The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-01-30
PRESIDENT WILSON
AMID RUINS OF WAR.
Continued from page one. }

been wholly engaged at Paris with
the business of making peace. Before
going to the cathedral, he passed
through the streets of a deserted city
\ which was once the home of 115,0OO
people, but where less than 5000 are
how keeping out an existence among
the ruins. He visited Red Cross can
teens where hundreds of destitute
persons are fed night and day and
the hospital where the sick and in
jured are cared for. The champagne
selars beneath the city, said to con-
sain some 100000 bottles of wine'
were not visited.
Looked Like Graveyard.
/, A light blanket Of snow covered
: the ground ss the President drove up
10 the cathedral and Rheims. ravish-
cd and naked in all its misery and
issoiation, looked like a graveyard
sn the moonlight. There were more
srows in the air, circling over the
suined town than there were human
beings below in the Uttered streets.
Cardinal Lucon, archbishop. OF
Rheims, who stood steadfastly by his
sharge for four years during which
time scarcely a day passed without
n German shell hurling death into
the city. met the President at the
fence of rough boards which now
sSStudes curiosity seekers and enclos-
~ 4kek rubbish into which this most
ssH:sxS<fs& edifice has been pounded.
s fks cardinal conducted Mr.. Wilson
fo4the nave of the cathedral, where
in 1914 the Germans during their
short occupation of the city placed
their wounded, and then, being fo-c-
ed to evacuate, burned their men to
death by lncediary shells that fired
the roof but did not damage the
vault.
Piles of Rubbish.
All over the tagging were piled
heaps of rubbish, remnants of statu-
ary and frescoes and fragments or
solumn and sculptures which were
accounted the most perfect and COM
plete examples of Gothic art. AS the
President and the cardinal stood to-
xether looking upward, while the
prelate briefly recounted the story OF
four years of constant destruction =
they looked straight through to the
slouded sky. The SHOW furry that was
soyering the bare ruins Of the city
outside also was laying a blanket
xpon the side Of the cathedral.
IS The chalky stoneof champagne OF
which the cathedral was built, is
scaling off from the effect of German
tire and falling snowflakes were
mixed with an almost constant drop
sing of fragments. Pausing moment
before the scene Of the crucifix above
the north door, and before the paint
ing of the coronation door, Mr.. Will
son silently viewed the destruction
wrought upon those masterpieces by
The burning of the scaffolding when
fhe Germans set fire to the roof OF
Hhe edifice.
Beautiful Window Gone.
Ruins of statues lie about the side
door. and the great Rose window,
said to be the most beautiful in the
world, where Field Marshal Won
Noltke. in 1870 sat and watched the
sun set, is shattered by shell fire un-
iii it looks like camouflage set up by
roadside. Mr.. Wilson followed the
cardinal to the ruins of the chapel
where old time kings watched
through the nights at the time Oh
their amounting and to the ruins OF
She museum where priceless Flemisn
tapestries were ruined.
He was shown where thousands OF
shells thrown from German batteries
On two sides burst among the but
tresses which support the main
structure and where forests of sculp-
lures which ornament the structure
have been SCARED, nicked and torn
ny fragments from the big shells, but
very few of which ever reached the
vault.
Shell-Riddled Paintings.
Part of the vault, however, lies a
Heap of twisted and crumpled wreck
age upon the main altar, where 1t
was thrown by explosions which
wrecked most Of the stained glass
thirteenth century windows. Cardinal
Lucon took Mr.. Wilson outside and
they picked their way through run
bish heaps to point from which they
could view the shell-riddled paintings
Of the Last Judgment, above the
south door; the symbols from Noahs
Ark about the great Rose window.
The statues Of st. Anne and dozens OF
ether works Of art, of which virtually
none escaped.
AS they left the cathedral the car