The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-30
CITY OF YPRES NOW
 NOTHING BUT PILE
 OF BROKEN STONES
Once Lordly Metropolis of Northern France is Com pletely Shattered by
 Friend and Foe

Behind the British Lines in France, December --(Correspondence of the Associated Press. s.)-There Is literally Ypres except heaps of dust and broken stones. Although still within the range of German artillery, the city may be visited in comparative safety as it is too far behind the lines to offer cer- tain target for continuous lombard ment.
 Ypres is coo years old and carried with It before the war the impress of an honorable past. In the middle ages when the Flemish merchants were the great traders of Europe, the city was fabulously wealthy being for many years the center of the wool trade. After it's prosperity passed, it would have become obscure but for the ca thedral, and Cloth hall, where the wool merchants once had met These two monuments were remarkable examples of the architecture of their time, and Tor hundred years had made Ypres known and visited by the world.
 It remained for the German to turn to ashes what had been a place of beauty for 600 years. The first bonn bardment of Ypres came on Nocem- Der l, 1914. The town was then full of wounded soldiers and peasant refu- gees from the surrounding country. They were crowded principally in the cathedral and the Church of St. Nicho las, in the vain belief that these sanc- tuaries at least would be spared by the invader.
 The battle on the hills around Ypres ended IF days later. The Germans Tailed to break through the British line, but the bombardment of the town. instead of waning, grew more intense, The Germans, foiled in their attempt to capture Ypres, determined to de- stroy it. For long period, heavy smells fell into the town at the rate of 15 a minute The sound of the con tfnuous destruction could be heard 15 miles away.
 The inhabitants of the town mostly Hed soon after the bombardnen+ started. When it was over. they re- turned to find the beauty of their town we'll nigh gone. The famous Cloth han stlli stood, but it was a roofIess skele- ton; only its cellars were intact The 0reac square in front of it was heaped nilh broken stones and charred wood. ana nearby lay the broken bells tbs famous bells of Ypres, which for 600 years had sounded every hour across the level fields of Belgium.
 z
 AS Tor the cathedral, one could stand insloe ,i, and look up at a roof which was ike sieve, while the interior was fillad wlth stones, fragments of marble statuea rum the tombs, charred wood that In once been the wonderful carved roof rags of burnt canvas that bsd too, ho, beautiful pictures. broken glass of won- uerIul color that had been the famons painted windows
 oueh was pres after the first bomb4rd ment. Whole streets had been destroved yet mere were still houses where peonle ooulu nve; here was still broken skel- eton of what had been a town
 ol SIX months Ypres was left in com paratlve peace. Shells still fell in tba town at irregular intervals. but if wa . possiDle Tor people to live there and to open shops for the troops that nassad through to the battle line,
 me second bombardment began with out warning on April 20, 1915. The firs+ sheii Tell in the Great Place." when IF ao ihieu Wlth people. It is impossible tooay to get any accurate estimate oe tne loss of life caused by that first shal1 not those who saw it still blancb and tremble with the mere memory oe ;t |. was heavier shell than any tbat nau been used in the first bomba rdrnent coming from one of the giant s;aaa guns. It could be heard for 10 hecnnds
 - 'ie ar tne nolse of it growing as ii came like the sound of an express train hen 1t fell the thick smoke of its sy. piosion rose 200 feet high.
 The full storm of the bonba rdr,a,t ourst 4S hours later, accompanied bv tha i,fst waves Of poisoned gas used against the french and British lines. Day and nisnt Tor long period the great shells poured into the town in a steady stream ~nlle above streets and souares and lieids hung sinister cloud. gas and smoke and dust. ''
 When this bombardment ceased ;t ,,,.s nAroiy possible to find ones way throupb .ne town. Houses and streets had all III nelted together in heaps of rubbish. ine one or two walls which still stood ohly served to emphasize the desola tion a lew fragments of the church wall and tower, With their pointed arches tho remains of belfry. a scared fraemant oi the facade of the Cloth hall Fron, these ruins one could locate where tba more important buildings of the citv ba n stood and could estimate the comnlete- ness of the ruin
 so fpfes remained for two mora years Ine Germans completed their destruc- ton during the past spring and summer removing the last recognizable vestiges or anything by turning heavy armor- piercing shells against the pathetic r,,ins ey the end of July there was literally nothing left except dust and broken stones. That Is all that now remains of the famous town of Ypres.