Ripley County democrat., 1918-03-01
BAYONET SAVES
| AMERICAN LIVES
Escape German Shell When One
Of Party Stops to Dig Up
Relic.
Once Richly Cultivated Valleys
speekIed With Happy Villages,
Now But 4 sodden Panorama
Of churned-Up Soil.

l. With the French Armies In the Field
If one Of the party hadn't stopped t
dig up Boche bayonet from the road
side, this piece wouldn't have beel
written.
The French oficer-chaperone and hi
charges had tarried on the way bacl
to Verdun from one of the outlyin,
forts to chat with a bunch Of Rex
Cross men, and incidentally to watcl
the antics of flock Of German air
planes as they lodged in and ou,
among the feathery puffs of shrapnel
The usual daily artillery strafe had
been on for some hours. Hundreds ot
tons Of metal had been bowling above
cur heads from both sides, far up and
down the line. At times there was q
shot for every second. But 30 far the
Boche targets had been located com.
Portable distance away.
Our officer had given the word to re-
sume the journey, and the chauffeurs
were cranking up, when the oppor.
tunity Of gathering In another battle
field souvenir intervened. It Ia still
there. ....
! Careful figuring, conducted very
shortly thereafter in one of the Red
Gross dugouts nearby, convinced the
whole party that II 1t hadn't been for
the bayonet episode our cars would
have collided with the big Boche shell
Just at the moment of Its explosion
about block down the road.
The experience had merely supplied
q vivid final touch to Impressions al
ready acquired-of what the soldiers
OF Verdun have been undergoing in
the last eighteen months. In this re-
gion Nature has been given no oppor-
tunity, as she has, for example, on
the battlefield Of the Somme, to repair
as best she can the ravages Of war.
From the top Of one Of the battered
forts that now forms an unbreakable
ring about Verdun-recaptured from
the Germans with a valor and at q
sacrifice Of life that will make Its name
immortal In history-stretche out as
far as ten-ply, made-in- Germany bln0c-
ulars can reach, a vista Of utter devas-
tation.
Scene Of DssoiatIon.
Once thickIy forested hills ana rich
" cultivated valleys speckled with
happy villages; now a sodden, grayish,
lonotonous panorama OF churned-up
soil, crlss-crossed here and there with
trenches, and only an occasional stump
'r pile Of crumpled stones to evidence
ts former beauty. It's like Notre
Dame de Lorette, vimy, Wytschete.
dessines and Passchendaele Ridge all
scrambled together.
All the forces Of nature--fire, flood,
hurricane and earthquakc--could not
ave wrought such havoc. Only man
ould do II. Even looking backward.
he only discernible color is the green
4 the distant hills. the shattered red
lied roofs Of the fortress city, and the
iusters Of purple-wreathed graves
There sleep the men who made the
,otto Of Verdun--"on ne passe pas"
No trespassers allowed ia reality.
The Germans now occupy much the
anne line as that from which the
rown prince launched his costly but
ltile attack upon this stronghold. Pre-
lously we had traversed the valley Of
ie Marne whose landscape bears am
le testimony to. the characteristic
rench traits of dash. mobility and 70.
'urcefulness: Just as verdun's piti-
lily narrowed hilisides will always be
monument to the hitherto less famil-
rly known French qualities Of tire
80 energy and dogged stubbornnesa.
Land 0rlmiy Held by French.
Then on through the forest Of the
osges down to where France In the
lrly days Of the war plucked, and still
ghtly clutches, a bit OF what used to
hers. It's only few square miles
Just about equal to the plot OF ,
ound that Belgium now holds Of her
Vn ravished country-but entirely
ficient to exemplify and justify an-
her fine French trait. intense pride
accomplishment. Z
AAlsace ReconQulser proudly reads ,
Q sign over little shop fronting the !
dly SCARED old church In the public |
uare Of Thann. Nearly all the old
ms have been changed from German. }
I some have been retained Just for Z
nvenirs. In this corner Of the 'lost ! J
ovinces'' there Is no doubt how the {
ople stand. n
Are the people Of France war-wearyf /,
.; 30 are those Of ell Europe. But !
y are not weary to the point of '
" thinking Of giving up the strug- Ii
! despite, or, rather. because Of, the ! d
I that Of all the allies Frances bur Z
y and her sacrifice In blood and des- n
ted homes has been the greatest. :
= tour Of the war zone and Of the 4
'vincial towns behind the lines, from Il
channel to Switzerland. one may: Il
! everywhers<a s<abundant evidence OF 4
eientless determination, among both /,
Hers and homefolks, to see tho = =
ne through. :,
snt the predominant sentiment ID i,
lnee today II one Of intense gratl- Il
. that America mas come Ia to Aeln. 4,