The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1917-05-25
GETTING OUT A
NEWSPAPER UNDER
fire IN RHEIMS

where the sound of the German guns
is never quiet.
Few of the inhabitants of Rheims
remain, but the city is full of SOL
diers. For their benefit the newspaper
is printed
Claude Helluy, editor of the Cour-
rier de la Champagne, the oldest paper
in Rheims, has just arrived here, and
said today:
Although / have closed down my
printing office, the inhabitants of
Rheims are not without newspaper,
for the Eclaireur de FEST continues
to appear in the bombarded city. Pro-
duced on a pedal press almost daily, it
consists of a small sheet, quarto size,
printed in two columns on both sides
of the paper.
ats contents are chiefly made up of
the official war communicates issued
by the French and British govern
ments number of shells which have
fallen on the previous day, the list of
killed and wounded by the lombard
ment, municipal notices and some
scraps of local news.
During the last two years the
Courier was obliged to change its adj
dress twice. 1t moved first to the
Premises of a photo-engraver, whose
workshop was situated in a part of
Rheimss which enjoyed a certain
amount of tranquility. When we left
there it was for the center of the
city, a commercial printing office op-
posite the little door of the cathe-
dral.
"The Courier was originally accom-
modated in the premises of a we'll
known English firm of wool combers.
The journal had acquired the private
residence of the principal owner of
the wool plant near the wool-comb-
ing factory on one side and not far
from the Colbert Barracks on the
other. This proved to be doubly dan
gerous, for it received on the one hand
the shells falling too short, intended
for the barracks, and, on the other,
those too long, meant for the factory.
zone day when We were busy print
ing one of the editions shrapnel shell
struck the cylinder of the press and
the fragments flew in all directions.
By miracle no one was hit. As the
staff fled into the adjoining shop they
were followed by another shell, which
exploded in the middle of a roll of
paper. They were about to take
refuge in the publishing department
when a third shell anticipated them,
coming through the ceiling and de-
stroying the machine used to print
addresses. The workmen only reached
the cellar, forty feet deep, in time.
"The same cellar served shortly
after for battery of artillery, which
was passing on the neighboring boule-
ward when shell fell in their midst.
after We had settled down near the
cathedral l occasionally revisited our
old premises at Holden's, and every
time / went there l noticed new
depredations. A shell, landing at the
food OF wall, tore hole in a brick
partition and, striking a linotype ma
chine, threw it forward nearly two
feet. | traced the marks of fifty pro-
Jectiles on the house, which is now
partly destroyed. Behind our office
the Holden factory, which covered
several acres, had been burned bv a |
shower of incendiary shells, and the
chimney stack, $50 feet high. had been
knocked over by a shot at the base.
This happened three weeks ago.
"Under the shadow of the cathedral
we spent the least agitated time. A
shell ripped the roof of the Eclaireur
office and another broke in three the
electric standard on the pavement out
side and blew in our windows, replaced
so often that they consisted of tracing
paper instead of glass. For a similar
reason the tiles on the roof had mostly
been replaced by tarpaulin, which in
its turn was riddled by machine gun
bullets from German airmen.
"a fortnight before the beginning
of the Franco British offensive the
Germans began to grind the city to
powder bit by bit. Each quarter in
turn was mercilessly pounded on sys-
tematic lines. In the ruins ineen-
diary shells lighted flames which COM
pleted the disaster. Asphyxiating
bombs, distributed in profusion, pre-
vented the firemen and rescue corps