The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1915-07-06
NPRES ONCE PROUD CITY
NOW DESoLATE WASTE

)lu lTeScOtS Oh llS Wills tOiu thc City
early history. 1t meant to Ypres quite
as much in its way as Westminster
Abbey to London or Fanieul Hall toI
Boston. Every man or woman born in
Ypres had been brought up to tell the
ime of day by the raised gilt figures
of the old golden cloth face.
By February the peoples sense of
lorror was exhausted Destruction of
hings sacred to them had. become
routine. When they heard another
explosion and word was passed that
1.-THE Germans had scored another hit
hey went around to the Grande Place
o see if the turrets and the gilt clock
face were still unharmed And they
aid: THE Cloth Hall still can be
estored"-these stubborn Flemish
Who would not let shell fire drive them
.way from their old town.
Not a House Left.
The next time The Associated Press
correspondent went to Ypres there
vas not a single house left on the
irande Place that resembled house
ny more than rubber bag with the
;as out of it resembles a balloon. In
he second battle of Ypres when the
iermans had another try for the
lhannel ports the sensation of their
ttack with .asphyxiating gas over
ihadowed what they did with their
,uns. Heretofore their practice on
Ipres had been comparatively teasing
ilayfulness. This time they went at
he job of destruction Systematically;
umping from one space on the
heckerboard to another they smashed
{pres section by section.
AS they meant to take the town this
eemed- poor policy. for they would
ind no roofs for shelter when they
aoved in. But their object was con-
usion for British reinforcements hur-
ying up along roads crowded with
'efugees; wholesale death for men in
,illets in town and destruction and
Ielay for supplies and munitions COM
ng through the streets. This was
excellent theory which did not work
)ut in practice. The British were not
illeting troops to any extent in
pres and you could count the num-
)er of army wagons hit on the fingers
# one hand. One shell in the British
renches accomplished more than ten
lto Ypres The main result was that
ne homes and offices and cafes of
ighteen thousand people were de-
troyed.
The 42-centimetef az inch mortar),
lad its part in the work. When a
eventeen-inch shell struck a house
he remains of the building not dis
ributed on the pavement were in an
nlarged cellar Debris in the streets
till remains where it fell. There is
" BuiGOot III II uP III oii
Inhabited town Paving stones are
catered about from the explosion of
seventeen.inch shell which struck
the center of the Grande Place and
made crater about fifteen feet across
nd ten feet deep. This two thousand
.ounds of steel and powder did not
ill anybody so far as could be
earned 1t would not take a paving
,ang long to make repairs. Another
fhich could have brought down
athedral tower dug a still larger
rater in the soft earth 5f the cathe
raj grounds. Big shells or little
hells, they do not count unless they
it, On the principle that lightning
lever strikes twice in the same place
robably the safest cover you could
nd in case of another bombardment
t Ypres would be to sit in the bottom
If one of those craters. Another
ombardment would seem as bootless
S failing last years straw or kicking
i dead dog, However, the Germans
eep on throwing shells into the
vreckage at intervals as if they could
lever be satisfied that they had prop
9rly finished tie job of chaos Every
tanding wall was Clipped with
lhrapnel. If there was house which
ooked from the outside as If IT were
lnhit. it would be found that it had
)een eviscerated by a shell through
he roof.
Yet only one of the figures of that
golden clock face had been bent and
hree out of the four turrets hold their
,lace untouched in relief against
,enial afternoon sun OF june above
he desolation of that dead city.
well, what do you think Of Ypres,
S place of residence?" asked an
fficer who rode by.
Pretty rotten the visiting corre-