The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1915-07-22

IN Lue history Oh WAI1dTe. was lDeluB
fought between the British and the
Germans. 1t was the first day Of the
new summer war. The deep roar Of
a hundred storms throbbed in the air
We tried to take in the view and its
vast Significance in one general sur
vey. It was impossible for clouds of
smoke here and there, the thunders Of
guns The eyes and ears took them
In but it was all SO vast that my mind
remained unmoved; it couldn't re-
spond to such a tremendous stimulus
| Men were dying in that landscape,
knew. Others were fighting like de-
wills; human life. down on the great
plain. was being quoted at zero; it
was being given away. free. Down
there on those checkered farms, along
those canals; in the groves. on the
roads. men were killing with might
and main.
This is the war between Great
Britain and Germany that noveIists
used to write about and the people
used to pooh pooh" aid the finan-
cier. as he looked over the landscape
with his glasses He had gotten
little bit OF the vastness of the scene
into his words.
1t was not until we began to pick
out various points and keep our eyes
fixed on them that the sense of the
vastness OF It all reached me.
Il wonder If can understand what
IT means If look at Ypres alone.r
calculated to myself.
Ypres. a few miles away from us,
was at first, the most fascinating
point In the sunshine the tall ruin
of the cloth hall tower CLEANED al
most white. When had been in it
week before 1t had been only a
iime-stained wreck We could see
white puffs burst into view around it
They we're shrapnel shells; they were
playing tattoo on the city. Two
church spires stood up in the sun
shine; the sharpnei clouds played
about them. also. Below these peaks
masonry fioated a sea OF white smoke.
began TO understand That great
town square IN beautiful old Ypres
was under this clond OF smoke: the
houses that line the winding old
streets were flying about in bits: any
minute we might see one OF the spires
wiped from view like a light goins
out. or the old tower smashed from
Its place in the worlds small treas
ury OF beautiful architecture. Few
things could be left alive in Ypres
in che sunshine that whole city stood
place OF death and destruction: its
! stones. patiently built into houses:
its churches. all that the generations
Of toiling Belgians had built up
through the slow centuries were being
torn down before your eyes. And
fpres was only one on the landscape.
Another spot was Poperhinge. six
r-iles from ypres. Shells flew near
IL A huge black cloud came up from
the earth. in its suburbs. This means
that n German i7-inch shell had burst
there. The residents OF that town
bad flown. after experiencing all the
terrors and the heart straining that
came to the people of the little town
we had visited In the morning.
There goes Jack johnson into
Ypres." said the nnarcier.
We saw the black flash of a Ger.
man 17-inch shell break near the cloth
hall tower. Wherever we looked in
the half circle Of Flanders that spread
before US. shells were breaking We
picked out fires We counted six
great clusters OF smoke along
stretch OF IA miles. These were not
houses. but villages burning. Far
away we could see an intense con-
fiagration. black smoke suddenly
burst through the yellow. A great
distillery, to which the farmers for
miles around. had brought their grain
for many years. was burning.
"That black smoke means that the
alcohol tanks exploded said the doc
tor. That great distiliery fire and the
burning villages were also only dots
on the huge panarama. Into our fore
ground flew a British aeropiane fol-
lowed by the white puffs of German
shrapnel smoke, arranged MS regular
in the sky as II they were Chinese
lanterns strung on sloping wire.
Il wonder what julius Caesar or
Napoleon would have thought of this