Evening journal., 1915-04-26
Allies Leave Neuve ChapeIle
a Thoroughly Crushed City

Neuve Chapelle is as thoroughly de-
stroyed as a crushed eggshell. It's only
streets are trenches; its only houses
are dug out; death fills the space
above the trench line; shells crisis
cross the sky above it and burst in
the ruins. There's nothing more
that a shell can do to Neuve Chapelle
except to stir up the debris. The shells
have ransacked the cemetery; blown
open the graves; scattered bits OF
coffins and fragments of bones over
the cemetery lawns and then burned
the lawns into a mass of mud. bones,
coffin bits and fragments of grave
stones.
Then, as if nothing would satisfy
their fury, they have blown this mix
ture into the air and scattered il
over all the neighboring portion of
the town. Neuve Chapelle has disap-
peared, but its name goes down into
history as the town which was she'll
ed by 500 cannon: as the town which
was fought for. between the English
and the Germans, at a cost of 100
1 lives for every ruined house in its
streets.
The English prize Neuve Chapelle
because it is token of General
| French's proof that the German, in
trench. can be routed in an attack.
The battle of Neuve Chapelle marked
the first attack on a line of any great
extent, against entrenched German
forces. It is proof that has put fire
into the fighting of both the English
and French.
It's worlds better now" said an
English soldier to me in the trenches
this afternoon. I'VE had stuck in our
old trenches month after month. won
dering how strong the fellow across
the way really was, and now we know.
We're out of our old trenches into
the new ones in Neuve Chapelle. It's
just like that Cowboy and Jack John
son fight"
/ asked him how the two were alike
well, We were like the Cowboy in
the first part of the war, and Germany
as like Jack Johnson. Germany
knew that if she licked us. she'd have
to do II in the early rounds; she
couldn't make a long fight of it.
well, last winters fighting was
just like the early rounds in the
O'Nhb1 . nbiNs Van gUu lAAdEAlt uOM
worried that Cowboy was until hC
saw that Johnson was beginning tC
get tired? And can you imagine how
happy he felt when he found out thar
J all his blows were beginning to wor.
ry the big black fellow? Well, tha
was us at Neuve Chapelle Neuve Cha
pelle showed u.s. And all of us fel
lows who were. in that fight feel jus
like Willard must have felt about tn,
sixteenth round"
The point of this is not that Neuv,
Chapelle was interested in the Jacl
Johnson fight, although the news dit
: flash like shell fire through tn
trenches in the town as soon as i
was received, thirty hours late, bu
that the capture of Neuve Chapell
put new hope and a new fighting
spirit into the English army and int
J the French army. II put a smile ont
the faces of English soldiers that ha
been worn by the grinding vigors O
the winter; it put them into tune with
the spring that is turning everythin
green in trenchland. It will max
the French people understand tn,
rainbow in the black cloud. which tn
French artist sketched this Afternoon
A day at Neuve Chapelle. includin
the trip there and back from the Ems
lish headquarters is an adventure {
a lifetime.