East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-07-16


May soon Reduce Dcfenses.
BY WILLIAM PHILLIP SIMMS.
United Press Staff Correspondent
WITH THE FRENCH ARMY AT
THE FRONT. June 2s.-CBy Mail to
New York Amy day the French Sc
lect they can shell the very heart Of
Metz into a rubbish-heap. And ii
they have thus far refrained from do
Ing SO it is because they do not care
70 pound town or city to pieces
without either rhyme or reason
1 myself have just seen Metz.
saw the fragile city Of Lorraine, the
city which Marshal Bazaine so
strangely surrendered to the Prus-
slams in 1870, from the crest of $50
foot hill part OF the present French
battlellne. Through glasses the ia
nous fifteenth century cathedral. as
well as the other houses of the city,
were plainly visible, for the day was
fairly clear and the mighty fortress
was but some IA miles away.
Fourteen miles are a short distance
in this day Of big, long-range howit-
zers. and the French are amply pro-
vided with artillery capable of con-
siderably greater distance than that.
After the Germans had deliberate
~ dropped shells of great caliber into
Dunkirk shooting from behind their
lines some rs or 80 miles away and
killing many non-combatants the
French fired a few shells not upon
Metz, the city, but the forts of Metz,
just by way Of saying
I'VE, too, can indulge in long-dis-
tance artillery practice if We care to.
However, we refuse to endanger the
lives Of civilians uselessly."
From a thicikly beposied valley of
French Lorraine literally knee-deep in
buttercups and black-eyed-susies. we
began the climb to the summit OF this
mountainette which rises abruptly
from the plain and does not stop un-
til its head is far above the surround
ing countryside Now and then
practically-praetlcally every day
shells follow its contour a hundred
feet or So above the surface to drop
into the town of Pont-a- -Moussen,
now on its way to its two-hundredth
bombardment by the Germans since
the commencement of the war Its
slopes are under cultivation even now
and as we toiled upwards, we passed
an old man and a woman, probably
his daughter or daughter-in-law (hus-
band in the army of course) taking
care of the grapevines. which are to
Yield German shells permitting, their
quota of the lovely pinkish and most
palatable liquid, the rose wine of
Lorraine"
At the top of the hill is a cluster of
houses dating perhaps from the six
teenth or seventeenth century. One
say some former Lord of Lorraine
had his castles stronghold there and
the houses remaining were those OF
his dependents and his men of war.
Through a boyau, or trench, we gain-
ed what was left of tiny chapel. the
stained grass windows reduced TO
powder, the place of total wreck 1t,
like everything else in the neighbor-
hood, has caught its share OF shells.
1t was from this point that l saw
Metz.
Through the blue haze, which
grew denser and denser the farther
one lifted ones eyes over the sue
ceeding ranges of hills bordering the
valley of the Mosele. Metz appeared
like a magic city of some fairy tale. /
To the left the Gothic towers of the
sprang into the circle form [
ed by the lenses of the field glasses /
To the right were the spires of an
other house of God Between were
masses of houses, quite distinct yet
appearing utterly unreal The city |
seemed to repose upon purple clouds
and purple veil seemed spread up |
on it, One had the distinct impress
sion that If one shut ones eyes for |
a moment the magic vision would |
fade away.
Turning for a moment to ask a |
question of the officers about me.
saw. or fancied / saw, on the face |
of each an expression of grim deter
Bazaine gave away Nets
and its 10000 valiant defenders to
the Prussians in 1870; Metz consid-
cred an impregnable: Metz the for
tress often spoken of as the gun
pointing to the heart Of France"
These soldiers among whom I stood
thrilled one with the feeling that one
day they would take Metz back.
Metz is situated at the junction of
the Moselle and the Selle 1t has
about $4,000 inhabitants and is sur
by a series of Notifications
said to be among the strongest in the
world. Many times besieged but
,aTna o., U-r.,1a ls- trao+r. l., 1915