The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-01-27


M Col. Edward M. Watson, of Mar
tinsville, Va, who commanded an ar
tillery battalion in the fight and was
later chief of staff of the Seventy
IA seventh division in the Argonne fight
ing, stood beside President Wilson
and Brig. Gen. William w. Harts and
tod the story OF the battle in detail.
Then Mr.. Wilson drove up the hiA
over which the American troops
4 smashed the crack Prussian divisions
mustered there to crush the green
a horns" and where the advance on
Paris was checked. This was near
Chateau -Thielry and the spot prom
sises to be a mecca for Americans
for many years to come. MIR. Wilson
saw the ruins OF bridges over which
the Americans thrust back the en-
emy line at this nearest point to ParlS
and the she'll marked houses which
survived the battles of those memoir
able days.
Barped Wires Now Rusty.
On entering Chateau -Thierry the
mayor greeted Mr.. Wilson, VINO re-
sponded quite informally. He then
drove on towards Rheims, passing
along the old battle line between long
( lanes of barbed wire entanglemelts
now rusting away in the first winter
trenches reaching over the hills ana
down into hollows as far as the eye
could see and past the wrecks OF dug
outs. ammunition dumps, avlatloh
sheds. hospitals, barracks and all the
I other litter left behind by the de-
feated enemy in his flight,
1t seemed as if the field had peen
sowed by Mars with the wastage OF
war in the hope that it would take
root and blossom. American as Wen
as French graves lay along the road
side. There were German graves W
be seen, too. Desecrated cemeteries
were found in many cases. AL every
turn of the road was farm, DE,
serted and in ruins, it's fields dotted
with shell holes filled with water ana
crusted ice. There was constant
panorama of destroyed or charreo
vineyards, gardens and homes.
Like Silent Graveyard. =.
The president was welcomed at
Rheims by the mayor and commit
tee to which Mr.. Wilson eXplalheu
( that he had not come to the devas-
tated regions sooner because he hau
been wholly engaged at Paris with
the business of making peace.
Before going to the cathedral ne
passed through the streets OF the ue-
serted city, which was once the nome
of $4,000 people, but where less than
5000 are now eking out an existence
among the ruins. He visited Red
cross canteens, where hundreds of
destitute persons are fed night and
day, and the hospital where the sick
and injured are cared for. The
champagne cellars beneath the city,
said to contain some 70,000,000 bot
ties of wine, were not visited.
IA light blanket of snow covered the
(, ground as the president drove up ITO
fhe cathedral and Rheims, ravished
and naked in all its misery and desc
lhtion, looked like a graveyard in the
moonlight. There were more crows
in the air, circling over the ruined
town, than there were human beings
below in the Uttered streets.
Where Huns Burned Own Men.
Cardinal Lucon, archbishop of
Rheims, who stood steadfastly by his
charge for four years, during which
time scarcely a day passed without
a German shell hurting death into the
city, met the president at the fence
of rough boards which now excludes
curiosity seekers and incloses the
rubbish into which this most historic
edifice has been reduced. The cardl-
nal conducted Mr.. Wilson to the nave
Al the cathedral, Where IN 1919 tHe
Hermans during their short. occupa-
aon of the city placed their wounded
and then. being forced to evacuate,
burned their men to death by incen-
diary shells that fired the roof, but
did not damage the vault.
All over the tagging were piled
heaps of rubbish, remnants of stat
+ uary and frescoes and fragments OF
columns and sculptures which were
accounted the most perfect and COM
plete examples of Gothic art. AS the
president and the cardinal stood to-
gether looking upward, while the
prelate briefly recounted the story of
four years of constant destruction.
they looked straight through to the
clouded sky. The snow furry that
was covering the bare ruins of the
> city outside also was laying a blan-
ket upon the inside of the cathedral.
Constant Drop Of Fragments.
The cfalky stone of Champagne, of
which the cathedral was built, is seal
ing off from the effects Of German fire.
and the falling snowfakes were mixed
with an almost constant dropping of
fragments. Pausing a moment before