Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-27

which was once the home of $4,000
people, but where les than 5000 now
are eking out an existence among the
ruins He visited Red Cross canteens
where hundreds of destitute persons
are fed night and day, and the hos
pltai. where the sick and injured are
cared for. The champagne cellars
beneath the city. said to contain some
100000 bottles Of wine, were not
visited.
Sees Cathedral "In All It's Misery"
+ A light blanket of snow covered the
xFuund a. tile President drove up to
the cathedral. and Rheims. rayished
and naked Ia all tts mtserssand aeso-
lation. hooked like q graveyard IN the
moonlight There were more crows
In the air. circling over the ruined
town. than there were human beings
below in the Uttered streets.
Cardinal Lucon, Archbishop of
Rheims, who stood steadfastly by his
charge for four years, during which
time scarcely day passed without a
German she'll hurting death into the
city, met the President at the fence of
rough boards which excludes curiosity
seekers and incioses the rubbish into
which this most historic edifice has
been reduced. The cardinal conducted
Mr.. Wilson to the nave of the cathe-
during their short occupation OF the
city, placed their wounded, and then,
being forced to eyacuate, burned their
men to death by incendiary shells that
fired the roof. but did not damage the
vault.
All over the tagging. worn smooth
through the years by millions of feet
bringing Frenchmen to an hours de-
votion, were piled heaps of rubbish
remnants of statuary and frescoes and
fragments of columns and sculptures
which were accounted the most per-
feet and complete examples of Gothic
art. AS the President and the cardi-
nal stood together looking up. while
the prelate briefly recounted the story
of four years of constant destruction.
they looked straight through to the
clouded sky. The snow furry that
was covering the bare ruins of the
city outside also was laying a blan-
ket upon the inside of the cathedral
The chalky stone of Champagne, Of
which the cathedral was built, is seal
ing OF from the effects of German fire.
and the falling snowflakes were mixed
with an almost constant dropping of
fragments. Pausing a moment be-
fore the scene of the crucifix above
the north door and before the paint
ing Of the coronation of the Virgin
over the central door, Mr. Wilson si-
lently viewed the destruction wrought
upon those masterpieces by the burn
ing of the scaffolding when the Ger
mans set fire to the roof of the edi-
fee.
Ruins of statues lie about the side
door, and the great rose window, said
to be the most beautiful in the world
where Field Marshal Won Moltke. in
1870. sat and watched the sun set.
it shattered by she'll fire until it looks
like camoufage set up by the road
side Mr. Wilson followed the cardinal
to the ruins of the chapel. where old
time kings watched through the night
at the time of their amounting. and
to the ruins of the museum. where
priceless Flemish tapestries were
ruined
He was shown where thousands of
shells thrown from German batteries
on two sides burst among the but
tresses which support the main struc-
ture and where forests of sculptures
which ornament the structure have
been SCARED, nicked and torn by frag-
meuts from the big shells. but very
few OF which ever reached the vault.
Part of the vault. however, lies in a
heap of twisted and crumpled wreck
age upon the main altar, where it was
thrown by explosions which wrecked
most of the stained glass thirteenth
century windows. Cardinal Lucon took
Mr.: Wilson outside and they picked
their way through rubbish heaps to a
point from which they could view the
shell-riddled painting of the last
judgment, above the south door; the
symbols of Noah's ark about the great
rose window, the statue of St Anne
and dozens of other works of art, of
which virtually none escaped
AS they left the cathedral the car
dinal gave the President a stained
glass panel from one of the windows
taken down in time to save it. The
panel is unscarred. 1t is circular and
about three feet in diameter. 1t shows
a figure of the Savior done in many
coIored glass of the early centuries.
From the cathedral the President
drove to view the ruins Of the town
hall, spacious specimen of the
renaissance style of architecture, and
the Palais Royale. an eighteenth CEN
historical memorials of Rheims. and
not one has escaped.