The Monmouth inquirer., 1917-11-22
PROFESSOR TELLS
Of TRENCH VISIT

Knoxville. Tenn.-How long win the
war last?
The best answer to this question
heard along the Flanders battle front
BY Prof. George Herbert Clarke, who
has returned to the chair Of English
at the University Of Tennessee. was
By South African, who remarked re-
fiectively: "Well, sir, can't rightly
say; but It looks to me as though this
ere war as settled down now into q
sort of instichooshun."
Professor Clarke ventured TO ask
the question all along the firing line,
How long is piece Of stringT re-
torted an English statesman.
"A certain major did me the honor
to invite my own conjecture" Profess
sor Clarke says. "and, still better,
agreed with it; but I found, for the
most part, the expected wide diver
sity of opinion"
Another interesting question arose
on board ship during Professor
Clarke's return from Europe: Is
ship safer than the trenches? Ger
tain Canadian officers on the boat ar
gued the negative of the question. but
the university professor was stanch
for the affirmative.
Less Danger In Trenches.
Canadian officers said that there
was less danger in trenches because
shells seldom struck the trenches. and
the shot usually went over the heads
of the men. But Professor Clarke WAS
Of the opinion that there is less risk
in a ship on the ocean, even though
the kaiser's sea sharks, submarines.
menace vessels, and should boat be
torpedoed, 1t would probably not be
long until passengers were bound for
Dayy Jones locker, even II they were
in lifeboats or life savers.
The desolated town of Ypres was
visited by Professor Clarke while In
the war zone. 'sThe American imagi-
nation has been deeply touched by the
tragedy of Belgium" he says, "and.
with the exception of its brutal pr0tag-
onists, all the world shares that pity.
"Ypres is its symbol The towns
body is denuded, dead. It has been
through two great hells and many fes-
ser ones, but its soul lives on, intact
The town mayor impressed me as pre-
ciseIy the type Of man to govern Ypres
today. He is its military mayor. q
sort of father-and-mother to Xpres,
a brave, broad-shouldered Cornishman.
who has risen from the ranks. and
who administers the affairs OF his
ruined borough with a pride and zeal
that are not short OF beautiful. He Is
not wholly obsessed by military val
ues; he does not wish the visitor to
miss the rare places Of Ypres that are
still, In their grim settling, more or
less visible.
ssThe other day he helped Bel
gian to discover his little hoard OF
francs that had been buried In the
town during the first bombardment.
He shows firm judgment and instant
sympathy as each is needed. II Ypres
is Belgium, he-Engiish as he isis
Ypres: brave, steady, enduring and
confident. Looking up whlmsically at
a shell that seemed to me to burst
uneomfortably near (but then, they
all sounded like that). he remarked: !:
sAh, high explosive; thought as
much. Perhaps you had better be
going now.' And we went with sense
of abiding regard for this sturdy sol
dier, while deafening crash close by
announced that the British guns had
something urgent to say to the enemy,
something that could not wait"
A Dantean Desolation.
The word Somme similarly has ex-
banded into a novel and grotesque
symbol, Professor Clarks says. For
the Somme is Dantean desolation.
extending mile beyond mile--a desc
lation of splintered tree trunks,
stripped, woebegone boughs, churned
I'D subsoiIs that look ike plague spots
upon the corpse of earth. / thought
of Coleridge's 'rotting sea- The ad-
jective is pale and Ineffective here. |
thought of Browning's Childe Ro-
land.
But there is another side to the
Somme picture: brisk movement at
the appropriate spots is not wanting,
as there is a distant train hauling Its
freight; German prisoners working the
roads; Tommy at his endless fatigue
Jobs; guns yolleying overhead; the
army service corps, carrying on with
its never-ceasing string Of numbering
lorries; and, perhaps most completely
diverting OF all. the momentary ap-
pearance Of a Kentucky mule on the
skyline, tossing his heels in an aban-
doned ecstacy.
Professor Clarke was connected with
the intelligence department OF the
British war Office in the war zone.