The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-05-20
Steel Helmet and Gas Mask
Are Necessary Adjuncts
to Inspect Ruins.
KEEP EYE ON ENEMY
Pathos in the Silent Greeting
Of Wide-Open Windows and
Doors and No Eyes to See.

Verdun, France-(Correspond of
the Associated Press.) 1.-THE visitor to
Nerdun must approach it stealthily.
cad in steel helmet and CARRYING care
Iully his gasmask in it's waterproof
nag. Thus fortified and with his eve
Watchful for any common cement Of ac :
tivity by the distant German batteries.
ne may walk and climb among the
ruins or follow the debris clattered
pank of the lovely Meuse broad. green
calm and Indifferent to solitude srcn
as 1t has not known for q thousand
years.
me rain drips through the shcll-torn
Toof OF the cathedral, pulpinr the
Cnolf-scOreS and the missals tossed
with the fallen masonry about the
aioors, making mud of the affairs dust.
IotIlnS the canvas of the fallen pic
lures, rendering all things squalid.
Close by is the theater with its
procaded galleries trimming over with
"reckaee, flouting rags, and revealing
through the pncurtained stage all the
shabby mysteries of its mechanism,
all in wild confusion.
visitors are rare in Verd,n. bur the
i v
the freedom of the city, every door
ana window open and no human eye
70 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 ledp
ers on the cashiers desks inviting the
inspection of the curious II 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 tho
side streets are more pathetic than
the big clubhouses or the pi,ted ware
houses with their shattered windows.
Inc shops are wide open. with their
scales still on the counter, their knives
ana sugar scoops all ready for bnsi-
ness. The tailor shops displavel mic
lures Of the modes for summer 1914.
hopelessly out of date
Nerdun is only a little town, lust
struggling out of village hood into dig
NIFTY as an incorporated city. Ten or
Twelve thousand was its peace time
population. 1t looks no different than
q peaceful American city, for the eta
del is the least conspicuous of Yer
duns features and the town ,leccitf,lI\r
seems indefensiye, open to assault and
outrage like a seaside Watering placn
From one of the buildings on the
hlll above the narrow winding street :
OF the upper town one may look down
on the Worst-shelled central parts. all
pounded into shapelessness the finest
street obliterated, workshop, warehouse
and tenement all reduced to a crum-
bled brick and mortar of yellowish hue.
outside this devastated area, the rest
OF Nerdun stands with a spacious look
OF being hale and hahtable, only with
the Jagged outlines of a broken gable
showing here and there
Iramcars used 10 run down the
avenue de Ia Care from the railway
satlon; cabs piled for hire; folk
lounged in the afternoon on the Prom
enade de la Digue. No life is in anv
OF these places now save the rat that
squeaks and burrows in the ruins when
another shell comes with its commo-
ton, for Nerdun is still the obicc, of
the Germans daily hate
There is nobody above the surface