Macon beacon., 1918-11-15
CHATEAU -TH|ERRY TAKES UP TASK
OF RISING FROM "C|TY OF ASHES"
Refugees Returning to the Little Left by Heartess n-Aeady
Small Stoekeepers Are Operating at Full BIas-Germans
Chased Out Too Fast to Take Their Loot With Them
Where Marines Wrote Themselves Into Fame

. fariS.-"thatcau-T Thicrry," reDeate
6 Il mhrne officer and smiled at me pit,
q ingIy. "IcS, that was interesting
month ago. A BoChe potted me ther
, ana I'm just going back to join IN
men. But you won't find ii lnterestln
now. All the Germans are gone"
But he was wrong. There are Ger
mans marching through the streets o
Chatenu-Thierry every day-GermaI
prisoners armed with shovels an,
picks who are cleaning out the wreck
age and dcsolatlCn they left in thel
pain when they evacuated the city OF
July %; proud PrusSans who ar,
welding scythes to harvest the crops
In the fields that they called "Unser
land' II month ago; mlld-faced boys
from the south of Germany who seem
to prefer Jobs AS chore-women with
mops and scrub brushes to carrying
guns for the kaiser.
And as for the interest of Chateau-
Thierry, the curious have visited the
field of Napoleon's Waterloo for sew
ernl centuries. They will visit the Wa.
terloo of the Boche march on Paris in
l9lS for several more centuries and
thrill with every century ut the story
or the battle on the outskirts of that
city where American marines, artillery
and infantrymen started the Huns on
their run for Berlin--and gave them
such good start that the goal is get
ting hotter each day.
War Activity Everywhere.
1t takes just an hour and half bv
rail- from Paris to reach the outposts
or the battlehelds of yesterday; an
hour and Il half that runs by like the
laSt reels of cinema with hurried
glimpses of passing trains loaded with
horses, with cattle, with big guns and
men; of camions crowded with sol
diers wearing dust,colored uniforms.
OF hospital trains marked with red
crosses and groups of civilians hurry
ing back to see what Is left of their
homes in the reconquered districts. AT
one of the stations the marine officer
swung off to join knot of rNen whose
backs were loaded with lsarchinp
equipment showing that they were
going "up the line" War was written
In large letters over every human ac-
tvity, but off to my right was the
Marine, sleepy and peaceful, flowing
quietly through valley fields, hiding
oehihd gentle slopes covered with
wheat and SplaShed with vivid popples,
ana emerging again from a clump of
thick trees and heavy underbrush.
AT La Ferte there Is great cash
IN the station where n Boche plane
sWooplnS down within few hundred
yards of the mark, dropped half
dozen bombs just few nights ago,
And from there an auto road, pock-
marked by shell holes, runs thronph
FERTILE country and pink.roofed viii
lageS, liteless and deserted, to Lucy
leBocage and Belleau woods, where
the American marines showed the
world Just what fighting stuff the
United States army Is made of.
Lucy keeps open house for MI
comers. There are n few doors loft
IN the village, but they sag heavily ON
vusted hinges. Windows are omen
spaces through which the winds md
rains drive at will, leaving fucetious
,'HudleS about the little heaps OF !
broken glass that strew the ground
The few roofs left look apologize in
the midst of the ruin about them.
The village huddles about n little
church that has been pitilessly bnt.
tered TO ruin, Only bits of the walls
are left but in the midst of tho
"recEage rises a tall cruclfx un-
scratched. The altar of the small
chapel on the right side had been
cleared Off and the old ahhe, toIllnr
alone, was searching among tho do.
oris for precious relics. A PRAYER
book and few pathetic little orno.
merits of glass were all that he had
'ound to restore in his temple
Guarded by the Dead,
From Lucy.le-Bocace to Belleau
wood the road literally is guarded by
he dead, whose bodies were covered
where they fell and marked by simple
wooden crosses on many of which the
odier's trench helmet has been hung.
was the way of the cross for the