New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-14

saw pleasant country, rolling nils, most
ly without woods, bare in the spring, which
had not yet come to turn them green. In
the foreground ran that arbitrary line
Bismarck had drawn between Frenchmen
forty-six years before-the frontier-but
of natural separation there was none. lie
had cut off part of France, that was ALL
and one looked upon what had been and
was still bleeding wound.
The Kaiser Waited.
| asked the French commandant about
the various descriptions made by those
who have written about the war. They
have described the German attack as
mounting the slope of the Grand Mont,
where we stood. He took me to the edge
and pointed down. 1t was cliff almost
as steep as the Palisades. "Cest une
plague" he smiled. "Just a story" The
Germans had not charged here, but IN the
forest below. where the Nancy road
passes through and enters the valley OF
the Amezeule They had not tried to
carry but to turn the Grand Mont. More
than 100000 men had fought for days IN
the valley below. ! asked him about the
legend Of the Kaiser, sitting on hui,
waiting in white uniform with his famous
escort. waiting until the road was clear
for his triumphal entrance into the capt.
tal of Lorraine. He laughed. | might
choose my hill; if the Emperor had done
this thing the hill was lover there but
had he? They are hard on legends a; the
front. and the tales that delight Paris die
easily on the frontiers of war
But since had asked so much about the
lighting my commandant promised TO take
me in the afternoon to the point wnere
the struggle had been fercest, still fur
ther to the SOUTH where all the hills break
down and there is natural gateway from
Germany into France, the beginning OF
the famous Charmes Gap, through which
the German road TO Paris from the east
ran. and still runs. Leaving Nancy be-
hind us. and ascending the Meurthe val
lev on the eastern bank, turning out of 1t
before St. Nicolas du Port, we came
presently to the most completely war
swept fields that | have ever SEEN On
perfectly level plain the little town d
Haraucourt stands in sombre ruins. Its
houses are nothing but ashes and rubble
Go out of the village toward the east, and
YOU enter fields pockmarked by shell fire.
For several miles you can walk from shell
hole 10 shell hole. The whole country is
patchwork of these shell holes. At ever
few rods a new line of old trenches APP
breaches the road and wanders away
AGAIN. Barbed wire entangements run 10
and down the gently sloping hillsides.
A Field of 1000 Dead.
Presently we came out upon a perfectly
level field. 1t was simply torn by shell
fire Old haf-flled trenches wandered
aimlessly about and beyond, under a gen
tie slope. the little village Of CourbessauX
stood in ruins The commandant called
nv attention to bit of woods IN front
"The Germans had their machine guns
there" said he. I'VE didn't know it, and
French brigade charged across this field.
It started al S:l5, and at 8 80 it had lost
more than 5000 out of 5000 Then the
Germans came out of the woods in their
turn. and our artillery. back at Harau-
court. caught them. and they lost $500
men in a quarter: of an hour Along the
roadside were innumerable graves. We
looked at one. II was marked: Here l79
French" Twenty feet distant was an
other; it was marked: Here 1886 Ger
mans" In the field where we stood | WIS
told some 10000 men are buried. They
were buried hurredly. and even now when
it rains arms and legs are exposed.
Two wears had passed, almost two years.
since this field had been fought for. The
i Germans had taken it. They had APP
preached Haraucourt, but had not passed
In. This was the centre and the most vital
point in the Lorraine battle. What Foch's
troops had done about La Fere Champe-
noise those of Castelnau had done here.
The German wave had been broken, but
at what cost! And now, after so many
months, the desolation Of war remained.
But yet it was not to endure. Beside these
very graves an old peasant was plough
ing. guiding his plough and his horses
carefully among the tombs. Four miles
away more trenches faced each other and
the battle went on audibly, but behind this
line, in this very field where so many had
died. life was beginning.
The Most Wrecked Town Of France.
Later we drove south, passing within
the lines the Germans had held in their
great advance; we travelled through Lune-
willie, which they had taken and left IN