Bisbee daily review., 1918-01-06
DUSTiAND BROKEN STONES ALI LIFT
 OF YPRES' GLORY


 the Associated Pressl.-There is lit erany nothing left of the once lordly city of Tpres except heaps of dust and broken stones Although still within the range of German artillery. the city may be visited in compara- tive 'safetly. as il is too far behind the lines to offer certain target for continuous bombardment.
 Tpres is 500 years old and carried with it before the war the impress or an honorable past In the middle ages, when the Flemish merchants were the great traders Of Europe, the city was fabulOusly wealthy, being for many years the center of the wool trade After its prosperity passed it would have become obscure but for the cathedral and Cloth hall. where the wool merchants once had met. These two monuments were remark able examples of the architecture of their time. and for a hundred years had made YPres known and visited by the world
 It remained for the German to turn 10 ashes what had been a place of beauty for 500 years. The first bonn tsrduent of Ypres came on November l. 1914 The town was then full of wounded soldiers and peasant refu- gees from the surrounding country They were crowded principally in the cathedral and the Church of St Mich olas. in the vain belief that these sanctuaries at least would be spared by the invader
 The battle on the bills around Ypres ended I7 days later The Ger mans failed to break through the Brit ish line. but the bOmhar6ment of the town. instead Of waning grew more Intense. The Germans. fOiled in their attempt to capture Ypres. determined to destroy it. For long period heavy shells fell into the town at the rate Of Is a minute The sound of the continuous destruction could be heard % miles aTay.
 The inhabitants Of the town mostly fled soon after the bOnbardment started When it was over they re turned 10 find the. beauty of their town wellnigh gone The famous Cloth hall still stood but it was a rOOfless skeleton; only its cellars were intact The great square in front of it vas heaped with broken stones and charred wood and nearby lay the broken bells. the famous bells o< Yrres. -hicA for 500 years had sounded every hour across the level fields Of Belgium
 As for the cathedral. one could stand inside and look up at a roof which was like a sieve. while thel interior was filled with stones. trag- ments of marble statues from the tombs. charred wood that had once been the wonderful carved roof. rags of burnt canvas that had been beauti- ful color tEat had been the famous painted windows
 Such was Ypres after the first bom- bardment- Whole streets had been de strOyed. yet there were still houses where people could live; there was still broken skeleton Of what had been a town
 For six months Ypres was left in comparative peace: shells still fell in the town al irregular intervals. but it vas possible for people to live there and 10 open shops for the troops that passed through to the battle line.
 The second bOmbardment began without warning on April %. 1915. The firSt shell fell in the Great Place when it was filled with people T. is impossible today to get any ac- curate estimate of the loss of life caused by that first she'll. but those who sew it still blaneh and tremble with the mere memory of it. It was a heavier shell than any that had been used in the first bombardmsut. coming from one of the giant siege guns It could be heard for 10 sec onds in the air, the noise of it grow ing as it came. like the sound of an express train When it fell the thick smoke of its explosion rose 200 feet high.
 The full storm Of the bombardment burst 4S hours later, accompanied by the first waves of poisoned gas used against the French and British lines. Day and night for long period the great shells poured into the town in steady stream. while above streets and squares and fields hung a sinis- ter cloud. gas, and smoke and dust
 N--1 ceased 1r was hardly possible to find ones way through the town. Houses and streets had all melted together in heaps of rubbish The one or two walls which stin stood only served to emphasize the desolatiOn; few fragments of the church wall and tower. with their pointed arches. the remains of A beJ- Try. scared fragment of the facade or the Cloth hall From these ruins one could locate where the most i'm pOrtant buildigs Of the city had stood and could estimate the Completeness Of the ruin.
 So fpres remained for two more years The Germans completed their destruction during the past spring ana sumner, emOvinC the last recoSnizshIe Vestises ot anything by turning heavy armoT-plercing shells against the na- thetic ruins By the end of July there vas literally nothing left except dus, aSd broken stones That is all that now remains of the famous town ot Ypres-
 AMERICAN WOMAN A VICTIM
 (By Review Leased wireD