The Pulaskian., 1919-06-27
BEING BATH LEFIELDS AND RUINED
 AREAS OF FRANCE FOR FIRST TIME
liter Describes Sensations Experienced at First Sight of Devas- aon Left in Wake of War-Admiraton for the Wonderful Spirit of the French PeopIe-Abandoned War
 Material on All Sides.

<, and the devastation needed no expla- nation. We passed. abandoned air planes, army trucks, camions and guns of every description
 We passed numerous German pris- on camps. Eight hundred thousand prisoners are being utilized wherever possible in repairing the buildings, roadways and the part of the dam age they have done.
 The Debris of War. Nearing Verdun we came upon many storehouses filled with ammu- nition-shells. hand grenades, and other war material-that has never been removed from the containers. What to do with the tons and tons of this ammunition is one of the af- ter-war problems.
 Niles and miles of narrow-gauge which the ammunition and supplies were sent to the front. These rail- road tracks. for many miles, are still undisturbed.
 Not a single entire house remains standing in Verdun, at one time the home of 25,000 civilians. Where once there were homes Is now only noun tain of stones, brick, rubbish and gap ing walls. The fort is intact-at no point did the German guns penetrate the walls. We walked through four miles of tunnels under the forts, in which the inhabitants lived with the soldiers during a part of the time the city was under fire.
 Fort Donamont, ten miles beyond Verdun is merely heap of stones sand debris, entirely surrounded for miles by torn and tortured earth re- sembling a plowed field, excepting for the the craters made by exploding shells. Here were the bones and skulls of dead Germans, empty shells, helmets and gas masks. Some of the dugouts remain in the hillsides. This is a most desolate spot on the earth excepting possibly "No Mans Land" between Challons and Reims.
 Reluctantly we retraced our steps and returned to Ste. Menehould. Here we found an inn where we put up for the night.
 Bright and early with the sun at our backs we started on 70mile ride to Reims. By noon it was showing hard. The road between Challons and Reimss had not been put in as good repair as in some other sec lions. Shell holes forced us to pro- ceed cautiously.
 DesoIation Everywhere.
 We followed the Hindenburg line, which we crossed and recrossed sev- eral times during the morning. Miles of barbed-wire entanglementS, dug outs, trenches and abandoned huts stretched along the roadway. No Man's land stretched before us for miles. We reached Fort de Ia Pom belle shortly after noon. The fort had been leveled to the ground, but we were able to proceed TO feet below the ground and along the tunnels lead ing to No Mans land. The bones of dead boches and horses are still un- buried Here we found abandoned tanks and guns.
 Reims, city of 125,000 before the war with many fine public buildings, including the cathedral, now has less than q dozen buildings standing and population of 1000 people. Refugees arc just beginning to come back, and few shops are being opened. The beautiful cathedral with its wonderful stained glass windows where kings have been blessed, Is q 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. It was estimated that 1t would take 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- ters and in rebuilding the sewers and water systems. It was here we saw Germans hitched to wagons taking the