Norwich bulletin., 1915-02-25
THE WAR PRIMER
By National Geographic Society

t7h hVCES III tl N4NG Cul . OfCA lAAC hOA famed grape lands of the Champagne lies Chalons- s-sur- Marne, one of the principal military training camps in France. It is & brave town; and no other community in Europe appears through the pages of 1900 years or Christian history with more honor or with fewer memories for regret. A natural mobilization point for tho de- feCse of northern France, ChalonS has been the objective of many invasions from the east and north, and is again the aim of mighty invading forces.
 'Chalons is small of but little com mercial importance, old-fashioned, and decidedly bourgeois and commonplace. It is remembered by Americans, who have tarried there a few days in their eager journey between the German Rhine country and Paris, only as quaint, somewhat shambly place. Nevertheless, it is able to boast itself one of the proudest cities at whose gates an enemy in the present war may knock.
 Its history reaches back of Roman occupation. Caesar found on this site the chief town of the Catalauni. On the plains nearby, Attila, The Scourge of God with his wild Huns, whom all Europe had come to fear, was defeated in 451, in what, according to the au- thority, was one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world. It was called The Battle of Chalons' by the ancient 4A4olO1 4cIlISs " llO ISpOILGu IIldI SDU1C 30G,00O dead were left upon the field. If this were so, the battle which wrecked Attila'S dream of world do- mlnIon was the bloodteSt ever fought in Europe, and, probably, in the world. So fierce was this battle between the East and West for supremacy-accord- ing to tradition-that the myriad eul- bittered ghosts of the slain renewed the conflict every night for years after the event.
 Az I-fs z,,J der the leadership of it's bishops, cour- ageous Chalons-as bourgeois then as noW-maintained the high honor which remains it's brightest characteristic to- day Later, when the French armies had been beaten again and again, with the British in possession of great part of the homeland, and with dis enlargement and lethargic hopeless ness bOding the stTangulation of all national sentiment in France, the cit izens of Chalons met the high stand ards of their glorious past, and twice rolled back the victorious English from their WallS-in 1430 and in 1884.
 The Camp of Chalons, the great French training center for troops. was htungly established near this city in 1856. It lies 16 miles from the town on the railway line to Reims. It oc- cupies an area of about 30.o00 acres.
 "Chalons, capital of the Department of Marne, lies 107 miles east of Paris,
  and Frankfort-a Main. 1t is 25 miles southeast Of Reiras, and is situated on the river Mdrne in the renowned French wine country. To the visitor from the New World, the houses of | ChalonS are picturesque, many of them are unstable affairs of wood and plaster, and few of them possess any degree of elegance. There is little of outward, apparent interest in Chalons, and to visit it in properly aprecia- .1 ing behind his guide books and by reading-up French history
 "The Argonne Forest is a ragged knot Of low mountains, sharp, rocky and deeply cleft. This forest lies across the path of the Lorraine passes into France. It stretches from the south east to the northwest for Q distance of 30 miles, generally parallel to the French German boundary, though well within French territory, and varies in width from one to eight miles. It lies between the scources of the Aisnc, on the east, and the river Aire. on the west. The railway from Metz to Ehalons and Paris runs through one of its sharp-heWn passes.
 This narrow, roCk-bound tangled forest belt is rich in military history. Its exceedingly difficult paths have several times stopped the foreign in Vader, and the Frenchman, with & somewhat warm stretch Of fancy, has called it the French Thermopylae. While TO such tragic last stand has yet been made within it's area. al that which consecrated the Grecian pass one of the holiest natural monuments of history, it's defiies have been the thea tres of several famous military opera tions, among them the Battle of Val my.
 "On this battlefield, the French. with 96,000 raw, undiscipIined, unconfident cOnscripts opposed on September 20, 15o2. i'll the wonderfully contorted passes of the Argonne, 160.000 Aus trian Imperialists and Prussians who to France. and victory remained with the French, a victory followed by the proclamation of the Republic.
 'ATgonne Forest is we'll wooded and has an elevation ranging between 500 and geo feet. The ground within the forest is unfruitful, rich alone in stone, piqUant scenic beauties, and all man. her of legend and fable
 The Brussels of before the war was She one indulgence that the industrious Belgian folk permitted itself. Other Belgian cities were built for practical purposes-for the Belgians are the | hard headed folk of the centuries-but l Brussels was built to please. Strategic sites near the raw materials of indus ! try or upon the lines of trade. posts, 1 and vantage points for the distribution | of agricultural produce explain every | Belgian city, except Brussels and Os- | tend-and Ostend was built exclusive 1 ly for the benefit of rich foreigners with money to spend. Brussels was 1 the weakness, the luxurious foible oi 1 the hard dest-woFlling of peoples. l Brussels had the charms of a miaia- l ture. It reproduced, feature for fea- ] ture, the breathIess pleasure of Paris 1 the bright art and student bohemia 1 the teeming nig'ht-life,. and all of the l bewildering pastimes of the ultra 1T l fashion and fortune. These things were 1 just as in Paris though drawn to 2 much smaller scale. But proportion l ateiy there were more BeigianS 1T Brussels than FFenchmen in Paris ol | Germans in Berlin or Engishmen il | London. Those three greater war cap itals have the peoples of the world among them Brussels was primarily | Belgian.
 l The population of the city, together | with its immediate suburbs, exceeded half a. million. Brussels was conSid | erably larger and livelier than th' American capital, Washington, which 1 it might be noted, is the smallest ant most sedate of all the important cap itals of the world. Nevertheless, ever 1 Washington has a more solid, a rnor' | extensive appearance than the chic city of Belgium.
 The city lies on the unnayigabl