The Sentinel=record., 1915-02-07
DIXNUDE PICTURE
 OF DESTRUCTION
NO HOUSE ESCAPED AND MANY QUARTERS OF THE TOWN ARE
 HEAPS OF RUINS.
The Church Is Still to Be Recognized From sn Arch in the Wall and a Piece of the Apse.

] mann, one of the best known Of the German war correspondents, has re. ceaty visited Dlxmude. which has be-. come famous through the heavy fight ing around it in October and Noyem- Der, resulting finally in it's capture by | the Germans. He writes as follows. | The enemy groets any and every movement along the road to DiXmu1e with a proligious rapid fire For more l than mile this road runs parallel to the French trenches 400 yards dis. tant In order to present as unfavor- able targets as possible we broke up 1 our party into long chain. with inter yals of some 20 paces between each two men Often too when the rapid fire grew too hot we had to go for. ward by jumping from one tree to the next although these were not largo and had been mostly shot off by the artillery They afforded little protec- ton, and besides, the numerous branches strewn il the road were a great hindr8nce to our progress Each of us looked back frequently to see ie his rear man was still unhurt. Thus We approached DiXmude, till we fi- aally gathered in a bunch for a mo- ment near the ruined railway station: for here was the most dangerous point in our journey. The crossing is peculiarly exposed to the French fire. At their ntrenchments the Frenth have set up number of rifles exactly tried out and aimed for this bit of ground and they fire these whenever any living thing shows it. self here
 Everyone of us saw 10 it that he got over this uncanny bit of ground as fast as possible. One after the other we skipped across the embanbment i likc squirrels more bent upon making cood speed than by cutting a digninad l figure, We got across safely and soon lad the protection of the ruined walls l Of the houses.
 "EiNmude presents a picture Of de 1 struction such as had not regarded possible. notwithstanding all that l have seen in this war No house here has escaped and many quarters of the town are heaps of ruins in which it Is no .ouger possible to distinguish where the streets had been. The large market square is strewn with saells. and in order to reach ihe point wterc the beautiful town hall and the ar ish church of St Nicholas used 10 stand, one has to pick ones way among deep holes gouged into the pavement hy the heavy shells. The church is stll to be recognized from an arch in the wall and piece of the apse But inside the debris lies a. | high as mans head
 "Dixmude is dead the grave of an old culture more touchiag than any city Of the antique world unearthed after thousands of years for here one sees everywhere mementoes of men still living, whose household goods are scattered in the streets and whose most precious belongings halfcharred are rolti0g away i1 the rain
 'I got some idea of the loss from an examination of the archives which discovered half buried among the ruins of the town hall Manuscri ts on find old hand made paper and parchment reaching far back into the l Middle Ages lay there. signed torn and thrown topsy turyy by exploding shells being ruined by the rain. There was spoudence from the begin .tls of the fifteenth century, carried cn in German between a merchant n Calais and the city government Of DiNmude There lay the minutes and other documents of the city goverd- ment from the time when the Hanse. atic League was in the high tide Of rrosperity. financial accounts reach ing back into the fourteenth century manuscripts of humaaisuc learning
 scientific treasures of an important and fascinating character. But glad | N as one would have lost ones self with these discoveries. this was manL festly not the moment to become ab- sorbed ia them for the enemy's fire was directed without interruption al the market square and the former l itNA AdAlf dtiu Ab dle tliNlAANAA et'N.-' tottering walls might fall
 No human being was at first to be seen in the ruined streets. And yet there was much life in the city-but underground Hundreds ot eyes were watching us while we were wandering ahout. At times sentinel would emerge suddenly from a tumble ol timbers and stones to warn Us not tl cross certain streets, fer there are stretches of ground in this desolate town that are swept by the enemy rifles so necessarily and with such a hail of bullets that it is sure death tc try to cross them.
 Again we stopped before one oi those confused heaps of ruins. Here were the headquarters of the Germa. commandant Forbidding as the pile looked from the outside it was com fortable enough inside. It was some l rich mans house. about three-four,h' of it's height left standing, and it' rooms on the ground floor being lei' intact. sand bags and earth had beer