Evening star., 1919-10-06
AMERICAN SHR|NES
IN FRANCE VISITED
Chateau Thierry a City Of
Activity; Relics of War
in BelIeau Wood.
GRAVES OF U. S. HEROES
BY HENRY J. SMITH.
of The Star and tn,
Chicago Daily News.)

BY HENRY J. SMITH.
(Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Daily Nevvs3
PARIS. France. September 1s.-
From Rheims the road to DormanS
runs with many a dip and curve be-
tween villages carved in strange
shapes, between woodlands bravsIy
green but marked by nangled trees,
and past fields whose harvests scarce
ly conceal the havoc of last year.
The shell holes that must have
yawned In this road have been Allied:
Here and there by the roadside are
great pits in which vines and shrubs
grow thickly. and now and then dug
outs half hidden by tall grasses.
Great balls and coils Of barbed wire
lie at the edge of every field. The ra-
vines are full of the rusted debris Of
war. Skeletons of factories and
blackened frameworks Of freight cars
grimace from the knolls. At intervals
one passes neat piles of steel ca psules,
fenced in and carefully labeled Dan
gerous Shells"
Wreaths of Costly Victory.
There is a terrible silence in all this
country. The woods against the sky
are ragged and black. This is a diff
ferent France from the one that
smiles to the south and west. These
are the hills of carnage. They wear
the sable wreaths Of costly victory.
Through st. Euphrais. Bfigny.
Chambrecy and smaller hamlets we
drive. shouted at by cheerful villagers.
eyed by sullen French soldiers. A
lane of poplars. a bridse-we cross
the Ardre. A few kilometers ahead is
with contented-lo civilians
walking the streets, lounging in the
doors of battered shops, pokins
among ruins. A group in black plods
toward a church, from whose shell
torn tower a bell tolls feebIy. Here
children play and flowers bloom. But
all along the road. in and out Of tiis
reviving town. are mounds with
crosses. mounds with faded chapleti
OF mourning. The graves make 4
parapet beside the road. The high
Tardenois.
Dormans is not quite 80 badly dam
aged, but it is only half habitable
Senly, Moulin, Fossoy, Crezancy-
these are groups of roofiess, window
less, wall-less dwellings, among which
the residents of today live some
how, cherishing the imperishable gar
dens. and cherishing still more such
farm animals as they have. In this
region a COW is more than rubies.
And so at last, over the doubling
and twisting road that furnishes ex-
quisite slimpses Of the Marne and Of
the hills opposite, checker-boa
with green and brown fields, we come
to Chateau. rhierry. But could this
lively and orderly city, with attrac-
tive shops and earnest business peo-
pie. with a hotel brisk1y serving bus
loads Of tourists from Paris-could
this be Chateau Thierry, where only
a winter and a summer ago the road
to Paris was contested and torrents
Of steel were unloosed? Chateai,
Thierry it was. but not unscathed.
Look closely. and you see the hotel
itself is SCARED and stained. A ais
emboweled house backs up to It. BE-
yond, along the river. the municipal
buildings and business "bIocks" are
chewed and disheveled. and a second
look atsthe bridge over the Marne dis.
covers shabby wooden afEair, At
either end Of which project jagsed
remnants OF the stone structure shat: