Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-03-22
Prussians Laying Waste En- tire Country in Retreat
 in France.
EVEN FRUIT TREES
 BEING STRIPPED
Farming Implements, as We'll as Buildings, Destroyed; and Filth Thrown Into Wells to
 POllute Water.


 March 21, via London (From a staff correspondent of the Associated < Press The pursuit O. the Germans bv the British troops continues, and at places sharp fighting ensued yes- terday This was particularly true of the neighbOrhoOd of Croisillas (northwest of Saint Leger), which IS still strongly held by machine gun companies. The armies have been in such close touch at other places that field fighting tactics have been em- plOyed, the men firing from skirmisn lines.
 Wherever the British penetrate ter ritOry formerly held by the Germans they encounter the same conditions of destruction and devastation as in Bapaume and Peronne. Only few villages have escaped, the Germans in these instances having been com- pelled to leave before their plans 70 lay waste could be carried out.
 The use of cavalry by the British and French seem to lave taken the Germans by surprise, Lpsetting some of their calculations. In one village supper, which was being, laid out, was abandoned, together with much am munition, and in places newly opened boxes of high explosives were found with which the Germans had planned to destroy the villages before leav- ing.
 Systematic Devastation.
 That the wholesale devastation was systematized in a manner character istic of German thoroughness, was Gh .fsv,S uv,f, 0,sIn 1ect. These directed the blowing up or all houses, wells and cellars, ex- cept those occupied by rearguard out posts, the rear-guard being held re- sponsible for making their shelters pninhabitable before falling back. All farming implements were burned or destroyed, whether 9 building was spared, it was first rendered. filthy. The orders also directed the assembl- ing of filth in the neighborhood of all wells for the purpose of contaminat- ing the water.
 The destruction of fruit trees now apparently covers the entire belt of evacuated territory, even those cling ing to walls having been stripped off. In one abandoned position large black cat was found nailed to an upright board A cap was on his head and cigar in it's mouth.
 Planes Attack Hcrsemen.
 A British observation party work ing forward yesterday on horsebacl, was attacked with machine gun fire by three German airplanes, whic.1 swooped very low, but failed to hit any of the party.
 Prisoners recently taken appear entirely bewildered when told of the extent of German retirement. They said they thought it great joke when they first heard of the German retirement; they supposed it was sole ly for the purpose of getting the Brit ish deeper and deeper into the mud of the Somme, but when it came to abandoning positions that had been fortified with months and years oi 2 labor there was much depression iu the ranks. Most of the German guns that formerly boomed along the SOmme seem to have been utterly swallowed up.
 There is no longer doubt that tho main German forces hal already in. stalled themselves on a line before Cabrai and St. Que ntin. but yester day fires could be seen beyond thi. line, as if the retreat has not yet beer carried out to the full limit. Mean