The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-09-19
VIEWING RUINS IN
AND BEHIND YPRES
Villages Of New Shacks to
House Refugees Have Sprung
Up at Cross Roads.
BY LOWELL MELlETr.
United Press Staff Corrsspondent.


With the American Army in France,
<by maii.)-The principal road to
Ypres-from this side-leads through
P~oDerlnghc. Approaching P~operinghe,
likewise from this side, you see
OF Of the rarest sights in all Belgium;
I'm new houses in Belgium; houses al
ways were old: they were like the
trees and the hills and the rest of the
scenery But now on the forks Of tho
road You find little new houses one
after another.
II II were not that nothing can make
o forget the war, once you pass the
Belgian border, you could easily m
agine yourself In the outskirts Of a new
factory or mining town in America
"rhese little houses are the most pitifui
nondescripts. They are built of boxes
n Of discarded timbers OF one kin
and another, forming a typical Shanty-
town of the American sort, say that
many have roofs of tile and the others
have matched coverings.
In nearly every window Is displayed
something for sale, green groceries.
post cards. odds and ends that SOL
oilers buy. n you think at first that
this temporary market is responsible
Tor the 9 ne-street town strung
.aiOuS TIC TO6u, buL tndt, 100, Is Il his
take. Poperinghe explains the Belgian
7s~hantytown. Poperinghe-known all
over the British front as Pop" is ode
serted. and these houses were built
along the Dad by refugees who were
unwilling to go any further than they
had to-.
You can ride all about Poperinghe
n see little sign Of life, save an oc-
casiOpal hungry looking cat. All the
dogs apparently got away, but a few
oats remain One we saw sat in the
great round hole made in the side OF q
little brick dwelling by shell, sat and
stared disconsolately at the clock In
The clock registered half past six. The
CLOCK on h next biggest church regis
tered half past one. The cat may have
been puzzled as well as disconsolate.
S~traightaway eastward out Of Pop
"eringhe runs the main road to Ypres.
On either side are desolate farms, un-
titled. except by shells, Near the own
ARE a few exceptions, such as one hop
ranch. whose vines a climbed a
dozen feet up their poles, regardless Of
f. the facts.that the town brewery has
ceased to brew. AS Ypres Is approached
the desolatton~ increases. Only the
heavily Obbled roadway. running level
and intact well above the abandoned
farms, shows signs OF human attention.
It will be the same after this after
moons rain, while the dusty farms will
turn into mud fats. 'EA
IT continues so into Ypres.
One n GO beyond the edge Of
Ypres unless one has business there as
"A fighter. but standing on the broken
walls OF the old weaving mill near the
western edge a good view OF the ruins
can be had. The half-gone corner tow-
.ers Of the famous Cloth Hall can be
seen. and the arch OF the crumbled
cathedral. All the rest Of the place Is
q dead level Of destruction. and the
continued methodical Smelling by the
Germans may in time bring the re-
Inainder OF the towers and the cathe-
.dral arch dow also.
Ypres. II is said, was beautiful. II
win require q restoration like San
Francisco's after the fire to make II
beautiful again.