The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1918-09-19
VIEWING RUINS IN
AND BEHIND YPRES
Villages OF New Shaclks to
House Refugees Have Sprung
Up at Cross Roads.
BY LOWELL MELLETT.
tinted Preas staff corre,oond.n

j
WAN the American Army in France
10Y maiE1-The principal road to
Ypres-from this side--leads through
Poperinghe. Approaching Poperinghe
likewise from this side. you see
Nne OF the rarest sights in ali Belgium:
new houses. People never before lived
IN new houses in Belgium: houses al
ways were old: they were like the
trees and the hills and the rest of the
scenery But now on the forks OF the
road You find little new houses one
after another ~ =
II were not that nothing can make
you forget the war, once you pass the
belgian border, you could easily i'm
0gine yourself In the outskirts of new
mctory or mining town in America
Ihese little houses are the most pitiful
nondescripts. They are built OF boxes
and OF discarded, titnbers of one kind
ana another, forming typical Shanty-
town OF the American sort, save that
many have roofs OF tile and the others
have matched coverings.
IN nearly every window is displayed
something for sale. green groceries,
post cards. odds and ends that SOL
oilers buy, and you think at first that
thls temporary market is responsible
Tor the new one street town strung
along the road. But that. too. is mis-
take. Poperinghe explains the Belgian
shantytown. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES all
over tho British front as Pop" Is de-
serted. and these houses were built
along the road by refugees who were
unWiliing to go any further than they
had to.
You can ride all about Poperlnghe
and see little sign OF life, save an oc-
castonai hungry looking cat. All the
dogs apparently got away, but a few
oats remain. One we saw sat in the
great round hole made in the side Of a
little brick dwelling by shell, sat and
stared disconsolately at the clock in
tho biggest Of Poperingtie's churches.
ihe clock registered half past six. The
clock On the. next biggest church regis
tered half past one. The cat may have
been puzzled as well as disconsolate
StrHightaWay eastward out Of Pop
teringhe runs the main road to Ypres.
On either side are desolate farms, I'M
titled. except by shells. Near the town
arc few exceptions, such as one hop
ranch. whose vines have climbed a
dozen feet up their poles, regardless Of
the fact that the town brewery has
sss te ets% A gfss 6S
heavily cobbled roadway, running level
and intact well above the abandoned
farms, shows signs OF human attention.
lt will be the same after this after
moons rain, while the dusty farms will
turn into mud flats.
At continues so into Ypres.
One cannot go beyond the edge OF
Ypres unless one has business there as
IA fighter. but standing on the broken
walls of the old weaving mill near the
western edge good view Of the ruins
can be had. The half-gone corner tow
.ers OF the famous Cloth Hall can be
sseen. and the arch of the crumbled
cathedral. All the rest Of the place Is
dead level Of destruction, and the
continued methodical Smelling by the
Germans may in time bring the re-
,malnler of the towers and the cathe-
'dral arch down also.
Ypres. 1t is said, was beautiful It
Will require restoration like San
Francisco's after the fire to make 1t
beautiful again.