The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-06
Special Correspondence TO The Sun.
BY FREDERICK PALMER.

by FREDERICK PALMER.
BRITISH HEApouARrERs. France, June
2o.-"How are the turrets? Still holding
OUT they ask up and down the line
of any one who has come from Ypres.
Everybody has a tender. personal inter-
est in the turrets OF the old Cloth Hall.
which deepens with each day that they
survive in defiance of the German gum
ners above the wreckage wrought by
German sneiis.
People are still living in Rheims and
Louvain. but Ypres Is absolutely a dead
~city-dead as Pompeii dead as a de-
serted mining camp in Alaska. No face
appears in any door or window that
can still be called a door or window
no figures are seen moving through the
shell holes In walls that are still stand
ing.
Before the war Ypres had some eigh-
teen thousand inhabitants. Now II has
not a single one. No one Is making any
effort to make any ruin habitable. The
only signs Of life. except occasional
soldiers coming and going to the lines.
are cats grown wild. which become
streaks OF fur disappearing among the
ruins OF their former homes.
The Cathedral. which stands back Of
the Cloth Hall. was a noble edifice no
doubt. but there are a great many
cathedrals in Europe. The Cloth Hall
is unique-the best OF it's kind. . Any
one who ever saw 1t always remembered
Its turrets. Different conquerors OF
Yypres put her women and children to
the sword. but no one had even harmed
the old Cloth Hall beyond taking away
a few statues.
Havoc Of n Few Months.
Last February when | was in Ypres
perhaps four or five thousand people re-
manned there. They were going and
coming about the streets as usual. keep
ing their shops open and doing what
business they could at the old stand.
You could get a meal in n restaurant
or have your shoes cobbled. Only one
house in the big square had been hit.
Its roof dropped over the edges of
a corner section which had been torn
out Of the main floor.
The Germans threw in occasional
shells. mostly directed at the cathedral,
with some OF the misses bound to hit
the Cloth Hall. Restoration work which
age required had lust been finished on
the Cloth Hall before the war began.
The people paid for this In their civic
pride and let other civic improvements
wait. For the Cloth Hall gave Ypres
a civic distinction. IL was the historical
soul Of Ypres. The old frescoes on its
walls told the city's early history. II
meant to Ypres quite as much in its
way as Westminster Abbey to London
or Faneuil Hall to Boston. Every man
or woman born in Ypres had been
brought up to tell the time of day by
the raised gilt figures OF the old golden
clock face.
by February the peoples sense Of
horror was exhausted. Destruction OF
l. - 49,. haI 500.
tine. When they heard another explo-
sion and word was passed that the Ger
mans had scored another hit they went
around to the Grande Place to see il
the turrets and the gilt clock face were
still unframed and they said: THE
Cloth Hall still can be restored"-these
stubborn Flemish who would not let
s%hellhre drive them away from their old
town.
Ypres Smashed syste ma ticaIly.
The next time | went to Ypres there
was not a single house left on he
Grande Place that resembled a house
any more than a rubber bag with the
gas out OF 1t resembles a balloon. In
he second battle of Ypres. when the
erma had another try for the Chan
mel ports. the sensation OF their attack
with asphyXiatlng gas o~vershadowed
what they did with their guns. Here
torore their practice on Ypres had been
comparatively teasing playfulness. This
time they went at the job of destruction
systematically jumping from one space
on the checkerboard to another they
smashed Ypres section by section.
As they meant to take the town this
seemed poor policy, for they would find
no roofs for shelter when they moved In.
But their object was confusion for Brit
ish reenforcements %hurrying up along
the roads crowded with refugees: whole
sale death for men in billets in town
and destruction and delay for supplies
and munitions coming through the
streets. This was excellent theory which
did not work out In practice. The Brit
ish were not b~illeting troops to any
extent In Ypres and you could count the
number of army wagons hit on tht
fingers OF one hand. One shell in the
British trenches accomplished more
Than ten into Ypres. The main result
was that the homes and offices and
cafes Of $4,000 people were destroyed,
our old friend the AZ centimeter' u7
inch mortar) had It's part in the work
When a II inch shell struck a house
the remains Of the building not dis
tributed on the pavement were In ar
enlarged cellar. Debris In the streets
still remains where It fell. There 10 nc