Evening journal., 1922-03-07
BY WEBB MILLER.

Omitted Press staff Correspondent
RHEIMS, March G Omitted Press)
Utter hopeless desolation, mile
after mile. hour after hourl
Such is the lasting impression OF
a drive across the battlefields OF the
Champagne and Argonne today.
Like n vast brownish scar across
the fertile fields Of France, these
battlehelds still lie. scarcely touched
by human hands three years after
the last shot was fred.
Only in the towns and villages are
there many visible signs Of revival.
There the tenacious peasants have
nockcd back and patched up their
shattered homes. They are eking
out a bare living. AS for the thous-
ands whose homes were wiped on
the earth. nobody seems to know
what has become OF them.
But it is in the wide stretches
between the villages that the full
horror OF what happened here can
siin be appreciated.
Throughout one whole forenoon
the United Press correspondent rode
across the desolate country from
Fort Pompelle TO the center OF the
Argonne. seeing few human beings
or signs OF human habitations. As
far as the eye could reach lay deso-
lation The land looks as though a
scourage had passed over. Here and
there the ridges show Jagged out
lines against the sky-entlrely de-
nuded by terrific shellhre with only
a few shattered, dead stumps show
ing where once was a thick wood.
Along the line Of the front for
miles the fields lie almost as they
did the last day of the war-still
no-man's-land, covered with
scraggly weeds interviewer with
tangles OF rusty barbed wire. Shells
have turned up the chalky sub-soil
and only the hardest weeds grow.
on the low ridges where the she'll
fire was heaviest the soil Is literally
dead-the churning by explosions
and repeated gassings have killed
the fertility so that nothing will
ever grow.
The old trench lines and dug-out
shelters have fallen In, but in many
places the old lines OF barbed wire
entanglements. sometimes so yards
in width. still stand, choked by dry
weeds.
Just beyond Fort Pompelle three
rusty direlict tanks used by the Ger
mans in I'M attack upon the fort lie
in exactly the positions whore they
were halted by French shellfire.
In this region the earth is liter
allv criss-crossed with old trench
systems. and covered with the debris
oT war. Only the barest start has
l.ecn made I'm reclamation. evidenced
by tho piles OF knotted barbed wire
stacked mp alongside the road
Nearer Rheims gangs OF men are
working to clear the ground OF ex-
plosives.
The famous Fort Pompelie, the
scene OF some Of the fercest fighting
OF the war. is now merely a pile Of
chalky humm 1css AZ the top OF a
lin dominating the surrounding
coun ny for m isq. Occasionally one
win lind % mang'ed length OF stee
rirdcr or the chofed mouth Of ar
underground passage-the only in
d!.alons shat ths chalk-hoap wal
over a fort Sometimes the two-inci
thiel. steel is pierced with holes like
f-choh collander The base oi
De hin is interlacod with row aftei
row of barhod wire entanglements
The city of Rheims itself Is com.
inr back" To the casual observer
the task looks well-nigh hopeless
out OF $4,000 houses. 5000 were
utterly destroyed and the remaininl
10000 more or less damaged. Bu
in the outskirts rows OF hastily
built shacks Ike western mininl
town are housing thousands of th'
former inhabitants. Even the shop
have thrown up little wooden huts