The Washington herald., 1919-04-06
CONTINUED FROM PAGE -FOUR.


ground had been won and lost and re-
won Never can any one have the
least idea of what ruin and destruc-
tion has been wrought unless they see
il for themselves. i knew to some ex-
tent, but until 1 passed through vii
lage after village where hardly a wall
remained standing, and when in
Rheims looked carefully to see IL
a house intact was left and could not
find one, 1 realized what war was
I went inside the cathedral by
special permission and to see all
the windows gone. all the articles
about the altar and inscriptions on
the tombs gone-holes in the roof
as large as the roof Of an ordinary
house. But / was happy to be told
that the beautiful old rose window
and four old superb blue windows
had been saved and were here in
Paris. safe and whole. l remember
them so well. as we were motoring
by Rheims and through Northern
France two weeks before the war
chance to see the old glass and
beauty of the cathedral. little
draining the havoc that would
The quaint little hotel where we
lunched was gone. all but part of
a front wall with the name of
the hotel still remaining Lion
dOr hotel so well-known to
motorists. Then Scissors is prac-
tically in ruins; a few houses left,
but the cathedral is in even worse
condition than that of Rheims. Its
towers are tottering and only
ABOUT two stories high of the main
walls left We spent the night at
scissors and were welcomed by
the proprietor and her daughter of
the Hotel CroiX dor. Strange TO
say the people recognized me at
once and called me by name. They
had been refugees twice, evacuated
from Scissors in 1914 and again
last August and the Duryea War
relief had been able to help them
IN many material ways. Their hotel
is partly in ruins and as far as eve
could reach not another house was
standing, but we were made COM
Portable: at least had a shelter and
not dinner. I rolled myself I'D In
my two travelling rugs at night as
naturally the rooms were unheated
and were damp and cold.
every mirror, in the house was
OrOken but my room had a bed
anu pine table with basin and
rug. One could well exclafm, ''C'est
la guerre." At Chateau Thferrv
thought OF cur boys and of their
hne aid-also in the Argonne
Forest, which I crossed and saw
and talked with many American
soldiers. Almost every village is
IN ruins, especially Yarennes
mere saw American men and
tanks in large numbers and the
mud they were working in was
Knee deep in places 1 visited
many places from Suipe to Rheims
where the roads and fields all
looked as if churned UP several
tmes-trenches. dugouts. debris Of
all sorts and shell holes mixed as
one.
Trenches were sometimes beside
the road and others crossing in
many places. We constantly had
10 make detOurs on account of the
roads or bridges having been
hIoWn up by mines. 1 can tell you
When we met and talked with the
American boys. still on guard ana
on duty of all kinds. they were happy
and told us of fighting they took
part -iR-sad I-haye often=said
wonder how any. one comes out
alive from modern warfare with
ITS varieties of lighting machines.
One boy amused me by saying he
had lost all of the souvenirs he
had collected to take home to his
wife, but he said, Lady, 1 guess
] am as good a souvenir as | can
find to take back" and 1 think he
was right.
1 visited several Of the salvage
dumps and it is marvellous to see
the amount that is collected from
the battlefelds and how much can
be saved. 1 passed through roads
still unsalvaged and the camou-
fiage still hanging on both sides.
and overhead, shells, clothing
anything still as discarded by the
enemy.
l counted seven dead horses. and
an arm and a leg protruding from
shelled fields was not uncommon.
Men buried and again blown from
their resting places by the constant
bombardmenfs. All along the scene
of battle it was sad to see the many
graves with their wooden crosses,
marking the place where a brave
man had been buried where he fell,
sometimes quite -alone-others in
groups of five to twenty. Then far
of from everything an enclosed bat
tlefield cemetery with graves of
both the allies and the enemy. At
Metz. where I spent a night, it was
odd to hear German spoken every
where and still all the new names
in French on the shops, trains, etc.
II will take a long time to change
a city that has been Boche for
fOrty-tive years. 1 saw the new
monument to the Poilu. placed
where william II. had been torn
down. and l talked with some of the
hotel and shop-keepers and they,
who were Lorrainers. said they were
pleased to become French again.