The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-02
VISITOR MUST
Be WATCHrUL
ROUND VERDUN
City Still in Range of Ger
man Guns With Periodic
Activity.
NV Associated Press.l


Verdun, France, May 1.-THE visitor
20 Verdun must approach it stealthily,
clad in steel helmet and carrying care
fully his gasmask in its waterproof
bag. Thus fortified and with his eye
watchful for any. commencement Of
activity by the distant German bat
teries. he may walk and climb among
the ruins or follow the debris-cluttered
bank of the lovely Mouse. broad,
green, calm. and Indifferent to soli-
tude such as it has not known for a
thousand years.
The rain drips through the she'll
torn roof of the cathedral. pulping the
choir-scores and the missals tossed
with the fallen masonry about the
floors, making mud Of the affairs dust,
rotting the canvas Of the fallen pic
lures, rendering all things squalid.
Close by Is the theater. with its
.brocaded galleries trimming over with
wreckage, f1auting rags, and revealing
through the uncurtained stage all the
shabby mysteries of its mechanism, all
In wild confusion.
Visitors are rare in Verdun, but the
town holds out to them emphatically
the freedom of the city. every door
and window open and no human eye to
watch. Along the river bank are the
little restaurants and cafes. the floors
strewn with cups and saucers, glasses
ranged on the counters, the open ledg-
ers on the cashiers desks inviting the
inspection of the curious. It has been
many months since the customers sat
around these upturned tables or out on
the terrace, and watched the green
Meuse slide below the bridges on sun
ny afternoons.
The little humble shops along the
side streets are more pathetic than the
big clubhouse or the pitted warehouses
with their shattered windows. The
shops are wide open, with their scales
still on counter. their knives and sugar
scoops all ready for business. The
tailor shops displayed pictures of the
modes for summer 1914, hopelessly
out of date.
Verdun is only a little town. just
struggling out Of village-hood into dig
nifty Of an incorporated city. Ten or
twelve thousand was its peace-tine
population. It looks no different than a
peaceful American city, for. the citadel
Is the least conspicuous of Verdun's
features and the town deceitfully
seems indefensive, open to assault and
outrage like a seaside watering place.
From one of the buildings on the
hill, above the narrow winding streets
of the upper town one may look down
on the worst -shelled central parts, all
pounded into shapelessness, the finest
street obliterated, workshop, ware
house and tenement all reduced to
crumbled brick and mortar of yellow
ish hue. Outside this devastated area,
the rest of Verdun stands with a
specious look of being hale and habit
able, only with the jagged outlines OF a
broken gable showing here and there.
Tramc2rs used to run down the Ave-
nue. de La Care from the railway sta
ton: cabs piled for hire; folk lounged
in the afternoon on the Promenade de
la Digue. No life is in any of these
places now save the rat that squeaks
and burrows in the ruins when anoth-
er shell comes with its scommotion, for
verdun is still the object of the Ger
mans daily hate.
There is nobody above the surface
OF the ground in Verdun, but the sub
terranean fortresses beneath the cita-
del, deep down under mountain rock,
are still animate with men. soldiers
who are keeping up the defensive that
months OF German activity failed to
break.