The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-07-20
o. ]: b BATTLE /! / Il: Lines L Ne 5
Evidences Of War Thick in Vicinity
g.. = ~ =. La Of Ypres. %'~ '' ..
She'll Holes Beginning to Grow Green
4. but Battered Tanks Are Every o.
where In Evidence on the
III, " Scenes of Slaughter.


tourney by motor, takes the visitor
something more than a hundred miles:
with Ypres as the turning point anu
every variety OF war-stricken LANDS
and recovering countryside, on the way
there and back; It was point moot
ed with wearisome frequency IN the
real days of the place-when 1t was
'functioning," as one would nave salo
and among front-line troops In the
salient, whether they would ever care
to come back and see that foul place
under peaceful aspect. Agreeu,
there were those at home who might
be taken, not without profit to them
selves and the world In general, over
the low ground under KENNEL or
where Passchendaele looked down on
the swamps, and there were not q
few of the armchair gentry whose
instant presence would have been well
coined. But. for himself, it was the
common verdict of the man IN the
mudhole that once out of 1t, Wlpers
and he could be the best Of friends
at a distance, says a writer IN the
Manchester Guardian.
xRidinr into the place from Whlcn
rises the battered tower OF the Clotn
hall, In the high day ana unaes
burning sun; coming, too. unscatneo
and unfearful from what was unmls-
takabiys the direction Of mo Mans
Land" one had to question such =
verdict and finally, under the stlmu-
lation Of a hundred quickenlng memo
ries, allow. the appeal. 4 For the ID.
terest Of Ypres and Of all the ground
IN front of 1t would not be denied.
The place was like itself-in degree
hard to credit. i" And If only some
mimic had been there to reproduce
the shril crescendo Of an approach
inc shell one would undoubtedly nave
taken cover. Going out by the way
Of the Menin gate and turning up into
the high roadsto Poelcapelle. With first
Hooge and then St julien, with ras'
schendaele rolling up to the skyline as
a background, Is to pass Into the neio
of an endless battle from which noun
ing has been cleared but the dead;
and though elsewhere something mas
already been done of that "concentra-
ton" of graves which Is to give our
dead an orderly and lasting memorial
they still lie here, for the most part
in the scattered resting places 20
=. which the hurried hands OF their com
rides consigned them. Xxx
..sThe shell holes begin to- grow green
Il hut Sit is only a beginning and y S1 lle
trenches are almost unseen as one
goes down the road; were they ever
very clearly defined here? It Is long
time before place Is reached from
which no battered tanks can be seen,
and now and: again they stand three
or four deep on the very edge Of the
road-ditched in their first attempt
at the mud. To look back. on war at
It's worst. with almost all it's evidences
but present slaughter. one could
scarcely better the viewpoint Of this
road. A few miles farther, and the
murdered forest of Houthulst, with
its acres Of stricken, trees and not a
live one, gives new edge to terror.
rInore IL SuIucluHS SOu'u :" Wv
notion that one can see the battle
fields in q day: the repetition would
give no new tone, but intrinsicalIy the
same impression. AS lesson Ypres
and its province could not be SUR
passed. Coming out at Dixmude, be-
hind what was an almost permanent
boche line, the car returning to Zee
brugge comes again into country
which is alive. For the hfnterland of
Belgium has returned quickly to it.
self. The army nuts which serve in
\ the broken areas as shelter for those
WHO have returned to the shattered
villages, give place here. to cottages
already substantially repaired. and
the frugal cultivation Of the soil goes
forward. with an energy and resource
fulness typical Of no class in the world
SO much as the Belgian or French
peasantry. e.
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