The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-01-04
Escape German Shell When One
Of Party Stops to Dig Up
Relic.
SEE SCENES OF DEsOLA1IoN
Once Richly Cultivated Valleys
speokled With Happy Villages,
Now But sodden Panorama
Of churned-Up Soil.

dig up Boche bayonet from the road
side, this piece wouldn't have been
written.
The French ofiicer-chaperone and his
charges had tarried on the way back
to yerdun from one Of the outlying
| forts to chat with bunch Of Red
Cross men, and incidentally to watch
the antics of flock Of German air
planes as they lodged in and out
among the feathery puffs Of shrapnel.
/, The usual daily artillery straie had
been on for some hours. Hundreds OF
tons of metal had been bowling above
! cur heads from both sides, far up and
/ down the line. At times there was a
shot for every second. But so far the
Boche targets had been located COM
Portable distance away.
Our officer had given the word to re-
sume the journey, and the chaufeurs
were cranlSing up, when the oppor-
tunity OF gathering In another battle
field souvenir interviewed. II Is still
there.
/ Careful figuring, conducted very
shortly thereafter In one of the Red
| Cross dugouts nearby, convinced the
/ whole party that II IL hadn't been for
the bayonet episode our cars would
have collided with the big Boche shell
just at the moment Of its explosion
about a block down the road.
The experience had merely supplied
vivid final touch to impressions al
ready acquired-of what the soldiers
OF verdun have been undergoing in
the last eighteen months. In this re-
glon Nature has been given no oppor-
tunity, as she has, for example, on
the battlefield OF the Somme, to repair
as best she can the ravages Of war.
From the top Of one OF the battered
forts that now forms an unbreakable
ring about Verdun-recaptured from
the Germans with valor and at a
sacrifice of life that will make its name
immortal in history--strctches out, as
far as ten-ply, made-in- Germany binoc-
ulars can reach, Vista of utter devas-
tation.
Scene Of Desoiation.
! Once thickly forested hills and rich
ly cultivated valleys specified with
happy villages: now sodden. grayish,
monotonous panorama of churned-up
soil criss.crossed here and there with
trenches, and only I'm occasional stump
or pile OF ,crumpled stones TO evidence
its former beauty. IT'S like Notre
Dame de Lorette. vimy, Wytschete,
Messines and Pnsschendaele Ridge all
scrambled together.
All the forces Of nature-fire, flood
hurricane and earthquake-could not
have wrought such havoc. Only man
could do It. Even looking backward
the only dIscernlble color is the green
of the distant hills, the shattered red
tiled roofs OF the fortress city, and the
clusters of purple-wreathed graves
where sleep the men who made the
motto of Verdrn--"0n ne passe pas
(No trespasscrs allowed D-a reality
The Germans now occupy much the
same line as that from which the
crown prince launched his costly but
futile attack upon this stronghold. Pre-
viously we had traversed the valley OF
the Marine whose landscape bears am
pie testimony to the characteristic
French traits OF dash, mobility and re
sourcefulness just as Verdun's pitt
fully narrowed hillsIdes win always be
a monument to the hitherto less famil.
iarly known French qualities Of tire
less energy and logged stubbornness
Land orImIy Held by French.
: Then on through the forest Of the
Vosges down to where France in the
early days of the war plucked, and still
tightly clutches, bit of what used tC
be hers. It's only few square miles
just about equal to the plot OF
ground that Belgium now holds of heI
own ravished country-but entirely
sufficient to exemplify and justify an
other fine French trait, intense pride
of accomplishment.
"Alsace Reconquissi" proudly reads
. the Sign over little shop fronting the
badly SCARED old church in the public
; square OF Thanh. Nearly all the old
; signs have been changed from German
; but some have been retained just fol-
souvenirs. In this corner Of the "losi
provinces" there y no doubt how the
people stand.
Are the people Of France waT-wearyi
Yes; 50 are those Of an Europe But
they are not weary TO the point OF
even thinking Of giving up the strug-
gle, despite, or. rather, because of. the
fact that Of all the allies Frances bur.
! dens and her sacrifice In blood and des-
olated homes hns been the greatest.
In q tour Of the war zone and of the
: provincial towns behind the lines, from
the channel to Switzerland, one may
find everywhere abundant evidence Of
) a relentless determination, among both
soldiers and homefolks, to see the
thing through.
But the predominant sentiment In
France today is one Of intense graft
tude that America has come In to help
Any fleeting doubts as to the outcome
were dispelled with the arrival Of thu
leammies.