Ripley County democrat., 1918-02-22
'WasTAGE Tells
! TRAGEDY OF War
: .''y .:inht Trains Bring Soldiers
Ruined Equipment to lie
Mans From Front.
5000 MAKE over GARMENTS
French Redeem 10000 Pairs Of
Trench Boots and $4,000 Pieces Of
Outer Clothing Monthly--oer.
Z man War Prisoners Work.

lie Mans, Department Of the Sarthe,
France.--On an average eight trains
u day are bringing to LIE Mans the
wastage at the battle front, consisting
of thousands Of tons of damaged war
material and soldiers ruined equip
ment. There have been as many as
II trains day heavily loaded with
this material picked up on battlenelds
Gnd around camps. Lc Mans would be
the paradise of ragmen and dealers In
secondhand goods were 1t not for
the fact that the French army is find
ing its own use for such Of the mate
rial as 1t is able to recuperate or re-
pair.
Establishments located here by the
quartermasters department recuper-
ates monthly $4,000 outer garments,
125,000 undergarments, $500 pairs Of
shoes, 10000 pairs of trench boots, 25,-
600 steel helmets, 270,000' sheepskin
capes and 10000 pieces Of equipment.
These articles are made ready for
use again by dlsinfection, renovation
and repairs. There are in addition,
made each month from pieces II cloth
ing that. are not repaired, 100000
pairs of slippers, 10000 cases for SOL
diers' canteens, $4,000 forage caps,
75C0O shoe lnces, 10000 cloth cases
for bread loaves, and 10000 wash
rags.
5000 In Repair shops.
The recuperation and repair of worn
md damaged articles began In the
spring of 1916 In vast warehouses and
repair shops In which $500 persons,
Including 1000 refugees, mostly wom-
en-. are employed.
Here and al Les Murlins, northwest
of Oreons, among the quays from
which the mobllized men Of the fifth
military region went off to war In
August, 1914, German prisoners of
war now line up In front of incoming
freight trains and unload quantities
of great sacks that look like the prod
uct of gigantic ragman's shop.
The indescrlbable mass invokes the
confusion as well as the tragedy Of
the battlefield There are pierced and
dented helmets worn and stained
pieces Of uniform, forage caps, great
coats, leggings, army shoes and trench
boots, spme Of them pierced by bullets,
some torn by shrapnel and others
shredded by violent contact with
barbed wire.
All of them are covered with layers
of mud of varying thicknesses and
not infreQuently a garment presents
"A stain of an indelnable color, always
easily recognized but got rid Of with
difficulty. These garments receive
special treatment. They are first
thrown into q receptacle which they
60 through long and thorough cleans
ing before being treated as other gar
ments.
Leather, Metal and Cloth.
The first operation on the arrival Of
a train is the sorting of the load into
three piles, leather, metal and cloth.
The cloth and canvas go at once into
immense dislnfecting tanks that are
in operation night and day, and from
there to the laundry. Then they 60 ia
another warehouse, where they are
separated into repairabie and unre'
PARABLE; here there is a great deal Of
ripping to separate trimmings from
garments ana to divide the garments
themselves into pieces Of as nearly uni
form size as possible to facilitate theiI
Transformation into comfortable slip
lpers.
# The sheep skins are purified BY Q
sulphur application In the abandoned
vault OF an oia cemetery near oy y