The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1915-09-23


Bellars work, when he bellows so
truculently among the hills TO the
north. We were looking for a town
that lived under the shell fire The reg
ular road to It was reported unhealthy
not that the women and children
seemed TO care. We took byways of
which certain exposed heights and cor
uers were lightly blinded by wind
brakes Of dried treetops.
Children Still There.
Here the shell holes were rather thick
on the ground. but the women and
the children and the old men went on
with their work with the cattle and
the crops, end where house had been
broken by shells the rubbish WINS col
lected In n neat pile. and where a
room or two still remained disable they
were inhabited, and the tattered win
dow curtains fluttered rs proudly as
any flag.
Time was when I used to denounce
young France because II tried to kill
Itself beneath my car wheels and the
fat old women who crowded roads
without warning and the especially
deaf old men who slept in carts on
the wrong side of the road. Now |
could take OF my hat to every single
soul of them. But one cannot traverse
a whole land bareheaded.
The nearer We came TO our town the
fewer were the people. till Mt last we
halted In well built suburb Of paved
streets. where there was no life at all
"A wrecked town. The stiffness was
as terrible as the spread of the quick.
busy weeds between the paving stones.
The air smelled of pounded mortar and
crushed stone. The sound of foot
ball echoed like the drop Of pebble
In n well. At first the horror of wreck
ed apartment houses and big shops laid
open makes one waste energy in an
ger. II is not seemly that rooms should
be torn out of the sides OF buildings as |
one tears the soft heart out of Eng !
fish bread: that villa roofs should lie |
across iron gates Of private garages or
that drawing room doors should flap /
alone and disconnected between the
emptiness Of twisted girders. The eye
wearies Of the repeated pattern that
burst shells make on stone walls. as
the mouth sickens of the taste of NOR
tar and charred timber.
One-quarter Of the place Ind been
shelled nearly level. The facades of
the houses stood doorless, roofiess and
like stage scenery. This
hA hN..h 4. nj
ways a favorite mark for the heather.
They had gashed and stripped the
sides OF the cathedral ITSELF so that the
birds few In and out Mt will. They
had smashed holes In the roof. knock
ed huge cantles out Of the buttresses
and pitted and starred the paved
square outside. They were ut work,
too. that very afternoon. though l do I
not think the cathedral was their OBJ
Iective.
Kneel In Damaged Cathedral.
For the moment we walked to and
FRO I'm the silence OF the streets and ,
the whirring wings overhead. .
Presently a young woman, keeping to
he wall, crossed a corner. An old wo- ,
nan opened shutter. How 1t Jared q
md spoke to her. The silence closed ,
lgain, but 1t seemed to me that heard
! sound of singing the sort OF chant r
me hears In nightmare cities-of :
'oices crying from underground in the :
,
Nonsense said an officer. who n
hould be singing hereT' m
We circled the cathedral again and n
aw what pavement stones can do q
gainst their own city when shells Jerk '
hem upward. But there was singing, Q
fter all, on the other side OF a little I,
oor In the flank of the cathedral. We :
Doked in. doubling and saw at least n
hundred folk. mostly women, who n
melt before the altar of an unwreck- =.
d chapel. We withdrew quietly from n
hat holy ground and II was not only
he eyes OF The French officers that
He'd with tears. Then there came an q
Id, old thing with prayer book Ia her
and. pattering across the square, evi o.
emily late for service. 8
And who are these women" n
sked. =
Some are caretakers, people who n
ave still little shops here There Is n
ne quarter where you can buy things. n
here are many old people. too. who :,
Ill not ~ away, They are Of the o
lace, you see" :,
And this bombardment happens of. I,
.nf' | said. =.
ut happens always. Would you like
look at the railway station? or Z
curse II has not been so bombarded as
he cathedral"
We went through the gross naked .
ess of streets without people till we
cached the railway station. which was
cry fairly knocked about. but. rs my u
riends said. nothing like as much as a
he cathedral. Then we had 10 cross q
he end OF a long street down which p
he bochc could see clearly As one
lanced up street one perceived how
he weeds. 10 which mems war Is the nj
'uce of God, had come back and were In
ell established the whole length OF Il, IT
'atched by the long perspective Of nj
pen windows.
Kansas Woman Prisoner PAroIsd.
Only woman In Kansas prison for la