Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1918-09-27
l. N. s. CORRESPONDENT
KISSED BY AGED OF
CHAUTEAU-THIERRY
NATIVES WEEP FOR JOY
Joyous Victims, Delivered from
Hun Invasion, Fly
Old Glory
By H. G. WALES,
International News Service Staff

Correspondent
Paris, Sept. 2 (by mail).-For the
first time since that most memorable
Sunday morning July 81, l am now
able to tell Of those dear old fOlls Of
Chauteau-Thierry, and Of how they
kissed me when arrived in their war
stricken town.
got into town an hour after the
Heinies had left in q big auto and
right on the heels of the French dra-
goons, who penetrated the town first.
They probably thought that had
recaptured the city. Poor old souls.
The tears ran down their cheeks, they
were so happy-men and women
eighty and ninety years old. Think
Of it, under the bombardment all the
time.
They dashed down into cellars,
pressed secret panels in their cabinets,
pulled out French and American flags
and had them flying outside their
shell-swept houses before you could
turn around.
We had to pull down part Of bar
rier at the head of one street to mako
a gap wide enough for the car 10 get
through. Then we went up on hill
2O4 and then over to hill 100, where
the French field guns, mounted on
fast autos were getting into position
and beginning to lob over the shells
toward the Germans in retreat.
In the afternoon Fritz hurled Q few
big black shrapnel shells into the
town, timing them very accurately %
they burst just over the city and
showered the town with eclats. One
got an American motor truck and I'm
ished it. Then they threw In some
gas and we had to wear our masks o
while.
Not the least Of my experiences was
when l went over the battlefield near
Missy au Bots and saw the Americans
attack. They sure broke It's all
around us that day, but that wasn't
the worst.
The dead men lying around rs
thick as peas was the worst, as they
had swelled up and were beginning to
smell something fearful. And the
flies-I give you my word the cOrpses
were so thick just outside OF Missy
that at once place the driver couldn't
get the car by without running over
one, and so of course he picked out
Boche sprawling right beside us
there were American dead IN front
and we had to run over the BOche to
proceed.
II sure was one wonderful sight TO
see that French cavalry debouching
from Cutry that morning Of the 18th
toward noon, and can tell You that
if ever they had got them going with
their long lances leveled straight at
the Boches the Fritzies would never
have stopped running.
But the Boche drachen caught sight
of them debouching and began burst
ing shrapnel night over them, big
black clouds that made pong when
they burst. It was a grand sight to
see these troopers and their mounts
sit there in the wheat fields motiOnleSs
until they received orders to take COW
er and then the way they conducted
themselves.
Unfortunately the BOches had an
awful lot of machine-gun emplace-
ments, placed very deep, too, and
those French machine gunners sure
did stand up and work their weapons
l will admit that. And you can't use
cavalry against machine guns.
The cavalry did q lot OF useful
work; there Is no doubt Gbout that.
More than we want to tell the Ger
mans, too, as Fritz thinks the cavalry
q. A,fahad