Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-05-13
ARRAS DELIVERED
FROM INVADERS
Once More Inhabitants of Beau
tiful French City Are Free
From Terror.
COME OUT OF THEIR CELLAR
For First Time in Nearly Three
Years They Can Walk
Streets.

~ Sof oiN
Streets.
LONDON. May 12.-What deliver
ance from constant German lombard
mcnt meant to the beautiful French
city OF Arras. which for almost three
years lay within range Of the hostile
howitZcrs. is told by a
writing from the front as follows:
Arras is a captive newly released
from bondage. The German chains
arc broken and the ruined city free
again. Her pale inhabitants once
more walk the broker streets in day
light: children no longer play in cell
lars nor study their lessons by candle
light. daring only to come up into
tho fresh air when night has hidden
them from the enemy at tho gates.
NO movement beyond this point in
daylight"
You see the warning at street COR
ncrs and On the lettering walls of de-
serted houses. II meant that il you
dared walk across a certain square or
boulevard, or strayed from the shadow
Of the broken buildings, German eyes
would see every movement, and Ger
man shells would drop in your path.
Women were carrying provision bas-
kcts over forbidden ground to-day
the wired and barricaded Grande Place
no longer a death trap to he avoid
ed in certain ways at certain times.
Keep close to the buildings.'
| know that sinister street near the
eastern faubourg of Ronville where
Nrcrv rcIactrain y.a IL inn NJ tla InoI.
of his neighbor, Rugged the ragged
walls in obedience to the sign. Grass
had grown and died where tho pco-
the unused road was ~carneted with
the debris OF thirty months lombard
mcnt. To-day II is a thoroughfare
~liberateiy walked down the middle OF
the street.
ARRAS - FREE. AND
HER REFUGEES REJOICE
.Arras is free, and her refugees re-
joice soberly. | saw them to-day in
specting their ruined homes and try
ing to make them habitable. The old.
whIte-haircd Eendarme still paced
the Rue d'Amiens, twisting his nous
tachc, as he has done through all
bo~mbardinents. but smiling as he has
not done since his people first went
underground. a few shops were re-
opened. and the rusty shutters re-
moved from their broken fronts. 1t
was no longer necessary to purchase
food and postcards in a cellar.
There were German guns in Arras,
too. but as prisoners of our advance.
The very guns that shelled the town
so incrcilessly IN Easter sunday morn
ing were dragged through the streets
in triumph. The inhabitants stared
as they passed. Sufficient
guarantee for the future-morc than
100 German guns in captivity.
German shells have not killed Arras
nor the invaded countryside around il.
The steady hammcrinG of heavy bat
tcrics for two and a half years has
Scared, but not annihilated. Even tho
fantastic wilderness of wrecked re-
doubts and trenches that is the high
water mark Of invasion along the
Scarpc will soon he reclaimed and
made habitahlc. The task of rehabili-
tation has already begun. Arras is
alive again. and in tho country beyond
where Germans lived only that they
might destroy, their handiwork is al
ready disappearing under the efforts
OF their conuuerors.
ROADS TAXING SHAPE
OUT OF JAGGED EARTH
Roads arc already taking shape out
of the ragged earth. The fort that
was a railway junction will be a rail
way junction once more: craters will
vanish. and the rubbish that marks
the wake of retreating regiments be
cleared away. Battle fields speedily
lose their tragic interest. AS the front
goes forward. the country behind it
settles back into civilization: trenches
quickly collapse: huts succeed dugouts,
and houses succeed huts. and for each
mile laid waste by the rctrcating enemy
"a mile is reclaimed by the army hang
ing on his rear guard.
Beneath a hill, i'm the great cellars
of a medieval building. | came upon
as strange and impressive Il picture of
war as any ] have witnessed.
a long. narrow tunnel led to sub
t~orrancan chambers. and the length of
ii was filled with a queue OF
men. They stood closely together. two
anG three abreast. waiting. as they
might have waited at the entrance TO
a theatcr. silent and patient, with
hardly II movement of their tired
bodies and never a murmur of pain.
\ few lanterns swung from the
roof seemed only to intensity the
Of that gloomy place. Weary
faces turned to me q~uestioningly in
the shadow. and eyes that stared
of a mass Of bandaEcs. The queue
swung forward slowly a foot at a
time. and as I came to the head of it.
! head tho man who stepped out OF the
into a lighted chamber give
a little sigh of relief as he laid back
the torn sleeve Of his tunic.
LAMP BURNS DIMLY
UNDER ARCHED ROOF
The vault beyond the tunnel was
loftier than the crypt of any cathe-
dral. Lamps burned dimly under tho
arched stone roof. and their light
shone down on surgeons and dressers