Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-05-08
VERDUN LIKE
OLD POMPElI
CATHEDRAL TOWN, RUINED BY
GERMAN HATE, is PATHETIC
PICTURE.

Verdun, France. May 7. The visitor
to 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 batter
les. he may walk and climb among the
ruins or follow the debris cluttered
bank of the lovely Mouse, broad, green,
| calm and Indifferent to solitude such
as 1t has not know for thousand
years.
The rain drips through the shell torn
roof Of the cathedral, pulping the cnolr
scores and the missals tossed with tne
fallen masonry about the floors, max
ing mud of the affairs dust, rotting the
! canvas of the fallen pictures rendering
all things squalid.
Towns Ghastly Welcome.
Close by is the theater, with its bro
caded galleries Drumming over win
wreckage, flauting 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 emphatl cally
the freedom OF the city. every door and
window open and no human eye 10
watch. Along the river bank are ten
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
insp0LHaon of the curious. 1t has been
many nonths since the customers sat
around these upturned tables or out on
the terrace and watched the green
Meuse slide below the bridges on sunny
afternoons
Shop Doors Open.
The little humble shops along the
side streets are more pathetic than the
big clubhouse or the pitted warehouse
with its 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 hopelessly out OF
date.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 little town, just
struggling out of villagehood into dig
nifty as an Incorporated city. Ten or
twelve thousand was its peace time
population 1t looks no different than
peaceful American City, for the citadel
is the least conspicuous Of Verdun's
features and the town deceitfully seems
indefensive, open to assault and out
rage like a seaside watering place.
Deceptive Air Of Safety.
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 shapelesshess. the finest
streets 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
specious look of being hale and habit
able, only with the Jagged outlines of
broken. gable showing here and there
Tramcars 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 another
shell comes with its commotion, 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 subter-
ranean fortresses beneath the citadel
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