Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-12-05
PROFESSOR Tells
OF TRENCH VISIT.
Views. DeSoIation Wrought b\
War on Flanders Battle
Front.
SOUL OF YpRES LIVES on
Town, Which Has Been Through Two
Great helis and Many Lesser
Ones, Is Symbol of Tragedy
Of Belgium.

knoxville. Tenn.-HOw long Will the
war last?
The best answer to this question
heard along the Flanders battle front
by Prof. George Herbert Clarke. who
has returned 10 the chair of English
a. the University OF Tennessee, was
by Il South African, who remarked re-
tiectiyely: We'll. sir ! can't rightly
say but it looks to me as though this
ere war as settled down now into Il
sort of inst!chOOshun.
Professor Clarke yentured TO ask
the question all along the firing line,
How long is piece of strlng:' re-
torted an English statesman.
"A certain major did me the honor
10 invite my own conjecture Profess
sor Clarke says, and, still better,
agreed with il; but found. for the
most part, the expected wide diver
sity of opinion"
Another interesting question arose
on board ship during Professor
Clarkes return from Europe; Is II
ship safer than thu trenches: Ger
tain Canadian officers on the boat ar
gued the negative of the question, but
the university professor was stanch
for the affirmative.
Less Danger In Trenches.
Canadian officers said that there
was less danger in trenches because
shells seldom struck the trenches, and
the shot usually went over the heads
Of the men. But Professor Clarke was
Of the opinion that there is less risk
in ship on the ocean, even though
the kaiser's sea sharks, submarines.
menace vessels, and should boat be
torpedoed. it would probably not be
long until passengers We're bound for
Davy Jones locker, even if they were
in lifeboats or life savers.
The desolated town Of ipres was
visited by Professor Clarke while in
the war zone. 'The American imugi-
nation has been deeply touched by the
tragedy of Belgium" he says, land.
with the exception of its brutal protag
onists. all the world shares that pity.
"Ypres is its symbol The towns
body is denuded, dead 1t has been
through two great hells and many les
ser ones. but its soul lives on, intact.
The town mayor impressed Inc as pre-
cisely the type of man to govern Ypres
! today. He is its military mayor, II
sort of father-and-mother 10 fpres,
brave, broad. shOuldered Cornishman.
who has risen from The ranks, and
who administers the affairs of his
ruined borough with pride aud zeal
that are not short of beautiful He is
not wholly obsessed by military val
ues he does not wish the visitor 10
miss the rare places Of Ypres that are
still, in their grim settling, more or
less visible.
1.-THE other day he helped Bel
gian to discover his little hoard Of
! francs that had been buried in the
1 town during the first bombardment.
He shows firm judgment and instant
sympathy as each IL needed. If Ipres
1 Is Belgium, he-English as he isis
Ypres brave, steady enduring and
confident. Looking up whmslcally at
shell that seemed to me to burst
uncomfortable near (but then, they
all sounded like that) he remarked :
'Ah, high explosive; | thought as
much. Perhaps YOU had better be
going now And we went with sense
of abiding regard for this sturdy sol
der while deafening crash close by
announced that the British guns had
something urgent to say TO the enemy
something that could not wait
A Dantean Desolation.
The word Somme similarly has ex'
banded into novel and gr0tesqut
symbol. Professor ClarSs says. For
the Somme is Dantean desolation
extending mile beyond mile--a desc
lation of spintered tree trunks
stripped woebegone boughs, churnet
up subsoils that look like plague spot'
upon the corpse of earth. | thought
of Coeridge's 'rotting sea- The ad
iective is pale and ineffective here.
thought OF Browning's 'Childe Ro
land
= But there is another side TO th'
Somme picture. brisk movement a
the appropriate spots is not wanting
as there Is distant train hauling 1T
) freight; German prisoners working tn
roads, Tommy at his endless fatigue
4 Jobs; guns volleying overhead; tn
: army service corps, carrying on witt
| Its ncver.ceasing string of lumberin
lorries, and, perhaps most completel
+ diverting of all. the m~mentary az
pearauce of II kentucky mule on tn
+ skyline, tossing his heels in an aban
doned ecstacy.
Professor Clarke was connected wit
the intelligence department of tn
= British war office In the war zone.
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