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

% the meadows Of the Meuse with
A;,, If the abruptncss of the sky
s.r.rer and still preserves that aspect
-h;oh led the writers Of other wars TO
,osoribe oil forts as browning" 1t was
,,,;,t for Louis XIV by Vauban. He took
LA -ock and blasted out redoubts and
hs.tlements. The generations that fol-
,o,,.d him dug into the living rock and
c-osted within It whole city Of catacombs,
vast labyrinth of passages and chambers
s,d halls: even an elevator was added by
The latest engineers, so that one can 60
from floor 10 floor, from the level Of the
meadow to the level Of the summit of the
rock. possibly a hundred feet above.
Bv reason Of the fact that many cor
rssnordents have visited this fortress since
the war began the world has come to know
# the underground life in Verdun, to think
Of the city as defended by some wonder
mi system Of subterranean works; TO
think Of Verdun, in fact, as city
Or citadel that is defensible either
bv walls or by forts. But the truth
is far different; even the old citadel
Is hut a deserted cave; its massive walls
Of natural rock resist the shells as they
would repulse an avalanche; but the guns
that were once on its parapets are gone, the
garrison is gone. gone far out on the trench
lines beyond the hills. The Vauban citadel
is now a place where bread is baked, where
wounded men are occasionally brought
where live the soldiers and officers whose
important but unromantic mission it is to
keep the roads through the town open, 70
police the ashes Of the city, to do what re-
mains of the work that once fell to the lot
Of the civil authorities.
To glide swiftly to the shelter Of this
rock from region in which falling shell
has served to remind you of the real mean
ing of Verdun of the moment, to leave the
automobile and plunge into the welcome
obscurity Of this cavern-this was perhaps
the most comfortable personal incident of
the dav. The mere shadow Of the rock
gave a sense Of security; to penetrate it
was to pass to safety.
My Host in Verdun.
Some moments of wandering by corri-
doris and stairways into the very heart Of
the rock brought us TO the quarters of our
host, General Dubois; to his kind attention
was TO owe all my good fortune in seeing
his dying city; TO him, at the end, was to
owe the ultimate evidence of courtesy,
which I shall never forget.
Unlike PGtain or Joffre, General Dubois
is a little man, possibly a trife older than
either A white-haired, bright-eyed, vigor
Gus soldier, who made his real fame in
Madagascar with Joffre and with Gallieni,
and when the storm broke was sent to Yer
dun by these men, who knew him, TO do the
difficult work that there was TO be per-
formed behind the battle line. There is
about General Dubois a suggestion of the
old. as well as the new. of the French gen
eral. The private soldiers TO whom he
spoke as he went his rounds responded
with "Oui, mon General" that had note
Of affection as we'll as of discipline; he
was rather as one fancied were the sol
ders Of the Revolution, Of the Empire, of
the Algerian days of Pere Bugeaud, whose
memory is still green.
Our sautations made. we returned
through the winding corridors TO inspect
the bakeries, the water and light plant
The unsupported resources Of this rock. In
one huge cavern we saw the men who pro-
uded 10000 men with bread each day
men working as the stokers in an ocean
steamer labor amidst the glare of fires;
we tasted the bread and found it good, as
good as all French bread is, and that
means little better 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 inspected them as one in
spects the best blossoms in a garden we
studied the angle at which they dropped;
We measured the miniature avalanche that
they brought with them. But always, so
lar, there was the sub-conscious sense of
the rock between us and the enemy. !
never before understood the full meaning
Of that phrase "a rock in weary land. "
A City Dying Hourly.
All this was but preliminary, however.
O'her automobiles arrived; the general en-
@fed one. followed in the next and we