Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-07
SEEING BATTLEFIELDS AND RUINED
AREAS OF FRANCE FOR FIRST Time
Writer Describes Sensations Experienced at First Sight of Deyas
taton Left in Wake of War-Admiration for the Wonderful
49,. Spirit of the French PeopIe-Abandoned War
"a Material on All Sides.

as good repair as In some other sec
tons. Shell holes forced us to pro-
coed cautiously.
D~esolation Everywhere.
We followed the Hindenburg line,
which we crossed and recrossed sew
eral times during the morning. Miles
OF barbed-wire entanglements, dug
outs, trenches and abandoned huts
stretched along the roadway. No
Mans land stretched before US for
miles. We reached Fort de la Pom
pelle shortly after noon. The fort had
been leveled to the ground, but we
were able to proceed 20 feet below tie
ground and along the tunnels lead.
ing to No Mans land. The bones Of
dead boches and horses are still n
buried. Here we found abandoned
tanks and guns.
Reims, a city of 125 900 before the
war, with many fine public buildings,
including the cathedral, now has less
than a dozen buildings standing and a
population OF 1000 people. Refugees
are just beginning to come back, and
a few shops are being opened. The
stained glass windows where kings
have been blessed, is a mass of ruins
with nothing but the walls standing.
German prisoners were removing the
stones, bricks and mortar from where
the roof had fallen to the auditorium
below. 1t was estimated that 1t
would take a hundred prisoners weeks
to remove the debris.
German prisoners are being used to
repair the parts of the buildings
that can be used as temporary quar-
tiers and In rebuilding the sewers and
water systems. 1t was here we saw
Germans hitched to wagons taking the
place of the horses they have killed
or stolen.
Work of Fiends.
The members of our party shud-
dered as we gazed on the spectacle
of this ruined city. Could this be the
work of men or of fiends? Can such
who inflicted this destruction ever OBJ
tain forgiveness?
To those In America whose only in
terest in war has been a desire to get
over here before everything is all
cleaned up" I can send the message
; that they need not fret If they are
delayed a year or two. Their chill
dren's children will still look upon the
ruins of invaded France.
With the sun of spring but a few
days old, it already begins to smell
bad in western Belgium and north
eastern France. Bones Of men and
horses are all about unburied. Great
piles Of ammunition and lines of
trenches lie just as If the troops had
marched away yesterday. No prog
ress has been made in the res$ora-
tion Of homes, factories or stores.
Mile after mile we sped through
wrecked towns and villages in which
civilian residents are just being per-
mitted to return.
Vicious Dissertation.
We stopped at a once famous coun-
try villa. The beautiful home had
been occupied by German officers.
When we went from room to room and
found filthy pictures and obscene
poems scrubbed and scrawled upon
the walls, when we found priceless
tapestries with Spikes deliberately
driven through them, when we found
statuary deliberately knocked about
with rife butts and everything NOV
able carried away, we wondered what
sort Of men had dwelt therein.
Just as 1t seemed our hearts could
stand no more, We came upon q little
group Of laughing, kissing country
folks-one of our party caught enough
of the conversation to learn that NAM
ma goat had just successfully increas-
ed the population with a baby goat
and France could even smile with SO
little assistance.
We returned with increased admi.
ration Of the French nation and q
greater appreciation Of the hardships
that had been endured so heroically
Martyrdom of France.
No more pregnant emotion can grir
the human soul thar those inspired by
the scene we had beheld. Here men
fought for empire and left their mark
on nature. These ruined villages, this
tortured earth, this awful desolation
stretching for miles in every dlrec-
tion-unite in showing what men will
do when they put on the livery of i'm
perial militarlsm.
We know now what France has
suffered, and we know that all she has
lost Is q loss to the whole world. Her
awful martyrdom. her heroic endur.
ance, her indomltable fortitude cry
aloud from these heaps of stone which
were once peaceful homes or the cen
tiers of Industrial prosperity. now
stilled for a brief time only. In this
war the spirit of evil sat upon the
throne and sent his slaves to chal
, lenge civilization. In the providence
Of God the end was certain. That enc
we saw on the battlefield, for there
despotism died and the new justice
for France and for the cause Of righ
! was born.
We returned to Paris through Cha
teau Thierry with the conviction tina
not a tenth OF the devastation. de
struction and footing has ever beer
told or ever can be.
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