Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1919-06-07
AS WAR MEMENT0
Public Square Of Arras Is to Be
Preserved.
Just as War left II. II Will Serve to
Remind the World That Here the
Marauding Huns Were
Checked.

In the Little Place Of Arras. whore
)nce stood the Hotel de Vile. with its
oelfry and It's peal of bells. led by La
Ioyeusc, Is today n notice board in Eng
lsh. II says that this place Is to he
preserved In It's ruin as war has left
I.
orhcr places will be rebuilt again.
and will forget. but this Little Pace
wil remain empty. and one day Ar.
ms VIII be- more proud of that cmpii.
1">S and Of those few broken stones
than ARE other towns Of the most
beautiful things that they possess.
For 80 Arrns will remain always. rs
4 + to-day one OF the rocks visible
m which The great waters of invasion
broke and surged and broke again.
nut could flow no farther There they
were held. There In the center ~
ArrnS you come suddenly today on
the dark line Of their highest tide.
Elsewhere. across the open country
you come more gradually In the
land ~ war. by roads where troops
move. by fields where are lines and
Ines of brown and white trenches.
rendy but never used hy empty VII
lagos. with here and there house
broken: and so M last into the great
No Mans land of France. unnhnhit"d.
unnhnbiablc. where armies fought
and fought again. until all Is lie
Stroyrd and men live gypsy life
by the roadside. But In Arras You
turn II corner OF one Of the little
streets and II Is MS II n window had
opened suddenly and you. looked ont
on war.
For three years one could only
enter Arras from the west. lay the
rond from DoullcnS through the
Amlens gate or by the road from
81. Pol past Dead Mans corner. where
nightly the rcliefS. coming M, were
Shrllcd Beside both these roads The
trees stand. and the fields are TILED
and there ar" woods across tn" hills
You enter Arras today through n
country unchanged by war The
change Is not yet.
II ~ silent town. It's EnuS"S
stand. though scarcely one Is quite
whole. Their shutters are closed
their broken faces boarded mp. The
town Is Ike n man that sleeps after
long suffering.
So you pass through cohhl"d
streets. very gray clean, Silent
streets. between those exhausted
houses. going down the Rue ST. Au
bert and hy the white hospital with
its green vine leaves. Then you
turn up other little streets. with
their narrow sky above them and
come. very suddenly. on an open lane
with banks on either side where net.
Ties and coltsfoot and loosestrifc
grow. But this that looks like coun-
try lane Is cobbcd. and It's banks are
heaps Of brick.
II Is rs you enter this lane that
you are conscious OF something more
unexpected aud more awful than any
ruined and broken things-of an
enormous emptiness In the middle OF
that town Of tall houses and narrow
streets.
when the years have passed AMI
all the country To the east of Arras
has long been made whole; when the
trees grow again beside the Cam
hrai and the Bapaune roads and
there are cottages once more in Beau
rains and Rcny and NiS-cn-Artnis.
there will still be that Sudden emp
tiness beneath the sky among the mar
row streets Of Arras.
Standing there, men will rcmem-
her that once one could come into
Arras only from the west They
will think Of It then rs of one Of
those towns. now far Inland and sur
rounded by quick fields. which once
were on the seashore. They will
took ut that gray ruin of the town
hall as AT the ruins OF n great rock
where once the storms beat.