Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-11-11
GERMANS LEAVE
MAL|NES BARE Of
/ SHELTER PLACES
People Still in City Cannot Live
There During Winter in
J Ruined Homes.
BY the Associated Press.

@ADSOSAeSS~N
MALINES, Oct. 80 Correspondence
of the Associated Press).-Barely ten
thousand of Malines' former residents
remain in this ruined city, and thou
sands who are still here cannot stay
after the beginning of cold weather
unless outside funds are provided to
repair shattered roofs and walls
cracked by the German field guns.
Before the German invasion Malines
had $4,000 inhabitants and was an i'm
5 portant art and manufacturing
centre. st. Rombold Cathedral, one
of the most interesting medieval
church buildings in Europe, dates
back to the fifteenth century, and
contained an altar piece which was
ore of Van Dykes masterpieces. St.
Johns Church and the Church of Our
Lady contained paintings of Rubens
The historic Palace of Justice was
once the home of Margaret of AUS
tria.
Malines is half way between Ant
werp and Brussels, on the principal
stone roads connecting the two great
cities of Belgium. Excellent roads
flank this central highway on the
tral artery and the two thanking roads
that the Germans moved against Ant
werp sweeping every obstacle which
afforded a refuge to the opposing
Belgians.
Like most ancient cities, Malines
has narrow streets. The main
Travelled street, along which nearly all
traffic moves in passing northward
toward Antwerp, is scarcely thirty
feet wide from curb to curb and has
many turns in it, which made the
passage of an enemy exceedingly diff
ficult. Stone and brick business
houses and residences three or four
stories high, built in a continuous
line, stood along this street. Many of
these were battered down completely
by the German artillery, and the
debris filled the streets go completely
that only enough has been cleared
away In places to permit the passage
of single automobile.
Visitors Challenged by Germans.
Malines is intersected by several
arms of the River Pyle and is prac-
tically surrounded by a canal and
wide boulevard. Visitors entering the
city from the south are challenged
by German soldiers standing guard
at the canal bridge, and are again
stopped as they enter the great
medieval stone arch forming the en-
trance to the main portion OF the old
city.
The historic cathedral stands in the
very centre of the town, In q sort of
triangle. It's tower. at least three
hundred feet high, was very evidently
a target for the German artillery
whose aim was not sharp enough to
bring down fha m 5(Snt htn rlila
of stone. Corners of the tower were
Clipped by shells, but the foundation
and walls suffered no serious damage.
However, the main portion of the
church was less fortunate. 1t stands
In such way that 1t presented it's
entire south side as q target for the
approaching army. All the windows
we're riddled. the south wall was hope.
lessly shattered, so badly shattered in
fact that 1t is feared the entire main
portion of the building must be torn
down. All the furnishings of the
cathedral were buried in the crushed
tile. stone and mortar from the dam
aged roof and walls.
Factories along the river and the
canal shared the same fate as resi-
denceS, business houses and churches.
The great railway shops were ruined
Hat factories, tapestry factories,
wooden mills and starch factories
which furnished employment to thou
sands were wrecked by artillery fire.
Signs of Stubborn Resistance.
Trenches in the sandy beet fields
which flank the highways leading into
Malines and thousands of rifle pits
show how stubbornly the Belgians
resisted the Germans. Many of the
trenches are so long they resemble
drainage bitches. They are from
three to five feet deep and about three
feet wide In many places they are
covered with planlss and timbers upon
which brush and earth were piled to
afford protection against shells
The rows OF once beautiful elms
which lined the highway were torn
and shattered by the rain Of bullets
and shell. Where the trees were
obstacles to artillery fire they were
cut down and used as shelter by the
soldiers. Hedges were moved down
by the German guns wherever they
afforded a screen for the Belgians.
The small fields, none of which con-
tains more than ten acres, where the
crops were not burrowed out by the
entrenching army, were so trampled
over by the rival forces that little re-
mains of the potatoes, beets and cab
bage which would have sustained