The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-10-28
Parks Built, and Nice Grave
yards, for Those Who Didn't
Enjoy Full Four Years Ten
ure of Salient. ~ ''
Lyons Finds Evidence of Com
Portable Living and Of Com
plete Surprise When Outed by
YankS.-
BY C.. C. LYON.

~r St: Mihief' Front, Especial to The
Tribune)-The next best thing to go
ing over into Germany itself and nos
ing around to see what the folks ar
! doing is to browse through the little
French villages in the st. M!hiel sal
lent released from more than four
years of German bondage by the re-
cent bold stroke of the Anietcan
army. fa..
The very first thing that impressed
ME, the day | entered the territory,
was the way the Germans had at
tempted to make themselves ccmtOrt-
able behind their trench system.
Instead of living in rough shacks.
they had stripped the forests and COLI
structed rustic cottages Of prefer.
tious size and design. Inside some OF
these dwellings, there was paper en-
the walls, and pictures.
The cottages, hidden in the forests,
were generally laid out in symmetrlc-
al streets, and white-washed stones
marked the boundaries of many of the
front yards.
trench systems, the Germans had laid
out scores of little parks, and in
these parks were rough tables and
benches; evidently places where the
soldiers ate their lunches and drank
their allowance Of beer on pleasant
days Where these parks were on the
hillsides, invariably rustic stairways
with balustrades led to them from be-
low. -@."
Cemeteries are most elaborate, prac-
tically all Of them surrounded by
stone walls of pretty design. There's
hardly grave without a tombstone,
many of white>cOncrete. a few of gran
lite or marble. In several cemeteries
immense monuments were erected,
and chiseled on the sides are para
graphs recounting the military actiy-
tiles of some particular regiment or
division. ~ 57
Maybe the German soldier couldn't
brag on his food, but he certainly mad
plenty to drink. One day l came TO
a big storehouse that they had aband-
oned so quickly they didn't have time
to set it afire.
One end was filled with beer bot
ties while in other rooms we're thous-
ands of bottles of mineral water.
Several loaves of bread that found
were darker than anything I've seen
in France. coarse and rather sour.
Hay for the German horses came,
in concentrated form-not like our
baled hay but in little paper-wrapped
packages about two feet long. SIX
inches wide and six inches deep. 1t
had been under SO great pressure that
it was necessary to pound It with
hammer, to break it into particles. 1t
was about two-thirds straw!
4 There were no signs SEywhere IN
the storehouses of sugar. tea or cot
fees Thousands of old tin cans were
evidence that the German also has
been getting "bully beef once In .
while
Instead of coffee there was large
quantity Of a roasted grain, that none
Of us could identify. \
There were many old shoes and the
leather seemed about as good as In
any army shoes. An American salv-
age officer, who closely examined a
German coat, said it was made from
an excellent piece of cloth, at least
80 FER cent all WOOL" There was a
good deal of hand work on the coat.
which had been the property of some
enlisted man.
-arY ". 4. s-
T,rihnpn Want Ada BRING Rsa,lta