The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-14
TYRES, ANCIENT PRIDE OF FLANDERS,
 IS GHASIl'Y RUIN
Eventual Restoration of Town is Mooted Among
 Those Who Loved 1t.

Ypres, Belgium, July 14,-The last bsna c1ous inhabitants of Ypres were dragged from their underground refugees and taken by force to places of safety: the cellars themselves had ceased to afford protection from the continual pounding of the German shells, The town today looks like an unearthed imitation of PoInpeii; not one of its 12,99o houses Is Intact and not a tdoRen of those that remain part ly erect are repasrable. The ancient pride of Flanders, if 1t ever rises from it's ruins, must be entirely re-
 built from the foundations. Of the famous hall, which three weeks ago tance, there remains nothing but 8 single little tower standing out against the sky like a gigantic finger raised in protest. The only part of the walls remaining is a battered preached remnant on the side of the
 '7Eand Place. Only here and there is 1t possible by close inspection to discover any traces of the details of It's former architectural beauty.
 There were 1o,oO0 people here three weeks ago and 1t was still pos sfbIe to enjoy a cup of tea at the cafe on the ssGrand Place while con- templating the agonizing t'F1aIles'': today the only living creatures that remain two oats sticking to the debris of their homes in the. Rue de 4nOuFO0C. NO one Knows WnGE LASy live on and the British soldiers have been unable to captaDe them
 The dead silence that has fa1len is broken only by the occasional shell that se1rs up the ruins. byx the Ger man guns firing over the town at i:Poperanghe. and by the musketry and
 machine gun fire from the trenches close to the south The silence is oppressive toward dusk when the ar tillery fire becomes desuItory.
 Protected by the ruins, one may approach so close to the first line as to get 8 vivid auricular impression of what is going on in the trenches The Fang! Fang. Pang!'' of the rifles with intervals of the "Pang-a-pang- a-pang pang'' of the machine guns become more intermittent as night falls, and then comes from the trenches the surprising contrast of the refraini Its a long way to Tip perary, with the accompaniment of a. piano that the TO1nmies dug out of the ruins and reqIisitdoned for even ing diversion
 The final destruction of Ypres fol- lowed the attack with asphyxiating
 gas t51s the common belief in Bel giunn that the wiping out of the town | was a premeditated revenge for the
 failure of the effort to occupy it. Shells intended for the British lines 1 or for the batteries in the rear might '
 say, the aim of the GArmans is good
 enough not to waste in that way the
 thousands of tons of ammunition re- quired to reduce the place to a stone l heap, and the only military inpor- tancS of the town is its proximity to I the battle front Counting the shots
 that went wide of any structure, 1t is
 estimated tha more than a hundred
 thousand of different calibres were
 spent on Ypres. Thousands more
 were used during the gas attack ] along the route from Ypres to Furnes l by which the allies were expected to send endorsements All along the
 road for a few miles, deep funnel shaped holes, sometimes on one side
 sometimes on the other and often full ' in the center, still show how serious | 1y the operation was originated. One
 of them lies directly in front of an
 enclosed plot of ground covered with l field flowers above which rise four teen crosses. Here were buried the
 remains of little detachment of
 British troops that were sought out I by the sixteen inch German shells
 while resting in an abandoned cot tage onsthe edge of YpFes
 The eventual restoration of Ypres
 raises conflicting views, all of which
 originate from sentiment, for the
 town had long ago lost all commer- ciaI importance. The alta chment of the inhabitants to the soil calls for restoration and to this Is opposed the feeling that Ypres must remain as it lisa monumnt to the suffering of Flanders If the town is rebuilt, say many of those who loved 1t for it's Il traditions, let it be farther on along
 the banks of the Yser, while the ruins of the ancient town remained en- closed within monumental walls for
 the world to see in ages to come VFAK4NF A