Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1919-01-30
WILSON VISITS
BATTLEF|ElDS
President Views Ruins at Cha
teau-Thierry, Where Yanks
Fought.
SEES THE DEBRIS AT REIMs
Declares "No One Can Put Into Words
the Impression Have Received
Amongst Such Scenes of
Desolation."

Desolation."
Paris, Jan. 2S.-President Wilson
made his first trip to the battlefront
and devastated regions, Sunday, visit
lug Chateau-T Thierry and Reims. At
the close of Il tour that took him
through Il dozen razed villages, end
ing in the ruins of the historic cathe-
lral at Reims, he made this comment:
NO one can put into words the i'm.
pressions have received amongst
such scenes OF desolation and ruins"
That was Mr. Wilson's only ex-
preston of his feelings after trip
HAT every Frenchman has been hoping
ae would make before he takes part
IN deciding what is to be e1acted from
Germany for the devastation of north
Ell France.
Accompanied by Mrs. Wilson, AG.
miral Grayson and very small party,
Mr.. Wilson left the AIurat residence
early Sunday morning. The party mo-
tored first to Chateau-Thierry, and
thence to Reims. passing through many
ruined villages and along the old fight
ing lines, where evidences of combat
are still to be plainly SEEM
After visiting Reims the president
and his party left their motor cars and
returned by special train to Paris. The
last part of the motor trip was made
in a swirling snowstorm, the first snow
MIR. Wilson has seen since last winter
Sees BelIeau Wood.
The first fighting ground was reach.
ed as the party neared Bellehu wood
tmmortalizeds by the gallant fighting
of the American marines. The motor
cars turned off the main roads and
crawled through back lanes to bring
the president close to the scene Of the
fighting.
The farmers We're blowing the she'll
cratered fields as the president stood
beside the graves OF 100 or more Amer
ican boys who gave their lives at that
point and looked across the valley Of
Belleau wood, mangled mass of tree
trunks and underbrush and now Il ma
tiOnal monument to the American ma
rines whose name the French govern
ment has decreed it shall bear forever.
Col. Edward M. Watson, who com
manded an artillery battalion in the
fight and was later chief of staff of the
Seventy-ninth division in the ArgOnne,
told President Wilson the story of the
battle
Then Mr.. Wilson drove up the hill,
over which the American troops halted
the crack Prllssian divisions mustered
there to crush the "Greenhorns," and
where the advance on Paris was check
el, near ChateauThierry.
Mr.. Wilson saw the ruins OF bridges
over which the Americans thrust back
the Huns at this nearest point to
Paris and the shell-marked houses
which survived the battles Of those
memorable summer days.
On entering Chateau Thierry the
mayor greeted Mr.. Wilson, who re-
.sponded quite informally. He, then
drove on toward Relms. passing along
the old battle line between lanes of
barbed wire eutanglements and
trenches reaching over the hills as far
as the eye could see, and past the
wrecks of dugouts, ammunition dumps,
aviation sheds, hospitals, barracks and
all the other litter left behind by the
Huns in their retreat.
The president was welcomed at
Reims by the mayor and committee
to whom Mr.. Wilson explained that he
had not come to the devastated regions
sooner because he had been wholly en-
gagged at Paris with the business Of
making peace.
light blanket of snow covered the
ground as the president drove up to
the cathedral, rayished and naked in
all it's misery and desolation. There
We're more crows in the air, circling
over the ruined town, than were hu-
man beings below in the Uttered
streets.
Cardinal Lucon. archbishop of
Reims, who held steadfastly to his
charge for four years, during which
scarcely n day passed without a Ger
man shell hurting death into the city,
met the president at the fence of
rough boards which now excludes Gu
riosity seekers and incloses the rub
bish into which this historic editice
has been reduced.
The cardinal conducted Mr.. Wilson
to the nave of the cathedral
All .oyer the tagging, worn smooth
through the years by millions of feet,
We're heaps of rubbish, remnants of
,statuary and frescoes and fragments
of columns and sculptures accounted
the most perfect examples of Gothic
art. Mr.. Wilson silently viewed the
destruction.
AS they left the cathedral the car
dinal gave the president n stained
glass panel from one of the windows
taken down in time to save it. The
| panel is unscarred. 1t is circular and
! about three feet in diameter. II
shows figure Of the Savior done in
many-col6red glass of the early cen
turtles.
Mr.. and Mrs. Wilson then visited La
Pompelle fortress. southeast of Reims,
aud thence returned by train to Parts,
arriving there at 8 80 p. M.