Evening star., 1918-11-17
NO ONE LIVING IN
SCORE OF TOWNS
Verdun Sector Presents AW-
full Picture of Ruin, Waste
and DesoIation.
REBUILDING A VAST TASK

WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES IN
FRANCE, October Is Correspondence
of the Associated Press).-The coun-
try over which the Americans fought
their way northwest from Verdun pre-
sents a picture of ruin, destruction
and desolation. The villages are unin-
habfted and homes seem but sepul-
chres.
Torn by mines causing huge craters,
,gashed by bombardments which MADE
hundreds of thousands OF shell holes
and strewn with broken-or abandoned
Guns. wagons, heaps of ammunition,
helmets and all the other debris OF
fonr wears of desperate fighting. the
whole route betrays the awful effects
of war.
Six Years to Clear Up Wire.
Everywhere. in every direction and
protecting each slightest angle and
nook, across the roads until torn away
nv shells or human hands. are count
less strands of barbed wire, most OF
II rnsted by the rains. crazily topsy-
turvy on its supporting stakes that
have fallen to right and left. II IT
takes four wears to win the war" said
some casual visitor to the front, 1T
will take six years to roll up the
barbed wire that has been used In
winning it."
Take, for instance. the trip from
r11ined. desolate Avoucourt northward
to Malancourt and Montfaucon. the
scene of some of the bitterest fighting
Of the entire war. Avoucourt was In
ruins before ever the American often
sive started For solid mile north
ward the road winds across foothllis
that once were covered with green
trees but now are shorn and bare.
Vast Mine Holes Puzzle Engineers.
Gigantic mines have torn the road
In twain and gouged out holes fifty
and moro feet deep, a hundred and
moro feet across. to get around or
across which engineers have had to
exercise their ingenuity. and the sur
rounding country. stripped OF Its
wood. has furnished the rock For
tunately there is plenty of that
To either side of the road are the
remains of what were once llvable.
comfortable dugoutsi and buildings,
blown into thousands of pieces by
6iscbarges of explosives when the
enemy retreated. Farther af1eld and
as far as the eye can reach across the
low hills are hundreds and thousands
Of shell holes, their. craters overlap
ping, big and little holes from mis-
siles of every character, that have
torn and SCARED the earth almost be-
yond the hope of redemption
E,vervwhere is the debris OF the
battlefield, guns, helmets, articles of
clothing, piles and heaps of ammuni-
tion-> broken-down and splintered
one go over the scene soon enough,
bodies awaiting burial
Not Even Walls Are Standing.
The comparison between Malancourt
and Ayouccurt is striking-because the
former has suffered SO much more.
Buildings no longer have even a SEM
bfance of their former state. Where,
in Avoucourt, walls at least still stand
here and there, in Malancourt every
thing has been razed as though with
dynamite, and the crumbling rem
nants are seized upon to rebuild the
shattered roads and to make them
nassable for the Unsuitable armies
ahead that must have more and ever
more ammunition. food and supplies.
nor meisr anv one 6f score Of towns
within the sector where the Ameri-
cans operated has a single living in
habitant left. In every direction Is q
waste Of craters and uptorn earth. It
is tho quintessence of desolation and
nothingneSs.
Hillsides Torn and Denuded.
The once beautiful wooded slopes
and hills are now torn and gashed.
Great artillery bombardments have
stripped hi1lsides Of all but the
stumps of their trees, which tower
pathetically against the sky without
branches or foliage. mere crippled
relics of their former selves Many
of them have been shattered by shells
as by lighting. others cut of as
though by bungling woodchoppers un-
able to fell a tree cleanly.
The reconstruction of Europe is ad-
mittedly going to be a long, hard
task, far longer than the war that
made it necessary. In time to come the
meadows and valleys between Avou-
court and Malancourt will be green
again, and the trees of the Argonne
forest will grow up as they did before
1914. But as they all look now 1t
seems very, very far in the future be-
fore tho ruin, the utter destruction.
can be made good and the former
status of this portion Of France re-
stored