody, which had been buried
in trench. | saw the widow when she
returned from this sad errand. Her
eyes were red and swollen from weep.
ing, and her father and mother were
trying TO console her.
They had found the body in a grave,
lying at the bottom of a pile of six
other soldiers, officers and privates, and
the father had identified the face Of
his son.in-law and was bringing home
the body in a lead oasket.
The Germans send their wounded
back, but no dead.
A thousand yards on from Mon.
tignies, down at the bottom of long
slope In the road, we came to a barri-
cnde of tree branches and barbed wire.
We carried our wheels across it. Some
calves, deserted by their owners, came
to us as though In distress for atten-
tion and human eompAaionship. Over
10 the field to the right Of the road
Btood q French gun carriage, and at
the top Of this hill and on the slopes
Of the fields at each side OF the road
were French trenches, Articles Of
French soldier equipment Uttered the
sides Of the road. A mill and a large
farmhouse at the top Of the hill we're
deserted.
Village Absolutely Silent
The next village, a thousand yards
further along on the Beaumont road,
was absolutely silent and deserted. It
was the Belgian frontier custumhouSe
town. 4 French ofieer's jacket and =
lot Of scattered equipment marked the
course Of haSty flight. There was
something marked in the silence and
desolati6n Of the town4-doors open
and the people ell gone.
Darkness was coming on. and Beau
away. We had great anxiety about
approaching the German lines In the
dark. There was also the possibility
that a French scouting party might
swing In from the south, for we were
on the line dividing Francs and Bel
Gium, aRd the French we're supposed
10 be only n short distance Ia tkE