Weekly journal-miner., 1915-01-20
DOG AND THREE CATS THE ONLY
 LIVING CREATURES IN D|XMUDE
Town has been Shot up as no Other Place in the Theatre of War,
 Declares Correspondent

I bloody history is not likely to finc an equal even in this war. Of we go-through shell-wrecked houses tunnels, cellars, stables, upstairs through rows of rooms, then down again; across narrow street expos ed to the fire of the enemy; through more houses and rooms and across yards, and finally into long subter- ranean passage from whose ceiling the water ran in streams.
 "In the distance we finally saw a light, very much as one does in com ing to the end of a railroad tunnel we were in the trench closest to the enemy.
 "We arc cautioned not to speak But scant 300 feet away from us is the trench of the French. You could see everything very plainly without the aid of field-glasses-among the other objects a number of careless French soldiers who moved about. As we looked through the loopholes in the iron shields placed along the fire side of the trench, we saw an almost uninterrupted succession of flashes from the French trench. But the fire seemed to be directed more upon the ruined houses than upon our field positions. Now and then one of the bullets hit one of the shields, the ringing metal reminding us of where we are.
 "A careful survey of the country without, through one of the loop holes, brought some corpscs into view. The bodies were wrapped in blue coats, and the heads were cover d with black hair Our men would have gladly buried the fallen enemies put it was impossible to leave the trenches. One has but to show the point of the helmet, or attempt to stretch the cramped and stiff limbs to draw hail Of iron.
 "A yellow mud floatcd about in the trench and ran down the sides. And in this our soldiers stand day and night. They are heroes. No doubt, this term has often been mis- applied, but it certainly is due the men who in the cold and wet of the trench and after long and dreary weeks of this still know how to smile and crack joke.
 "For eight hours the men leaned against the wet sides of the trench. Then the relief force creeps along to give the others a chance to live for sixteen hours in a damp cellar. To guide the men at night white ribbons and pieces of paper are fastened here and there. Like beings of another world these men light no fires and speak no word
 "As 1 returned I noticed a num- Der of broken chairs and other pieces of furniture and was told that these were danger signals marking points It walls where the enemy could sec what passed beyond. Death lurked everywhere.
 'So we went back through the tun- nel, through the houses and cellars and across the yards, and finally came to the narrow street which had to be crossed at a jump. Evidently the French had seen us slip across inc open place, and having probably observed the automobile at Essen, hey must have concluded that some members of the staff were making an inspection of the position at Dix nude. At ? o'clock in the afternoon they began to shell the place.
 "One shell after another hit the ruins about the market place and re- duced the debris to still smaller di mensions. Standing in a doorway close to the scene I was impressed by the terrific noise Of the lombard mcnt as a sort of sublime spectacle.
 "A shell fell in our street. and the major ordered us into his cellar. But we found it hard to leave the iron concert which whistled and sang, crashed and rolled through the ruins in a thousand keys.
 "Of sudden l was thrown against the corporal who had been standing by my side and the two of Us flew to the ground. A shell had struck the I ground 30 feet away from us and the airwavc of the explosion had knock ed us over.
 After that we followed the major willingly enough to his room in the cellar. It was very still there and the dreary flickcring flame of can, de seemed to make it more SO. But above our heads the dctonations con tinued. Whenever ono of the shells hit close enough to the house to shake it to its very foundation, the major would say:
 "'Nown
 For d while that was the only sound among those who sat about the