Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-21
Special Cable to Erening Public Ledge

Special Cable TO Erening Public Ledger
Coppri0ht. 1918. bv Nev York Times Co.
with the French Amy In Belgium, oct.
81.
Saturday was another day of victory.
The irresistible advance OF the Allied
center in Flanders has liberated the
whole of the Belgian coast to the Dutch
frontier and restored Bruges, which is
reported uninjured. plus wide belt of
territory half way to Client to the Bel
gan flag
The hardest fighting OF the day oc-
CURED ON the low hills east of Thielt.
where the enemy evidently intended to
hold the line of the Lys River. the
progress OF the Belglans northward in
the region of Deynbe and Of the French
toward Gottehem renders further Ger
man retreat almost certain, and only
the Scheldt remains n" barrier before
Brussels
III we gain ground in the center, the
left wing will fall like ripe plum" said
"A f'rench stan officer two days ago. His
NNihS nave pStH Justlneu. lne btTIndnS
have evacuated the coast almost without
a struggle. The battery of heavy guns
in the region of Knocke that was firing
on Osrend harbor Friday must now be in
Belgian hands or destroyed The ad-
vance Of the Belgians toward Bruges has
inevitably cut of ts retreat
The secret Of the victory was revealed
to me in n trip through Yprcs across the
famous Passchendaele ridge TO Roulers.
The French had built railroads across
the hopeless morass formed by last
years British shcllhre and established
their main supply dcpots on the firm
ground beyond. The result was tnat the
present advance has been pursued with
cioclwork regularly. guns and ammu-
milton accompanying the infantry ac-
cording to a prearrauged schedule
Npres u Depiornbie Ruin
Words cannot express the utter desc
lation Of the Passchcndaele battlefield.
Already Npres is depIorable ruin.
whose central square, that which was
once spot Of beauty. fianlked by the
marvellous Cloth Hall and the thousand
N"dr-old houses now resembles the out
skirts of a new American town
Grass ard weeds are the tragedy of
Npros; one cannot even tell where the
houses stood or the roads once ran.
But the appalling shel-torn waste that
is the battlefield of Flanders surpasses
the widest visions of Dore in ghasti-
ness and gloom. For nearly four miles
the road Of rotting planks that is the
sole passage across the ridges winds
amid acres of shell holes merging one
into another.
No single tree or bush or hedge or
buildings remains to tell that human
beings once cultivated this desert. Here
les a rustinC tank and three broken
caissons. Further on is "A hole that was
dugout where men lived and died
Everywhere are shattered concrete.
barbed wire in crazy festoons, convex
roofs of corrugated iron that gave some
shelter against the elements. planks by
millions for roadways. and faded crosses
that mari, innumerablc graves.
This frightful realization of Macbeth's
blasted heath" is the resting place of
tens Of thousands of brave men. to
whom death must have been a relief
from more than mortal hardship. Now
only rats-huge gaunt and hungry since
the humans have dcparted--inhabit the
accursed spot, and run sluggishly across
the road before the automobiles that
bump slowly over the shell holes.
Gradually. one desCendS toward
tOulcrs, the country resumes a familiar
aspect With a shock of surprise one
perceives that there are hedges and fields
and an occasional ruined dwelling. The
shell holes are still numerous but they
dDn't obliterate all other evidence OF
mans existence soon fresh-plowed
fields appear and prosperous farms.
shot for Staying at Home
one of the largest towns has been
darkened by tragedy almost unique
even in the records of cruelty When
( the order was given to all the inhahi-
( tants Of Roulers to move away to the
interior before the advancing Allies. a
farmer with his wife and three children
stayed instead of obeying. The Ger
mans found them and shot them there
in their own yard as an example TO the
rest of the population. The French
| cavalry advance guard was Mortified by
the sight of their bodies. not yet cold.
OF $4,000 inhabitants of Rouers. per.
haps a hundred remain. The town has
suffered little from shell fire, but house
/ after house gapes open. stripped from
window panes TO attic of everything It
. contained
/ Az passed down the main street, torn
! up in two places by twenty-foot-wlde
mine craters a sudden strain of martial
music galvanized the mud-stained
French and Belgian poilus lounging by
the roadside.
Through the dusk of the evening a