Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-16
Metz Cathedral Spared.


Metz Cathedral Spared.
Following these narrow. winding
streets one arrives in a moment in
the main place. and above one. in all
its delicate an dgraceful tracery, rises
the Metz Cathedral, as beautiful il
little as any cathedral in all France
and as French as Rheims was OF
Amiens remains. and there in an in
slant is the contrast-the railroad sta
ton. with its towering and Haunting
ugliness: the German quarters, w>~h
their spacious hideousneSs, and at the
other end Metz Cathedral. in its typi-
cally French square, with all the
charm. the simplicity, the incense
quence, the appeal to the senses which
are reached by the beautiful as con-
trasted with the challenge of the
brusque. imperious, dominating part
of the German world behind.
/ wish / could make clear how much
of all the story of the German idea
the German purpose. is revealed.
forced upon one by a simple prone
made from the Metz depot to the Metz
Cathedral. The story of the German
conquest of Lorraine is all written
there. You can feel, hear, when the
German came he said: Il will take
this wretched little provincial French
town. and | will make it a world city
will give it avenues and parks and
public buildings. ! will bring II ma
terial for prosperity and mlsera Die
inhabitants; these inferior and ineth-
cient creatures will worship me
through my work
And year after year you can marx
this progress as you tell the age OF
an oak by its circles. The French IN
habitants crept back farther and
farther into the heart of their old
town-ralled about the cathedral as a
= 1-a les a hnl l.
ors. German magnificenee left the
French heart cold; German buildings
drove the French structures from the
face of the earth: German officers crowd
ed French men and women into the
streets: the city grew and f1ourished.
heart of the French.
French Melted Away.
Yes, year by year the French dis
appeared The old died and their
bodies and the bones of their ances-
tors were borne across the frontier to
be buried in French soil: young men,
as they reached the military age. fed
across the frontier to wear the. French
uniform. There were $4,000 French
in Metz when the German came;
there were less than twenty when he
left, and year by year German officers.
professors. soldiers and merchants
flowed into Metz. They walked its
streets with the abiding sense of be-
ing conquerors, and each year. on the
anniversary of the battles of 1870. the
town was tagged and filed with Ger
mans. come TO celebrate the conquest.
Beyond the city. on hills toward
France, where great battles were
fought, the Germans filled the fields
with monuments; the earth fairly
groans under the burden of lions and
tigers, and princes and generals. all
testimony to the superior German
greatness, each monument, like build
ings on the square. instinct with the
true German spirit of essential ugli-
ness and undeniable efficiency. I'VE
are superior race" This even the
German graves on the battlefield seem
to c1amor forth.
Even more the Germans did. They
began the task of restoring the
cathedral, and on the portal they
placed figures of the prophets. and
one has the face of William ii, al
though II purports to he representa-
tion of the prophet Daniel.
This restless desire to express their
might their pride finds no more sig
nificant expression than in this res
toration of the ancient cathedral. res
toration expressed in the features of
the kaiser; and the French returning
have SO far spared this statue, con-
ing its hands 1t Is pretty jest and
yet one feels the enduring strength
of the German thing, which defies hu-
NOR, wit. common sense lies, superior
to all our western standards.
Expresses German Gospel.
But perhaps the supreme German
achievement is the mighty esplanade
they constructed along the banks of
thing of the magnificence of Riverside
drive. lined with statues of their he
roes. bearing the portentous name of
Meroyingian avenue. and providing
the conquerorS with an opportunity to
look out toward the forts which they
had constructed to watch over the
conquered land. For all in all. every
where. one has a sense OF this Ger
man determinations to express his con-
, quest. his gospel of blood and iron,
the advance guard of his efficiency in
everything he built On the espianade
the French return is commemorated
by a simple, satisfying symbol. From
q commanding eminence the eques-
| trian statue of William ], conqueror
of Metz surveyed the countryside.
| looking mena~ingiy out toward
/ France. and when the French came
back they overturned the statue and
on its pedestal put a plaster monu-
nlent of a poiiu. a squat bodied thick
legged, broad-shouldered Soldier of
Verdun. and beneath it wrote this
| legend: "On les a"-"We've got EN-
So much for Metz on the material
side. one must see 1t to understand it.
There is nothing quite like it in Eu-
rope or the rest of the world. 1t was
a bit OF oldest France when the Ger
man took H. He surrounded 1t with
his monuments, he weighted il with
his chains. Two civilizations, two
IDEAS, two races cry out against each
other at every turn. StrAsburg was
a city of its own sort. neither French
! nor German, taken by arms first but
| IN ENr-ar in Il