South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-10-10
HISTORY REPEATS
IN GREAT WAR
ChaIons, Where AttiIIa, the
HUI. Met SevereSt Check in
451, is Now Center of Allies
Battle Line.
BY GEORGE DUFREsNE.

PARIS, Oct 10.-In more ways than
one has history repeated itself in the
European war. Time and again, since
aug. 1 has there been notable coin
cfdences between the present war and
that OF 1870, the Franco Prussian con-
hlcL But IN some instances, even
more ancient wars are brought TO
mind By the terrific struggle now be-
ing waged IL northern and eastern
France.
In the center Of the allies line be-
tween Meaux and Verdun is the town
Of ChalOnssur- Marine.
Chalons! 1t Is name OF good
augury. For there Attilla the Hun
received the check from which he
never wholly recovered. and which
compelled him to beat a sullen retreat
from France. once more the Hun IS
on the broad plain OF ChalOns after
a centuries and a half have passed.
The battle Of Chalons fought in 451
has always been considered the blood
lest battle ever fought on the soil OF
Europe. Savage, tangled, wide
spread, logged" such were the adjec-
tives applied 10 IL by the Gothic
chronicle who wrote the story of the
fight. The lowest estimate OF the
killed was put at 165, 700. the high
est ran up TO 100000. The carnage
was terrific and IL was all over in a
day. The new battle of ChalOns may
last 2 week ere the last shot is fired.
Let US briefly recall the ancient
struggle. Attilla. the king of the Huns,
who had established his sway over
all the vast regions lying to the north
both of the western and eastern en-
Dires Of Rome and ByZantium, had
decided 10 strike first at the west. He
invaded Gaul, crossing the Rhine at
what is now COblenz with a mighty
host. Arrayed against him was an
H.
AetiuS and a powerful army OF
VisigOths under their king, Theodore.
The rival armies met on the plain
OF ChalOns. south of Marine. Attilla
and his Huns charged the center of
the allies, pierced IT, and then turned
fercely against the Visigoths, whose
king was killed by a javelin. But the
Visigoths rallied and eventually drove
Attilla back on to his camp. There he
built that night q great pyre of the
wooden saddles of his cavalry, de-
termined that II his entertainments
were forced. he would set flames to
the pyre and perish upon it rather
than let his enemies boast that they
had slain Attilla or taken him cap
tive.
But the attack did not come. The
allies had suffered so severely that
they neither renewed the combat nor
blockaded Attilla's camp. but suffered
him to withdraw his battered hosts
back to the Rhine. They were salts
fed to have repealed the hitherto ever
victorious king of the Huns who
fOiled in Gaul, turned with fury upon
Italy.
IL the advance Of the modern Huns
is checked at ChalOns-and the latest
news is highly encouraging in that re-
spect-they will certainly be allowed
no umimpeded retreat as were their
prototypes.
The Gothic chrOnicler, Jornandes,
put into the mouth of Attilla before
the battle a fiery harangue, from
which a few sentences may be quoted:
You are warriors or nothing, and
what TO such is more satisfying than
to carve out vengence by the sword T?
All, revenge. natures first gift and
sweetest sOOther OF the soul. d. Sun
der the sinew and the limbs collapse (;
hack the bones and the body falls
Huns Of mine Rouse your rage.
and let your fury swell as Of old.
Crafty now and by the sword stroke
then. - These herded Outcasts dare
not confront the Hun! That this shall
be my new field of victory the long
tale or my former fields assures me.
Yea, and first am / whose shaft shall
be sped And doomed is he who fights
not when Attilla leads the fight"
Change Hun" 10 German" and
the kaiser himself might be address
ing his Brandenburgers and men Of
tho mark. And it is worth recalling
was. officially styled himself "The
Cod