The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-20
DESPITE GERMAN {. EFFORTS VERDUN LITTLE DAMAGED
From Military Standpoint Teutons' Bombardment
 Proved Ineffective.

mas come through the OTueal much better than was expected. While the poor inhabitants have suffered greatly in the loss of homes and belongings, yet the military defense of the town is about as good as ever. The Citadel in the center of the town, where the last stand was to be made, is un- touched except for shell holes in the heavy masonry walls. These are big enough to smash an ordinary dwelling to pieces, but on these massive walls, twenty feet thick, they are only pin bricks which can be repaired.
 The bridges, also, have all escaped damage, and bridges from the military standpoint are very important for the ready transfer of troops, supplies. and refugees from one side of the Mouse to the other. The snain bridge, link ing the principal business street, Is f1anked along the river by stores and houses torn to pieces by shells and tumbling into the river. But the bridge itself does not show a scratch. And so it is with all the other bridges.
 It isl the same with the "routes," as the military men called them-a general term covering highways lead ing into the town, railway terminals, $, lC. the nearby suburbs, these routes are as good as ever, though further back in the part overrun by the Germans they have doubtless suffered a. good deal.
 ''But on the who1e,'' said one of the officers, i've feel that after six months bombardment, Verdun has really suf- fered very little in a military sense, so that the tremendous effort made by Germany has been to them a com plete military failure"
 The bronze statue of Chevert. Mar shalll of France, has come through the bombardment untouched while all around is a wilderness of ruin The old general, in seventeenth century costume, still brandishes his sword as he shouts Zen avant' in the attack on Prague. Verdun has always been very proud of it's Marshall, who was born here in 1895 and became a marshall under Louis XIV.
 A visit to one of the fortresses in the inner circle of Verdun defenses showed practically duplicate of Forts Douamont and VauX, now complete wrecks after being captured by the Germans. It has the same massive outer walls, twenty feet thick and the height of sthree-story row of houses. Within this wall is a wide moat, and second circle of heavy walls, with small 1oop-hole windows half way up. Pointing to those loop hole windows an officer said:
 We had an exciting experience with those windows at Fort Vaux when the German assault was made. The Ger mans got to the top wall, but our men, | he in t,oc afc attached to ropes As the bombs hung outside our windows, they ex- ploded by time fuse.
 ."This was becoming very deadly, when one of our crack, rif1emen came on the scene. and taking his, rifle he shot to pieces the ropes, one after the other letting the baskets and bombs crash to the foot of the wall. "For six days this work went on, but never again did a bomb explode near our windows, as our sharpshooter unfailingly cut the ropes as fast as the baskets were lowered"
 While the smelling of Verdun has done a tremendous amount of damage, yet there is one remarkable incident in which German bombshell has ac- tual1y performed a very useful piece of military engineering.
 General Dubois, commanded of the citadel, pointed out to The Associat- ed Press this curious freak wrought | by German she'll
 q calculate' said the General, ''that that one shell has done for me hard work of fifty men working steadily for eight days
 The net result of the shells work was to tear a hole through the rear Notifications, and thus opening the | way for a tunnel which was much needed. Besides that, the same shell | knocked down two large trees at the end of the tunnel which fell across the river in such a way that they formed | the foundation of a bridge.
 1 After the smoke had cleared away and the wreckage had been inspected | General Dubois concluded that the path of the shell would be turned 10
 useful account. The Jagged hole through the Notifications was proper ly cleared up and cemented, and now it represents the appearance of rather good-looking archway. The trees ly- I ing across the river were properly an- 4 chored at either end, and a. solid \ upper structure with ornamental side 1 railings, was constructed. Then a narrow-gauge railway was run from the citadel through this shell hole and
 over this bridge lying on the blown up trees, so that a direct railway con- | nection was established between the citadel and the rear. This railway performs a very useful service. and the whole thing is the outgrowth of the big German shell which fell just back of the citadel.
 Going along the streets of Verdun one sees at every hand signs of the terror which spread over the poor villagers when the bombardment ldrove them away. The Rue St. Pierre and the Rue Belle Verge showed long lines of small shops and middle class houses which had been so hastily deserted that many of the belongings had been left behind. A barber shop
 had been left with a lot of the per-
 fumery Bottles still standing in front
 of the empty chairs. A carpenter shop shoped the usual litter of shaw ings and long benches, as though the
 men had just gone off work. Mattress
 es and pieces of blanket were lying around in a house which had it's front
 torn out by shall, and nearby were
 paiIs, tubs, and a demolished baby
 carriage. An upper story, vince 2
 shell had torn off the front, showed ar artists atelier, with an easel standing
 against the wall and the place daubet with paint. Hardly house or shoI