The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-02-09
The Valley of the MenSe.

The valley of the Meuse river, extending
through France, Belgium and Holland, up
and down whose course two thousand years
of intermittent warfare has been waged,
forms the subject of a statement by the
National Geographic Society:
above every other valley that of the
Meuse has become battlefield. At Liege,
on the Mouse, the first great battle of the
war broke forth, and the struggle blazed and
scared all along the picturesque splendor OF
this wild, rugged-banked stream, directly
southwark through Belgium into France.
According to the day by day dispatches some
of the most fierce efforts are still raging
on its banks. Liege, Namur, Dinant, Givet,
Sedan, Stenay Verdun and st. Mihel-each
name recently became familiar to Ameri-
cans-all lie along it's course.
Three countries share the Meuse. 1t
rises in France flows northward through
Belgium, crosses Dutch frontier, sweeps
westward through Holland and empties into
the North sea- It's journey to the sea is one
of $50 miles, of which 400 are navigable.
It's source is in the south of the French De-
partment Haute Marine near the Monte Eau
Giles, whence it crosses the Departments
VOsges, Mouse, Ardennes into Belgium near
Sedan, northward into Holland near Mas
trich, and thence westward to the sea. 1t
bears several names along its course
Meuse, Macs, Mas, Merwede
THE valley of the Meuse for ages has
been channel for the ebb and flow of arm
les. 1t might be said to drain one vast, his
toric battlefield Caesar pursued its path
into the unknown, barbaric North. The
wild Teutonic tribes pressed down between
its banks toward the wealth of Rome.
Christian Europe has been settling its dill
ferences along the valley of the Meuse by
force Of arms down to the present day.
I'm the Forest or Ardennes the Meuse
flows through a country rich in ronances OF
(NbarlHmaCn
lie further along it's banks and then II
washes great industrial cities, gathering to
itself the ashes, rust and acids of factory
and furnace waste. Finally it drifts through
the fatlands of Holland, supplying the nu-
merous canals which laZily divide the plains
Here and there, as between Namur ana
Llege, 1t cuts a narrow passage between
wooded hills and cliffs, their difficult sides
dotted with pretty villas. Just before reacn-
ing the sea the Mouse, here the Mas. di-
Vides, one branch flowing west and the otner
mingling with the Rhine to empty past ROT
terdam at the Hook of Holland.
In the beginning of it's course the valley
Of the Mouse is a wide meadowland. 1t tnen
breaks itself into a gorge, fringed with bro
ken tangled banks. There is a wealth of seem
ic beauty along it's way. Chateaux, castles
cottages and farmsteads sprinkle the valley
though far more thickly than these eVl-
dences OF the living are clustered the place
names rescued from forgetfuIness by leg
ends and historic records. The camp OF the
Aduatuci described by Caesar is marked by
a citadel on hill between this river and the
Sambre, its largest tributary. At DinanI
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, is SAID
to have caused 500 people to be drowned IN
its waters. But the river has long since
forgotten the good Dukes sprightly slaugh-
ter in a present time more stirring, more
titanic and far more costly in human life