The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-05-06

today a ruin. Yet Verdun never fell.
Around it are some forty forts that
held back the German lines pressing
on three sides for more than four
years. From the southwest extends
the only road over which food for the
people was hauled, and munitions and
guns for the soldiers, and over which
precious families were sent to zones
of safety. This road originally as
smooth as a boulevard is now deep
furrowed and SCARED. In grateful
memory of it's part in furnishing a
means of communication between the
rest of France and the doomed city,
the road is called the sacred way"
The city was shelled time and time
again. Almost every building, includ-
ing a splendid cathedral what is now
Y. M. G. A. hut, is in ruins. Signs
| here and there still tell where a
cellar may be found to which flight
may be made from another bombing
attack Around the city are the walls
and meats of centuries ago, puerile
and helpless against modern warfare
Beyond the walls are the forts of the
French, a circle of them, most of
which were never taken, and beyond
the forts on three sides are the Ger
man trenches, the emplacements for
huge guns, acres of barbed wire, pill
lars of cement tied together by the
stoutest steel cables, and the aband-
doned camp of an army that for four
years remained unchecked Hills sur
round Verdun that five years ago were
forest clad but that today are barren
as a desert; fields surround Verdun
that in all these years have been
ploWed only by shot and shell; the
Meuse flows through Verdun, bar
rem of commerce since 1914, and its
waters constantly darkened by the
dust, the debris the blood, the wreck
of war. We looked in amazement up
on this city and all that surrounds
it. and it seemed that here had been
visited the climax of some awful
malediction
MOntfaucOn.
But it was not the climax, for there
was Varennes, and there was Malan-
court, and there was Montfaucon, and
a score of other towns and cities
where not a building is left whole,
and in most OF which not a human be-
ing who had called these places home
could be seen; no chilren. no dogs
upon the streets, but in their stead
huge piles of stone from broken walls
Montfaucon one building stands alone,
an old three-story residence. 1t is
ragged and torn by shell and yet its
walls hide cement core than extends
from basement through the roof. |
Loop holes are in this core at the |
top and through them the German |
military officers surveyed the coun-
try for twenty miles on every side
1t was to this house and to this look
not that the late Crown Prince of
Germany paid frequent visits as he
advised on the wars progress. 1t
was over the slopes to the south OF
Montfaucon, and through the Argonne
Forest 10 miles beyond that so many
Idaho boys pressed on as the armies
of the United States last summer drove
back the German forces. To the
south is the old headquarters where
Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria paid fire.
ouent visits. to the southeast are Hill
3O4. and Dead Mans Hill. All now is
desolate. and, looking from the tower
at Montfaucon one seems to gaze up
ON dying world.
Other Monuments.
Other monuments still are in this
region South and east some 20 miles
is a smooth country traversed by a
roadway along whose sides are tree
two feet through The German forces
mined these trees and left them stand
ing This was done to provide against
sudden attack by the Allies. The
Erees were filled with high explosives
at the base and fuses arranged and
up by wire so that in event
Of need for sudden retreat an electric
current would light them all and the
ong line of trees would fall as by a
single stroke. In another roadway is
] temporary bridge over which we
lrove. bridge spanning a pit a hun
lred feet across caused by the eX-
,losion of a heavy German mine. We
lroye on. We saw miles and miles
If barbed wire entanglements, miles
md miles of trenches, miles and miles
If cannot flage hedges and fences, huge
lies of war materials, cannon, shells,
aunitions Of all kinds being salvaged \
rom the battlefields, battered pill
oxes from which death had been
aimed upon our soldiers, shrines
long the way broken down by can
on shot. trees dead and bare OF
mbs, graves and cemeteries here and
here, and over some of them the
ymbol of Germany, over others the
-icoiors OF Frence, or the Stars and
tripcs, and now and then more pre-
) liC,s monument built by soldiers in
of their fallen comrades. We
asscl through a region of country
here farms were desolate, whose
rchards we're stripped, whose fields
ere torn by shell till it looked as
cugh the earth itself was bearing I
TX marks and ulcers caused by some
cad malady.
This was the American sector. and
ere was where 600, 900 American boys
ught on, and in their service offered
} wars sacrifice in the lives they
I'VE. IL
Going Home.
To this region as melancholy almost
us as the graves themselves were
e refugees we met returning to their |
mes. A mother, a little child by
r side, the father leading horse
tched to a two-wheeled cart, loaded
tn poor old furniture, poor old bed
lg, poor old household utensils, a
y bundles of hay, a few bags Of