Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-27


pilgrimage for tourists.
Everybody knows how the Germans
held st. Mihiel. in a bulge OF the front
which the French could not wipe out
In four years efforts, and how the
Americans walked into st. Mihiel in
q day.
The boys will come back to France,
with their families. pointing out their
spots; but when the war is cold and
1t Is hard to make civilians. realize
nothing will disclose SO impressively
what we and the French were up
against at st. Mihiel as the subter-
ranean palace of the crown prince.
Certain war spots are predestined
bhow places.
Go out of st. Mihiel eight miles.
You come to the village of Mont
Sea 235 inhabitants before the war
Ind so-called because it Is built
Against the hill or mountain" of thaC
bAme Mont Sec-dry mount).
But Dry mountain was not dry in
1914, 1915, 1916 and 1917. Champagne
popped and fixed, dubbed and
Sparkled in the depths of Mont Sec
where none could see-inside Mont
Bee, which looked so bare and poor
and peasant-like. Apremont-the-
Forest is mile and a half away.
Commercy is up the line. You pass
through Ally to come from st. Mihiel.
EampiGny is this side Of the river.
"A few miles down is the fort Of
Tryon. and then the southern and
Eastern forts of Verdun. All through
the colossal bloody efforts OF the
Drown prince to take Verdun in 1916.
the little bare Dry mountain. in
hocent appearing and escaping notice
of the allies, scout planes. up St.
Mihiel way. was gloriously wet, some
times by night. sometimes by day.
with wine. woman and song. Swift,
long. sneaking motor cars Of the
brown princes army staff slid through
tho darkness to q door in the noun
tain.
It was the Venus Berg Of the Little
Eannh aeuser." Vincent. the local
baker Of Mont Sec. whom they i'm
pressed into making them crisp and
luscious "croissants" or breakfast
TOLLS at ell hours. says that they never
6eased to talk this Wagner stuff
you know. the gigantic cave In the
Horselberg. where Tannhaeuser raised
high links, while the blooming stan,
which represented his moral regenera-
tion was blooming at Rome. without
his knowledge. ('But our crown
prince knows!" said Col. Graf Won
Stein with unction.)
And there came other times. when
4 hon NJ ho, n Nd, oh
the mountain. that elegant boche
officers, inside it. banged on the piano
end made music. So secure did they
teei In the Venus-Berg that they sent
home periodically for new dress
uniforms. to brighten certain hours
pf lightness anu leisure. Beloved
fatherland. magst ruhig sein; we're
cafe. we're safe, and tapping good
French wine.
Now, we are getting down to brass
taoka
It dates from the very first day
Of the war. when German cavalry and
light artillery rushed the French
Basin Of Briey. while Jaures and the
French socialists kept the army eight
miles inside the frontier. mot to pour
oil on the flames" In those days the
GROWN prince was called 1.-The hero
of Spincourt." He did not stay at
Sptpoourt, nor was there any battle
at Sptncourt. All the same. the kaiser
desired his son to be hero of Spin
court. because 1t sounded something
wonderful. When he broke the French
frontier Of Luxembourg, the crown
prince sat down at Spincourt, first. to
watch the greatest booty Of the Ger
man invasion. to send thrill through
all the fatherland-the inexhaustible
iron mines Of France, the famous
Basin of Briey. If the crown prince
could hold what he was supposed to
have taken. it would mean the ever
lasting prosperity Of the German iron
and steel industry. So he must be
hero of Spincourt. and the whole at
tack or Verdun was designed to make
that booty and that glory solid.
And the crown prince did not stay
at Spincourt.
He risked his precious skin farther
south. Late in 1914. when the st.
Mihiel bulge had been made i'm
pregnable, a vast boche engineering
outfit came to this little Mont Sec.
camoufiaged itself, and began to drill
into the mountain.
The boche engineers dug. masoned,
a