The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-22
leave French Civilians Shelter
less to Face Starvation.
Herd POpuIace Together Then
Burn Their Homes.
QUICKLY REBUILD HIGHWAYS
Already Heavy Guns of Pur-
suers Are Pounding Enemy.
Retreat Indicated by Smoke
Pail of Burning Towns.

With the French Armies Advancing
from Noyon to Chauny and Tergnier,
March 21.-By automobile to Paris,
March 22.-Retreating German troops
sacked even supply houses of the
American relief commission to leave
the French civilian inhabitants utterly
without food. They took every vestige
Of every metal in the French villages
and their policy of insensate destruc-
ton marked practically every house in
the territory which they evacuated.
But if the Germans hoped by utter
devastation to stem the tide of the
French advance against them, they
were disappointed. The French adj
vance has been so rapid that in many
cases they have arrived at towns and
villages hours before the Germans had
planned to evacuate them.
Nor is the French advance lacking
in methodical system. Behind the
screen of fast moving cavalry and in
fantry comes the engineers and road
builders to bridge craters and behind
them. the artillery awaits only the
construction of highways. =
Quickly Overcome Obstacles.
A few miles beyond Noyon today 1
witnessed the rapidity with which the
French are overcoming every effort OF
the enemy to check their advance.
There the French columns encounter
ed a fifty root hole-a crater on the
~oyon-Chauny road-eXactly at the
SPOT best calculated to impede the
.The French infantry and cavalry
irnmediateiy detoured to adjoining
fields and continued their forward
movement without interruption. Al
the same moment engineers began
filling the crater and bridging it. An
other detachment started at work on
a road winding around the place:
Almost before the last shovel of dirt
xrss thrown ard the last nail driven,
tatteTies OF the famous "Soixante
0ninze' guns We're careening across,
45hfle to ore side munitions and sup
sSlv trains dashed forward likewise
The entire advance was resumed
Smoke of Burning Towns.
Pushing forward with the army to-
cav towards Chauny and Tergn1er one
saw the entire horizon clouded with
the smoke of burning farms and viii
lnres The pathway of the German
retreat was ira ceable fer fifteen miles
By such pals of smoke.
Along the road back from Tergnier
and Noyon poured ar unendfng stream
Of refugees from these blazing farms
and villages Nearly all were women
-Ditiful in their restitution, few
scant pieces of clothing saved and
strapped or their backs, or pushing
baby carriages, or wheel barrows with
tiny tots tucked therein Younger
children chung to their skirts or them
selves toddled along under the weight
of bundles
Homeless but Happy to See French.
This was a pitiful appearing stream.
Pushing afoot along a road stretching
eighteen miles and constantly under
bombardment, the refugees faced a
drfN VIII IN
homeless. and hunger stricken, with
only the clothing on their backs or a
few small belongings to call their own
-despite all this. they were supreme
ly, radiantly happy. They were re-
turning TO France.
1 talked to many of these today
They declared the happiest moment of
their lives was when the French cav
airy dashed into their village and
chased out the Germans.
Their stories were all alike For
weeks before the retreat started the
Germans herded all Inhabitants from
village to village. When the final
moment came for the Germans to
leave, they sacked the houses. The
soldiers carried off everything eata-
ble-and burned the villages before
the eyes of the refugees. Then they
departed, leaving the villagers home
less and foodIeSs.
1000 Women and Children.
A few hours later, when the Ger
mans believed the French troops had
arrived, they began Smelling the viii
lagos they had pillaged and left des-
pite their knowledge of thousands of
innocent civilian inhabitants still
there.
Seven thousand women and children
suffered this experience at Chauny
alone. The village was under bonn
bardment at she moment I arrived.
The French Red Cross crews, with
their litters, had pushed forward afoot.
and were carrying off women and chill
dren wounded during the shell fire
$1,000, 900 tor Iowa Roads in Years.
Des Moines. Ia, March 22.-The
Balkema bill accepting federal road
aid has passed the senate, As to 2 It
makes no changes in the present road
laws other than formally to accept all
of the provisions of the federal road
act and enable Iowa to receive a 70