The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-02-15


tons. The McConaha Garage or Che
noweth's agency.
French have hung a sign. avenue Of
Marshal Foch." But the touch Of
irony is slight. One feels rather sorry
for the Marshal In such, q strange
street.
And beyond the railroad quarter by
avenues which narrow as they adj
vance, one marches to a broad square
where, In loneliness, Marshal Ney for
half q century has listened to Ger
man bugles and reviewed German reg
iments, until the happy hour still re-
cent when Marshal Petain took his
stand beside his breat predecessor and
revieyed the French army returning
to Metz. So far the German is every
where, the German mailed fist. unmis-
tabeable, in barracks, In buildings, In
streets.
Where France Begins.
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 /
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. winding streets one ar
rives in moment in the main place.
and above one in all its delicate and
graceful tracery, rises the Metz Cattle
A~N1 hAn f,,1 IN m
cathedral in all France, and as French
as Rheims was or Amiens remains
and there in an instant is the contrast
the railroad station with it's tower
ing and Haunting ugliness the Germans
quarters with their spacious hideous-
ness, and at the other end of Metz
Cathedral. in its typically French
square, with all the charm, the sim
plicity, the inconsequence, the appeal
to the senses which are reached by
the beautiful as contrasted with the
challenge the bursque. imperious. DOM
mating past Of the German world be-
hind.
What They Sought.
wish could make clear how much
of all the story of the German idea,
the German purpose, is revealed
lOTCGQ upOu Ouc NY d SlAplC pIouiC
made from the Metz Depot to the Metz
Cathedral. The story of the German
conquest of Lorraine is all written
there. You can see, feel, hear; when
the German came he said: Il will
take this wretched little provincial
town, and l will make it world city.
will give it avenues and parks and
public buildings. will bring it mate
rial prosperity and miserable inhabi-
tants; these inferior and inefficient
creatures will worship me through my
work"
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 further and fur
Their into the heart of their old town.
rallied about the cathedral as a brok-
en- regiment rallies about its colors.
German magnif1cence 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,
but the German never came at the
heart OF French.
French Disappear.
Yes, year by year the French disap-
peared. The old died and their bodies
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, fed across
the frontier to wear the French uni
FORM
There were fifty thousand French in
Metz when the Germans came; there
were less than twenty whe 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-
querors and each year on the ami
versary of the battles of 1870 the
town was tagged and filled with Ger
mans, come to celebrate the conquest.
Fill With Monuments.
Beyond the city on hills toward
France where great battles were
fought the Germans filled the fields
with monuments; the earth fairly
groans 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. 1--WE
are a superior race" This even the
German graves on the battlefield seem
to Glamour forth.
Even the more the German did;
they began the task Of restoring the
the cathedral and on the portal they
placed figures of the prophets, and
one has the face of William IL, al
though it purports to be representa-
ton of the prophet Daniel.
This restless desire to express their
might, their pride finds no more sig
nificant expression than in this restor-
alton of the ancient cathedral, restor-
alton expressed in the features of the
kaiser; and the French returning,
have so far spared this statue. con-
tenting themselves with only claiming
it's hands. 1t is pretty jest and yet
one feels the enduring strength of the
German thing, which defies humor,
with, common sense, lies superior to
all our Western standard.
Builds Esplanade.
But perhaps the supreme German
achievement is the mighty eSplanade