The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-10-26
Che Dm Read CO
Esfsilsee1 A&D
NEWSPAPER IN RHEIMS SHELLED
II TIMES; SEVEN OF STAFF KILLED

dralt of Rheims to the wine cellars.
The children Of darkness are invaria-
bly, wiser than the children of light,
and the champagne merchants have
not suffered as the churchmen have
done. Their business places have been
Knocked about their heads. but their
treasures are underground deep
enough to defy the biggest shells.
In the cellar Of a single company
which we visited there were 12,000,-
600 quarts of wine. Even the German
invasion at the beginning of the war
failed to deplete this STOCK Hundreds
Of people live in these cellars, which
are laid out in avenues and streets We
came first to New York, q street
with tier upon tier of wine bottles;
then to Boston, then to Buenos Ayres,
then to Montreal One of the visitors
explained the wine destined to be ship
ped to that city, while Buenos Ayres
contained the consignment for the
Argentine capital, and SO on.
We nodded acceptance of the theory,
but the next wine-laden street was
called Carnot and the next was
Jeanne d Arc.
From the cellars we made a jour-
ney to a battery of French los. II
was peaceful military station, for
SO we'll were the guns concealed that
they seemed exempt from German
fire, in spite of the fact that they had
been in place for half year.
The men sat about underground
playing cards and reading nawspa-
pers, but the eon0nander of the bat.
terry was unwilling that we should 60
with such a peaceful impression OF
his guns.
No child could be more eager to
show a toy than Is French officer to
let a visitor see in some small fashion
how the war wags. We went from
the battery to tirst line trench. 1t
was slow work down miles and miles
of camoufiaged road to the eommuri-
eating trench and all along the line
we were stopped by kindly French
men. who wanted US to see how their
dugouts were decorated or the nature
Of their dining room or the first aid
dressing station or any little detail of
/ the war with which they were directly
concerned.
Much can be done with a dugout
when few back numbers of LA Vie
Parisienne" are available Still, this
scheme Of decoration may be carried
too far. I will never forget the face
of Y. M. e. A. man who Joined us
I at a French officers mess one day. 1t
was a low ceilinged room. with pine
walls, but not an inch of wall was
visible. for a complete papering of
la Vie Parisienne" pictures had
been provided. Among the ladies
thus drafted for decorative purposes
there was. perhaps chiffon enough to
make q single arm brassard.
Trenches, save in the very active
sectors. give the visitor sense of se-
curity. Open places are the ones
which try the nerves of civilians, and
| it was pleasant to walk with /. wall
! of earth on either hand, even If Some
of us did have to stoop a bit. From
the point where we entered the COM
munication trench to the front dine
4 was probably not more than half a
E,ile as the crow Aies-if, indeed, he
/ is foolish enough to travel over
treh,ehes-aut the sunken pathway
turned and twisted to such an extent
| that it must have been two miles be-
| fore we struck even fha third line.
/ Here we were held while ever So
/ many dugouts and kitchens and gas
alarm stations and telephones were
exhibited for US. They were all ia-
j cluded in the routine of war but of II
sudden romance popped up from un-
| derground. The conducting officer
! paused at the entrance of passage.
Another dugout," we thought.