Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-27
President Unable To
Put Into Words The
Impressions Received
CONTINUED from Page ~

one hundred or more American boys
and looked across the strategic valley
to Belleau wood, a mangled mass OF
tree trunks and ~underbrush, but now
a national monument to the marines
after whom the French government
have named the place.
Told Battle Story.
Col. Edward NJ. Watson of Martins
vile, Va, who commanded an artil-
lery battalion in the fight and was
later chief of staff Of the 18th division
in the Argonne fighting, stood beside
President Wilson and Brigadier Gen.
eral VIM. A. Harris Inc told the story
of the battle in detail.
Then Mr.. Wilson drove up the hill,
owe which the American troops
smashed the crack. Prussiap divisions
mustered there to crush the Green
horns" and where the advance on
Paris was checked. This was near
Chateau Thierry and the spot promis-
es to be a mecca for Americans for
many years to come. Mr.. Wilson saw
the ruins of bridges over which the
at this nearest point to Paris and the
shell marked houses which survived
the battles of those memorable days.
On entering Chateau Thierry the
mayor greeted Mr.. Wilson who re-
sponded. He then drove on towards
Rheims, passing along the old battle
line between long lanes of barbed'
ing away in the first winter of peace
between long muddy trenches reach
ing over the hills and down into hol-
lows as far as the eye could see, and
past the wrecks of dugouts, amrnuni-
ton dumps, aviation sheds. hospitals,
behind by the defeated enemy.
1t seemed as If the fields had been
sowed by Mars with the wastage Of
war in the hope that it would take
root and blossom. American as we1i>as
French graves lay along the roadside.
There were German graves to be seer
too. Desecrated cemeteries were FOUND
in many cases. At every turn of the
road was a farm. deserted and in
ruins, it's fields dotted with she'll holes
filled with water and crusted ice.
There was a constant panorama of de-
stroyed or charred vineyards, gardens
and homes.
welcomed by Mayor.
The president was welcomed at
Rheims by the mayor and a commit
tee. Before going to the cathedral he
serted city which was once the home
of $4,000 people. but where fewer
than five thousand are now eking out
an existence. He visited Red Cross
%canteens, where hundreds of destitute
persons are fed night and day and
the hospital where the sick and in
jVfed are cared for. The champagne
cellars beneath the city. said to con-
tain some seventy million bottles OF
wine, we're not visited.
A blanket Of snow covered the
ground as the president drove up ia
the cathedral, and Rheims, ravished
and naked in all its misery and DESC
1 1otinn lonkoA fkn a 0ro w on ri IN thA
moonlight. There were more crows in
the air. circling v the ruined town,
than there were human beings below
in the Uttered streets.
Cardinal LucOn, archbishop OF
Rheims, who stood steadfastly by his
time scarcely a day passed without a
German shell hurting de(th into the
city, met the president at the fence
of rough boards which now exclude
cHriosity seekers and e~ncloses the
rubbish into which this most historic
edifice has been reduced: The cardinal
conducted Mr.. Wilson to the nave OF
the cathedral, where in 1914 the Ger.
mans during their short occupation OF
the city. placed their wounded and
then, being fotced to evacuate, burned
their men to death by incendiary
shells that fred the roof, but did not
damage the vault.
All over the fiagging, worn smooth
through the years by millions Of fee
bringing Frsnchmsn to an. hours de.
yotion, were piled heaps of rubbish
remnants Of statuary and frescoes and
fragments OF columns and sculptures
which accounted the most perfect and
dcomplete examples OF Gothic art. Al
the president and the cardinal stood
together looking upward, while the
iprelate briefly recounted the story Of
-FOUR years Of destruction they looked
straight through the clouded sky. Thu
snow furry that WA covering thu
bare ruins Of the city outside also va,