Semi-weekly herald., 1917-06-18

out the east wall and two sides anC
brought down the dome crashing
amid the PROSTATE stone columns
Today the interior is mountain oi
hopeless wreclSage. On its sagging
balcony the pipe organ sings the
ghost of peace-time anthem as the
May breeze goes scouging thru the
valves. The pipes jangle as brick
is dislodged and tumbles to the floor
Far away the guns boom.
The British never shelled the
church. The remaining west wall is
not Scared by shell fragments. 1t
was left standing to hamper British
observations.
At the outskirts of the town lies
Peronne cemetery where the Boche
dug ip among the dead. Corpses were
thrown into bonfires and the vaults
occupied by German officers as dug
out. Two trench lines run straight
thru the cemetery.
Military necessity made the enemy
smash the door of French family
tomb where six dead had slept for
many years. The coffins remained
exposed.
Two English guard regiments with
a little feud between them went into
the cemetery on the heels of the
Boche. The first arrivals found one
coffin bored by machine-bun bullet
from the direction of their advance
This message was on the white
washed wall:
"The Boche may have had dug outs
here but he didn't shoot the hole in
the far-off coffin"
To which the late-comers scribbled
this reply:
"Neither did they write on the wall
you blackguards.
Strewn with the fragments of head
stones and battlefield junk are count
less bead-work wreaths, placed by
mourners in days of peace. 30 Notre
Chere Granmere," said the inscription
on one. Grandmere's grave may be
one of those pried open.
| At the edge of the cemetery was a
very little grave, carpeted blue with
| forget-me-nots. The headstone said
Madelaine was only four years old.
The Boche had not touched it, Near
by, row of wooden "Iron Crosses"
| each inscribed "Under Kamerade,' y
gave proof that the German cadaver
factory had lost some raw material
| thru sentiment.
At Arras the Cathedral and the Ho-
tel de Vile are smashed beyond pos
sibility of restoration. Only a small
corner of the hotel survives as mem
)ry of that grand specimen of Span
sh architecture.
! Bapaume is a hideous shell, altho
the Australians have cleared up the
streets. Here an Australian, peace
fully tending a cooking stew, told
how the Boche hate goes mad at
times:
"a German naval gun tries to shell
| US now and again." he said. "But the
gunners must be crazy, judging from
/ the way they shoot" The road to-
ward Albert runs thru the country
where the British artillery first dis
covered its strength. Ruin stretches
for miles. On top of the Butte de
Warlencourt is a wooden monument
by British regiment erected to their
comrades who died storming the coun-
| try. There is not the slightest trace of
the town. With field-glass abandon
ed tanks may be sighted on this old
battlefield, one of them labelled in
Russian "Petrograd."
1t is inconceivable to the battlefield
tourist that this country was green
farm land and woods, dotted with vii
lagos before the Boche came.
The famous bronze statute of the
Virgin still hangs from the steeple of
the church at Albert. The surviving
French townspeople are sure it will
never fall. That is their faith.
The allied armies and Americas
men are their hope.
Maybe there will be charity after
the war-but for the present retribu-