The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-05-07
SOISSONS' RUIN IS
4 PICTURED BY POWELL
City of $4,000 Reduced to a Few
People.

City of $4,000 Reduced to Few
People.
Copyright by the New York World
and The Commercial Appeal.)
On the Aisne, April 30.-The Of
ficer who acted as my guide and
cicerone assures me / am the first
civilian who has been permitted to
visit Scissors since last September
Before we started l was told quite
frankly that military authorities ac-
cepted no responsibility for conse-
Quences of my excursion, for, though
D Scissors is in possession of the
French it is under almost constant
bombardments by Germans.
In order to get setting for the
picture clearly in your mind, you
+ must picture two parallel ranges of
hills, separated by a wonderfully
fertile valley, perhaps three miles in
width, down which meanders with
many twists and hairpin turns the
silver ribbon that is the River Aisne.
On it's bank at a gentle bend in the
river stands the quaint old town of
Scissors, so hoary with antiquity
that it's earlier history is lost in the
mith of tradition. Of it's normal
population of $1,000 only few
score remain, and these only because
they have no other place to go.
A sandstone ridge which rises alb
ruptly from the south bank of the
river directly opposite Scissors is
held by the French, and from the
shelter of it's summit their batteries
spit unceasing defiance at the Ger
mans under Gen. Won Heeringen,
whose trenches line the heights on
the other side of the river and i'm
mediately back of the town.
GERMAN FIRE CONTINUES.
From dawn to dark and often
throughout the night, the screaming
messengers of death criss-cross
above the red tiled roofs of scissors
and serve to make things interest
ing for the handful of inhabitants
who remain. Every now and then
German gunners, apparently for no
reason save pure deviltry, drop a
few shells into the middle of the
town. They argue, no doubt, that
it keeps them hopeful and from be-
coming ennuied and gives them
something to think about.
The ridge on the French side Of
the river is literally honeycombed
with quarries, tunnels and caverns,
many of these subterranean cham
bers being as large and curiously
formed as grottos in the Mammoth
Cave of Kentucky. Being weather
proof as we'll as bombproof, the
French have turned them to excel
lent account, utilizing them for bar
racks, ammunition safes, fire control
stations, hospitals and even stables.
In fact, / can recall few stranger
sights than that of long line of
helmeted horsemen, comprising a
whole squadron of dragons, disap-
pearing into the mouth of one OF
these caverns like gigantic snake
crawling into it's lair.
Leaving our cars three miles from
the outskirts of Scissors, we pushed |
our way through dense underground |
up a hillside until we came quite
upon the yawning mouth
of tunnel, which I surmised passed |
completely under the summit of the
ridge. Cropping our way through
inky blackness for perhaps an eighth
of a mile, we suddenly emerged into
the binding glare of sunlight and
found ourselves in one of these Sc
cret observatories from which
French artillerists keep an unceas-
ing watch on the movements of the
enemy and by the means of tele- !
phone direct and control the fire of
their own batteries with incredible
accuracy.
This particular observatory was
located in the mouth of the tunnel S
and hence was entirely safe from de- /
lection by German aviators, while s
It's front had been so cleverly '
screened with branches and foliage /
hat it would defy the keenest eye a 8
thousand feet away. {
Pinned to the earthen walls were c
contour maps and fire control charts f
Powerful telescopes mounted on tri- t
pods brought the German trenches T
IN the heights across the river so T
lose that had a soldier shown him 4
ielf we could almost have seen the Y
pike upon his helmet. A military /
with receivers clamped t
o his ears sat at switchboard and
pushed buttons or pulled oNt pegs
ust as telephone girls do if hotels t
IN Fifth Avenue. /
ARTILLERY oBsERvATORIES. e