Evening star., 1918-01-13
FRENCHMEN GUARD
GERMANS Graves
Teutons DespoiI Their Foes"
Cemeteries-French Hold J.
Burial Places InvioIate.
MOUNDS DOT ENEMY ROUTE
BY PAUL AYRES ROCKWELL.
Correspondence of The Sunday Star
and the Chicago Daily News.)

Correspondence OF The Sunday Star
and the Chicago Daily NewsJ
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES. Decem-
ber 17.-Hundreds of thousands OF
German soldiers who have marched or
ridden gayly into France. singing ''The
Watch on the Rhine" and Deutschland
Ueber Alles.' will never depart from
this land which their kaiser 80 coveted.
The routes over which the Teutonic
hordes poured into France are lined
with mounds. and the part of the coun-
try which has been occupied by the
invaders Is thickly dotted with vast
cemeteries, where lie the bodies of
those who fell attempting to satisfy
their rulers lust for world power.
, I visited today one of these burial
places. 1t lay on a gently sloping hill
side. Just outside a tiny village from
which the Germans retreated last March.
after a stay there Of more than two
years. Before quitting the village. the
Teutons had blown down or burned all
tered them. Only the village church had
been left standing, and today 1t has sew
eral holes in 1t, made by the shells
which the Germans. seemingly regretfu1
shoot over at intervals from their present
positions. The cemetery is surrounded
by wooden fence, which the chivalrous
French soldiers have kept in repair. At
rounding all the German cemeteries in the
reconquered regions with high log stock
ades. as guard against damage
Germans Rebuilt Grave Stones.
My first impression on entering the i'm
closure was one Of surprise at the nun>
ber of handsome but antique looking
marble tombstones at the head Of many
Of the graves. I Immediately decided
that these must mark the tombs Of offi-a
GERS, but an investigation showed that &
was wrong. Alongside the German ceme-
terry lay an old French burial ground.
surrounded by high wall. The stones
from all the French graves had been
stolen. the original inscriptions chiseled
away. and German inscriptions, each be-
After the supply Of French headstones
was exhausted the remaining German
graves were marked by plain wooden
crosses. painted black.
The graves were laid out in regular
rows. officers and men separately. Many
OF the fallen must have been doughty
warriors, judging from the frequency Of
the iron cross carved on the headstones
Suddenly l came to a mound marked
by tricolored French remembrance CO.
carde. read the inscription. The grave
was that OF Russian soldier, made
prisoner Of war, brought to work for his
captors on the French front, and killed
by shell explosion. Further along was
another tricninred cocarde; 1t marked
the last resting place Of a French cor
poral. killed during a raid on the Ger
man trenches, and buried by the enemy
among their own dead.
Two Languages on Slab.
A piece Ct wood bearing fnscrfptions
in German and in Yfddish attracted
my attention. It marked the grave of
a Jew killed in battle.
Halfway up the hillside. in the center
Of the inclosure. was a well protected
bombproof dugout. Just outside it lay
several rude wooden coffins, left be-
hind by the Germans in their retreat
Inside was long table, probably used
by the German surgeon for dissecting
bodies Of men who had died from un-
usual wounds.
At the head of an officer's grave was
a large pear tree. In all the land
about the cemetery the fruit trees had
been chopped down by the boches be-
fore they fell back to other positions.
Evidently they had not wished to lit
ter up the graveyard. for instead Of
telling this pear tree they had Clipped
the trunk all the way around, SO that
1t had died.
New graves were dug from time to
time in this cemetery. Two German
lieutenant avtators, who were shoe
down back of the French lines few
days ago. lie there. and I remarked
several other fresh made moundax
where rest unnamed German soldiers-