New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-07

upon all these faces, and yet it had neither
the light nor the laughter; the
sense of strength and of calmness was in
escapable, and never have I known such
charming, such thoughtful hosts.
When the champagne came the old gen.
eral rose and made me little speech. He
spoke in English, with absolute correct
ness, but as one who spoke it with diff.
Guilty. He welcomed me as ar American to
Verdun, he thanked me for coming, he
raised his glass to drink to my country and
the hope that in the right time she would
be standing with France-in the cause Of
civilization. Always in his heart, In his
thought, in his speech, the Frenchman is
thinking of that cause Of civilization; al
ways this is what the terrible conflict that
is eating up all France means to him.
Afterward we went out Of this cavern
into daylight, and the officers came and
shook hands with me and said goodby.
One does not say az revotr at the front;
one says "bonne chance" good luck; it
may and it may not--we hope not" We
entered our cars and were about TO start,
when suddenly with a binding, stunning
crash whole salvo landed in the meadow
lust beyond the road, we could not see
where, because some houses hid the field.
It was the most suddenly appalling crash
have ever heard.
Instantly the general ordered our driv
ers to halt. He explained that it might
be the beginning of bombardment or only
single trial, detail in the intermittent
firing TO cut the road that we were L. take.
We sat waiting for several moments and
no more shots came. Then the general
turned and gave an order to his car to
follow, babe our drivers go fast and
climbed into my car and sat down. The
wandering American correspondent was
his guest. He could not protect him from
the shell fire. He could not prevent 1t.
But he could share the danger. He could
share the risk, and so he rode with me the
mile until we passed beyond the danger
zone. There he gave me another "5onne
chance" and left me, went back to his she'll
cursed town with its ruins and its
agonies.
hope shall see General Dubois again.
I hope it will be on the day when he is
made Governor Of Strassburg.
Nothing That Was Not Beautiful"
As we left Verdun the firing was in
creasing; it was rolling up like a rising
gale; the infantry fire was becoming pro-
nounced; the Germans were beginning an
attack upon lie Mort Homme. Just before
sunset we passed through the Argonne
Forest and came out beyond. On a hill TO
the north against the sky the monument
Of Valmy stood out in clear relief mark .,
ing the hill where Kellermann had turned
back another Prussian army. Then we
slipped down into the Plain of Chalons.
where other Frenchmen had met and con-
ouered Attila. At dark we halted in Mont
mirail, where Napoleon won his last vic
tory before his Empire fell. The sound OF
the guns we had left behind was still IN
our ears and the meaning of these names
in our minds. Presently my French COM
panion said to ME: at is long time,
isn't it?' He meant all the years since
the first storm came out of the north, and
I think the same thought is in every
Frenchman's mind Then he told me his
story.
81 had two boys" he said; zone was
taken from me years ago in an accident;
he was killed and it was terrible. But
the other gave.
"He was shot, my last boy, up near Yer
dun, in the beginning of the war. He did
not die at once and / went TO him. For
twenty days | sat beside him in a cellar
waiting for him TO die. bought the last
coffin in the village, that he might be buried
in it, and kept it under my bid. We talked
many times before he died, and he told
me all he knew of the fight, of the men
about him and how they fell.
my name is finished, but say TO you
now that in all that experience there was
nothing that was not beautiful" And as
far as can analyze or put in words the
impression that have brought away from
France, from the ruin and the suffering
and the destruction, think it IS expressed
......l- La... IL