The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-02-15

NHetet IN loneliness, Marshal Ney for
half a century has listened to German
bugles and reviewed German regiments,
until the happy hour sin recent when
Marshal Petain took Ills stand beside
his great predecessor and reviewed the
French army returning to Metz. So
far the German hand is everywhere,
the German mailed fist. unmistakable
n barracks. in buildings. in streets.
Contrasts Are Severe,
But across the square France begins
again. One plunges into familiar. mar
row, winding streets. set around with
the architecture Of Verdun or TOul,
sights and even smells of France. /
know Of no more sudden shock-fOr a
mile from the station to the monu-
ment Germany, nothing but Germany
then OF a sudden one crosses a from
tier, as impressive as the canyon be-
tween Mentone and Italy. Following
these narrow, winning streets one ar
rtves In a moment in the main place.
and above n in all its delicate and
graceful tracery rises the Metz ca
thedral. as beautiful in little as any
cathedral in al France, and as French
as Rheims was or Amiens, remains,
and there in an instant is the con-
trast-the railroad station, with its
towering and Haunting ugliness, the
German quarters, with their spacious
hideousness. and at the other end OF
Metz the cathedral, in its typically
+ french square, with all the charm. the
simplicity, the inconseouence, the appeal
to the senses which are reached hy
the beautiful as contrasted with the
Chalenge. h hrusque, imperious. DOM
mating part of the German world be-
hind, ] wish I could make clear how
much Of all the story If the German
idea. the German purpose. is revealed,
fOEGEn hnnn nna hNr a nt~N -Na EaAa,a
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
W~retched little provincial French town
and l win make it a world city. will
give 1t avenues and parks and public
buildings, / will bring it material
prosperity and miserable inhabitants;
these inferior and inefficient creatures
VIII worship me through my work"
Allied About Cathedral.
And year after year you can mark
this progress, as you tell the age OF
an oak by its circles. The French in
habitants crept back farther and far
ther into the heart Of their old town,
rallied about the cathedral as a broken
regiment rallies about its colors. Ger
man magnificence left the French
heart cold; German buildings drove
the French structures from the face Of
the earth; German officers crowded
French men and women into the
streets; the city grew and flourished,
put the German never came at the
heart Of France.
Yes. year by year the French disap-
peared The old died and their bod
les and the bones Of their ancestors
were borne across the frontier to be
buried in French soil; young men, as
they reached the military age. fled
across the frontier to wear the French
uniform. There were 50, 200 French in
Metz when the German came: there
were less than 20 when he left, and
year by year German officers, profess
sors, soldiers and merchants flowed
into Metz. They walked its streets
with the abiding sense Of being con-
duerors and each year o the anniver-
sary Of the battle Of 1870 the town was
Tagged and filled with Germans, 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
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 a superior race" This even the
German graves on the, battlefield seem
to clamor forth.
Graces Portal.
Even moro the Germans did; they
began the task Of restoring the cathe-
dral, and on the portal they placed
figures of the prophets. and one has
the face of William the Second, al
though It purports to be a representa-
ton OF the prophet Daniel.
This restless desire to express their
might and pride finds noAmore sIgnifi-
cant expression than In this restoration
OF the ancient cathedral, restoration
expressed In the features Of the kaiser,
and the French, returning, have SO far
spared this statue, contenting them
selves with only claiming its hands. II
Is 2 pretty Jest, and yet n feels the
enduring strength Of the German thing,
which defies humor, wit, common
sense, lies, superior to all our Western
standards.
But perhaps the supreme German
achievement ia the mighty esplanade
they constructed along the banks OF
the Moselle, an avenue with some
thing Of the magnificence of Riverside
drive, lined with statues OF their he
roes, bearing the portentous name of
M~erovtngian avenue and providing the
conquerors with ar opportunity to
look out toward the forts which thew
had constructed TO watch over the
conquered land. For, all in all. every
where, one has a sense OF this Ger
man determination to express his con-
quest, his gosnel OF blood and iron, the
advance guard OF his efficiency in ev-
erythtng he built. On the esplanade
the French return Is commemorated by
a simple, satisfying symbol. From a
commanding eminence the equestrian
state of William l., /conaueror OF
Gez, surveyed the countryside, look
ing menacingly out toward France, and
when the French came back they
estal put a plaster monument OF a
noilu. a squat-bodied, thick-legged,
broad shouldered soldier Of Verdun,
and beneath 1t wrote this legend; "On
les a"-"We've got EN-"
Is Alone in World.
So much for Mets on the material
side, one must see 1t to understand
It. There Is nothing quite like 1t in
Europe or the rest Of the world. II
was a bit of oldest France when the
German took It. He surrounded IL with
his monuments, he weighed II with his
chains. Two civilizations, two ideas,
two races cry out against each other
at every turn. Strasbourg was a city
OF its own sort, neither French nor
German, taken by arms first, but won
to France in long decades OF occupa-
ton, married by her own consent to
France after the revolution, but Asa
tian always, possessed of her own
soul and retaining Il, Metz was
French or nothing, and tho burden Of
Its agony is written In every corner