The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1917-04-21

sun was shining they had built all
fresco corners with garden seats and
tables round which enormous stacks or
wine bottles were Uttered, showing. as
have seen in all these abandoned
places, the enormous quantity of drink
consumed by German officers in their
lighter moments
This citadel in the wood is only one
out of similar strong points all along
the lines now abandoned by the enemy
Peronne with Mont ST. Quentin on its
flank, and with the Somme winding
around II and with forests of barbed
wire in the marshes below IT, could be
called impre enable IL any place may
defy great armies.
It was wonderfully fortified with
great industry and great skill for over
two years, and walking into these places
now. marvellng at their strength. l car
only ask one question. which certainly
the enemy viii find 1t hard to answer.
| Why has he abandoned such formidable
strongholds? II seems 70 me that there
is only one answer. It is because they
had to go and not because they wanted
| to go
1t was because they have no longer
! the strength to hold their old line
against the growing gun power and the
growing man power of the British
armies. and have been compelled to at
! tempt new strategy which will save
their reserves and shorten their line.
Thsater at Bapaume.
/ Behind the lines the German officers
and men lived comfortably in French
hillets and organized amusements for
battslions in rest. At Bapaume they had
a little theater with painted scenery.
Two of the wings were among the few
things left in the rubbish heaps of that
poor destroyed town. burnt and sacked
by the Germans before they left. and
when I went in there with our troops
! some Australian soldiers propped them
up against the walls of a Quilted house
and inscribed upon them in white chalk
the name .Maison de la Coo-ee." invit-
ing their comrades TO walk up and see
the finest show on earth.
In Nesle the Germans turned the Cafe
de Commerce into their casino, and
/ played military bands. whose music die
+, not cheer the hearts of wan womer
. whose children were starving.
: Strange fellows Who knows what tc
make of them? The French people jus
s liberated from their rule. which was &
= reign of terror in the severity of its of
fetal regulations, contradict themselves
4 in expressing their white-hot hatred o
. the German character and their likini
] for the individual soldiers who wer
: auartered on them.t
: They were kind 70 the children
n but they burnt our houses" "Kar
was nice boy. He cried when he wen
away But he helped to smasl
$ up the neighbors furniture with al
s axe" THE lieutenant was good fel
!. low but he carried out the order
> of destruction"
II A woman told me, with a quiverin
: ra ge in her voice, that a German office
e rode his horse into her room one day
- Another woman showed me the cut dow
d her hand and arm which she had re
It ceived from German soldier who trie
s TO force his way into her house at nigh
IT other stories more horrible have bee
n told me by women white with passion
s Yet IL is clear that. on the whole, tn
n Germans behaved in kindly, disc
J. plined way until those last nights. whe
they laid waste many little village
and all that was in them.