Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-11-07
CHA1EAU-THIERRY takes UP TASK
OF RISING FROM CITY OF ASHES"
negees Returning to the Little Left by Heartess HAreadv
SnaA Sorekeepers Are Operating at Full BIas-Germans
Cnased Out Too Fast to Take Their Loot With Them
Where Marines Wrote Themselves Into Fame


that duSout of that size was used
to accommodate five men during IA
homhardment or harrage. When the
tGrage WIS lifted the men would
come out and ga 10 work again with
their machine guns.
We SAW lots Of dugouts. however,
from which the Germans never
emerged. Ths opening had been filled
up with earth from exploding shells
and the sanitary troops that came
through after the battle were spared
the trouble Of hurying those men.
Many of DE shell holes had II sickly
greeniSh hue, the mark of gas which
poiSonS even the earth, aud around
others were mounds of empty car
tridgeS showing they had been used as
semiprotection for machine gunners.
Wrote Themselves Into Fame.
When the Germans entered Chateau
Thierry in June, they reached the apex
of Il triangle, the other ends of which
were ut scissors and Reims. They
held the city for 81 days and We're so
strongly intrenched that the French
and American troops who retoOk the
city did ii by outflanking movements
instead OF direct drive which would
have cost many times as many lives.
The marines of the American divl-
sionS which turned the scale of the
lighting, wrote themselves into fame
by taking Belleau woods. The other
troops of the divisions, eager for u
similar chance of distinguished serv-
ice, We're allowed" to take Naux. di-
reCtly to the west of Chateau-Thierry.
which became the pivot point for the
scissors that squeezed the Huns from
the city American artillery battered
the village To bits and then the infan-
trymen, armed with maps which had
been drawn by ar old stone mason of
the village, marched In and cOrrallcd
the Germans who had taken refuge in
the cellars.
The mason knew Just where the Gel
lars of the village were located be
cause he had built them. SO that the
cleanup" after the artillery prepa-
ration was quickly done. And the lit
tie town is now rebuilding with equal
rapfmty. 1t lies on the main road
from La Fere to Chateau-Therry so
the people are drifting back, and as
we passed through | saw carpenters
and plasterers at work making houses
habitable. A group of red-fezzed Mo-
r0ccan soldiers were clearing out "A
courtyard, and further down the road
We're Italians repairing she'll holes
Another turn and we were in the
city itself crossing the substitute for
the famous stone bridge over the
Marine that the French were ten years
in the building, but which the Amerl-
cans blew up In ten minutes to hin.
[ der the German advance last June.
We climbed on up to hilltop from
which we overlooked the river and
/ the city.
/ Malicious Destruction.
/ The towering cathedral steeple hat:
offered gunner's mark which had
not been overlooked. The splre of the
Hotel de VILE also had been shot and
the thercock hung at half-mast. In
the square about thee city hail the
houses had been shelled To ruin. A
radiator stood out in midair from one
of them. On the second story wall
Of another hung large portrait of q
girl. Bombs an1l shells had torn their
way through roofs and afterward
when | walked through the city streets
] realized that the work of destruction
had been completed by malicious
hands Furniture had been smashed
and thrown into yards and streets, pie
lures had been ripped from frames
ana even kitchen utensils had been
thrown out to rust.
A large part Of the loot of the city
was recovered when the Germans
were hurriedly forced out, and nurse
in an American Red Cross hospital
which followed the allied troops into
Chateau-Thierry told me Of seeing
great sacks filed with gold and silver
cups, candesticks, tableware and or
naments of every description which
had been stored there in the hospita
and left in the retreat. The hospital
originally for French civilians, ha'
changed hands five times and was In
such a state of unspeakable filth wheI
the Americans took it over from thu
Boches that it took ten days to clear
1t out.
Up back Of the hospital are tn,
grounds of the ancient chateau TO
which the city was named. They one,
: belonged to the duke of Thierry, VIII,
e was one of the famous seigneurs o
the early eighth century. climbed
through subterranean passages Their
which were built by his vassals tina
he might escape to the other side o
the Marine whenever his eneme
pressed him too closely, but whicl
recently have been used by Boches a
protection during air raids fron
French planes. The openings are par
TALLY filed up now so that they n
longer afford massage under the rive,