The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-05
LE MANS, FRANCE, TURNED INTO GREAT
 WAR JUNK YARD
It Is to This Point Wastage From Battle Area Is Being Brought for
 Reclamation

Le Mans, Department of the Sarthe, France, January 14--(Corespondenc of the Associated Press)-On an aver age eight trains a day are bringing to Ls Mans the wastage at the battle front consisting of thousands of tons of dam aged and ruined soldiers equipment There have been as many as r trains. day heavily loaded with this material picked up on battleflelds and around camps. Le Mans would be the paradise of ragmen and dealers in secondhand goods were 1t not for the fact that the French army Is finding It's own use for such of this material as it is able to re- cuperate or repair.
 Establishments located here by the quartermasters' department recuperate monthly 5000 outer garments, 125,00o un- der garments. $500 pairs of shoes 60,ooo pairs of trench boots, 25,O00 steel hell mets, 270,0o0 sheepskin capes and 10000 pieces of equipment. These articles are made ready for use again by disinfec- ! tion, renovation and repairs. There are | In addition, made each month from pieces of clothing that are not repair able, 100000 pairs of slippers, 120,000 cases for soldiers canteens, 50.000 forage caps, { 75,00O shoe laces, 10000 cloth cases for bread loaves and 10000 wash rags ''
 The recuperation and repair of worn and damaged articles began in the spring of 1916 in vast warehouses and repair shops In which 5000 persons, including 200U refugees, mostly women, are em- ployed.
 Here and at Les Murlins northwest of Orleans, among the quays from which tho rS,nhi1ixad y,oan If ba ,x, region went off to war in August 1914, German prisoners of war now line up In front of incoming freight trains and unload quantities of great sacks that look like the product of a gigantic rag mans shop. The indescribable mass in-
 vokes the confusion as well as the trag- edy of the battlefield. There are pierced and dented helmets. worn and stained
 pieces of uniform. forage caps, great coats. leggings, army shoes and trench boots, some of them pierced by bullets.
 some torn by shrapnel and others shred- ded by violent contact with barbed wire
 All of them are covered with layers
 of mud of varying thicknesses. easily | and not infrequently a garment ore
 sents a stain of an indefinable color
 always easily recognized but gotter rid of with difficulty. These garments
 receive special treatment. They ars | thrown into a receptacle where they gc through long and thorough cleansinl
 before being treated as other garments
 The first operation on the arriva
 of train is the sorting of the loat
 into three piles metal and cloth ant leather The cloth and canvas go d once into immense disinfecting tank
 that are in operation night and da,
 and from there to the laundry. Ther
 they go to another warehouse wher, they are separated into repairable ant
 unrepairable: here there Is a great dea
 of ripping to separate trimmings iron
 garments and to divide the garment.
 themselves into comfortable uniform
 size as possible to facilitate their trans
 formation into comfortable slippers
 The sheep skins are purified by :
 sulphur application in the abandoned
 vault of an old cemetery nearby where
 COO of them are treated each day, aft
 or which they are made pliable ant ready for wear again by a beating ma
 chine. Some of them are able to talk. another turn at the front, but the most of them along with pieces of uniorml are distributed among the assemblins stations at the rear for the equipmen of auxiliaries and among the hospitals
 for the clothing of convalescents.
 Rags are sold here at the rate o
 100 bales per day. weighing in the az , gregate about 12 tons. This represent the wear and wastage of clothing re ceived at Le Mans alone; an equa , quantity Is received at Les Muriins. II Kettles. braziers. lanterns. drums musical instruments and all kinds Q . tools also pass through here on thei way to Rennes to be dealt with b. , special establishments where the per
 centage of recuperation Ia said to b very slight.