Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-05-07

broke was sent to verdun by these
men. who knew him. to do the difficult
behind the battle line. There is about
Gen. Dubois a suggestion of the old as
well OF the new of the French general.
The private soldiers to whom he spoke
as he went his rounds responded with
"Oui. mon general that had note
of affection. as well as of discipline;
he was rather as one fancied were the
soldiers of the revolution, of the en-
pire. of the Algerian days of Pere Blu
geaud, whose memory is still green.
Bread for $4,000 Men.
through the winding corridors to in
spect the bakeries, the water and light
plant. the unsupported resources of
this rock. In one huge cavern we saw
the men who provided 10000 men with
bread each day. men working as the
stokers in an ocean steamer labor amid
the glare of fires; we tasted the bread
and found it good. as good as all French
bread is, and that means a little bet
ter than all other bread.
Then we slipped back into daylight
and wandered along the face of the
fortress. We inspected shell holes of
yesterday and of last month: we in
spected them as one inspects the best
blossoms in a garden; we studied the
ured the miniature avalanche that they
brought with them. But always. so
far, there was the subconscious sense
of the rock between us and the enemy.
1 never before understood the full
meaning of that phrase "a rock in
weary land.
All this was but preliminary, how
ever Other automobiles arrived; the
general entered one. l followed in the
next and we set out to visit Verdun,
to visit the ruins, or. rather, to see not
a city that was dead. but a city that
was visibly hourly dying--a city that
was vanishing by blocks and by
sauares-but was not yet fallen to the
estate of Ypres or Arras; city that in
corners, where there were gardens be-
hind the walls, still smiled: a city
where some few brave old buildings
still stood four square and solid. but
only waiting what was to come.
Different at verdun.
Before 1 visited verdun ! had seen
many cities and towns which had been
wholly or partially destroyed, either by
shell fire or by the German soldiers in
their great invasion before the Marine.
One shelled town is much like another,
and there is no thrill quite like that
you experience when you see the first.
But these towns had died nearly two
years ago: indeed, in most the resur-
rection had begun; little red roofs were
| beginning to shine through the brown
trees and stark ruins. Children played
again in the squares. 1t was like the
sense you have when you see an old
peasant pleughing among the cross
marked graves of hard-fought battle
cornervthe sense of beginning, as
| we'll as of death and destruction.
But at Verdun it was utterly differ
ent. OF life or people. of activity be-
ginning again or surviving there was
nothing. Some time in the recent past
all the little people who lived in these
houses had put upon wagons what could
| be quickly moved and had slipped out
of their home. that was already under
| sentence of death. They were gone into
the distance and they had left behind
them no stragglers. The city was emp
ty save for a few soldiers who passed
rapidly along the streets. as one
marches in heavy snowstorm.
Vagaries of Shell Fire.
Yet Verdun was not wholly dead
Shell fire is the most inexplicabIe of all
things that carry destruction. AS you
passed down one street the mark of de-
struction varied with each house Here
the blast had come and cut the build
ing squarely; it had carried with it into
| ruin behind in the COURTYARD all that
|
! wall the telephone rested undisturbed
pictures p possibly, even a looking
| glass-hung as the inhabitants had left
II, hung as perhaps it had hung when
the last woman had taken her ultimate
hurried glance at her hat before she de-
| parted into the outer darkness
But the next house had lost only the
front walls; it stood before you as if
| by the removal of the facade. Chairs,
beds-all the domestic economy of
the house-sagged visibly outward
| toward the street or stood still firm
but open to the four winds. 1t was as
If the scene were prepared for a stage
| and you sat before the footlights look
ing into the interior. Again, the next
| house and that beyond were utterly
gone-side walls, front walls. every
| thing swallowed up and vaniShed-the
| ironwork twisted into heaps. the stone
| work crumbled to dust; the whole mass
of ruin still smoked. for it was a shell
of yesterday that had done this work.
| Storm Directions Shown.
Down on the Riviera, where the mis-
trail blows-all the pine trees lean
away from the invariable track of this
storm wind-you have the sense, even
| in the summer months, of whole
| countryside bent by the gales. In the
| game fashion you felt in Verdun. felt
| rather than saw. whole town not
| bent, but crumpled, crushed-and the
| line of fall was always apparent; you
could tell the direction from which
| each storm of shells had come; you
could almost feel that the storm was
but suspended. not over, that at any
moment it might begin again.
Yet even in the midst of destruction
there were enclaves of mistaken struc-
lures. On the Rue Maztl Main
street the chief clothing store rose
immune amid ashes on all sides. Its
huge plate-glass window was not even
| cracked. And behind the window a
little mannikin. one of the familiar
| images that wear clothes to tempt the
purchaser. stood erect A French SOL
dier had crept in and raised the stiff
arm of the mannikin to the salute.
pushed back the hat to rakish angle
The mannikin seemed alive. and more
than alive-the embodiment of the
spirit of the place. Facing northward
toward the German guns. il seemed to
respond to them with a ''morituri salu-
Janus" The last civilian in Nerdun."
the soldiers called him: but his man
ner was rather that of the Poilu.
A Factory That Was.
We crossed the river and the canal
and stopped by the ruin of what had
once been a big factory or warehouse.
We crawled through an open she'll
made breach in the brick wall and stood
in the interior. The ashes were still
hot and in corners there were smoking