Bisbee daily review., 1918-04-18
HUN BLIGHT HITSCAB|NET ATTACKED
 FLANDERS PLAINSBY SENATOR FALL
Pitiful Scenes Enacted as G. williams Flee Land of Birth Before Advancing German Hordes
lRv Rariew Lensed vIiren

'Aa hlfM l4faStN AFlltl
 MYTH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE, April 17.-It is difficult for one in the British war zone to adjust himself to the new conditions here. 1t all seems like hOrrid dream-this spreading German blight across the cultivated plains of Flanders, with their ancient. picturesque villages.
 It is but little more than a week since one was free to motor quietly along highways leading through Mer- vile, kailleul and a score of other near places which never lost their charms. Then peaceful farm lands lay freshly turned ready for the spring crops. The battle lines were not far to the eastward, but death and destruc ton seemed remote with walls of kha- Ri clad men guarding the land. Little lads stood at attention by the roads and saluted as the motors passed the old men and women beamed welcome frOm the doors of their cottages.
 Civilians Fleeing
 Within few days all this has been Chdnged. The plague of war has de- scended on the countryside. No one DlS NANAlldu llltlluS lllllt folk aDc the aged-from many hamlets EtaliiD6 their way madly back along the Lroad highway leading westward from the tide of invasion which is driving them from all they hold dear
 They look back on the rolling fields that separate them from their little world By day q bank of grim. gray smoke from burning hamlets and from myriad belching guns marks the road along which are struggling the splen- did British soldiers in their efforts to block further inrOads on the Hun. At night the skyline sometimes is a larid blaze as consuming flames leap up from hundred homes.
 It is a living hell. It is a part of heretofore untouched Fuanders going the way of the devastated regions of the Somme. and so the gentle peasant folk stand and look or wander on. As they go they cannot comprehend it. Its awGulness has numbed their brains.
 Carry Off Belongings
 The correspondent found little family group croutching beneath huge British howitzers held in reserve Ther eyes were fastened on the mount ing columns of smoke which rose from the village whence they came. There were TO tears and no words. but the expression on their faces was like that of one just condemned to die.
 Way they stopped beside the great guns was unexplained. Possibly it was because it gave them a sense of pro tecuon from dangers out beyond Many of the refugees know only in general way whither they go; they are follow ing the lead of military guides like sheep fleeing from a storm.
 Hundreds of Flemish homes have been sborn of their protectors who have been called to the French colors and for these this has been a time of double terror Some of the peasants. indeed. clung to their cottages amidst the crashing of shells until British sol diers led them away Some have have died by their hearths before they could he removed A host of these people must have realized their danger. but numbers refused to he dragged from the homes which they have been keep ing SC patiently. awaiting the return of husbands or broothers from the war There were many pitiful cases of homes. in which there were bedridden invalds. whom their friends had no means of removing without help from the soldiers