The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-08-29
Crops Ripen Along Ridge of
Tragedy, Once Known as
Hindenburg Line.
RUINS STIR MEMORIES
Gaunt Pillars of Shattered
Cathedral Rise as Grim
War Reminder.
BY RUTH FINNEY
Times star Correspondent

SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE. Aug,
29.-The Hindenburg line is a field
of growing vegetables now, and No
Mans Land, between the ridge the
Germans held and that defended by
the allies, is a lovely little valley
where wheat ripens in the sun.
But enough unhealed scars re-
main to make the war a VIVID and
terrible thing to the Gold Star
mothers as they journey out from
Paris to the graves of their sons.
Looking at the Marine, damned
once by the bodies of men who tried
to cross it under shell fire, standing
in Belleau wood, still pitted with the
nests of machine gunners, the war
suddenly becomes real and devas4
tatingly awful.
Riding through the streets of La
Ferte-sous-J ouarre, where bombs
were dropped on the first American
boys to disembark, standing before
the ruined cathedral at Scissors.
where two gaunt, ragged pillars
speak eloquently of the fate of
once majestic church, kneeling in
Rheims, on the stones where wound
ed men were laid to suffer and die.
there is no escape from the war.
Guides Dodge Assignment
Paris guides are finding it hard
task to traverse with the Gold Star
mothers the sad miles over which
their sons fought their way to
death. Several of them, offered
generous wages, have refused to
continue the work, because of the
plt1ful scenes they were forced to
witness.
Many of the mothers are find-
ing peace and comfort at the
graves of their sons; yet the battle
fields through which they must
pass bring vivid pictures of the
manner of their death.
France has accomplished miracles
OF reconstruction. Neat new little
villages have been built, and trees
and bushes have grown over the
crumbled ruins where no one was
left to rebuild. Chateau Thierry
again is busy, thriving little town,
between two lines of high hills.
Rheims, 1900 of it's $4,000 build-
ings destroyed, is briskly content
with new streets, sometimes fol-
lowing the lines of the old, somes
times laid out with improvements,
Hill Is Charred Desert
But here and there is a grove of
blasted grey tree stumps. Here and
there among the fields of vegetables
is a white spot, a shell hole whers
the subsoil was so churned up that
it could not again support growing
things.
Hill 1O8 still is a dismal gray
crater. It commanded the country
side once, and the French. falling
to take it from the Germans, under
mined it and blew it up, only to
be blown up themselves when they
had taken possession. There is no
hill left, and nothing grows around
this spot.
Here and there over the wheat
fields, troops of French soldiers
stand about and study the tactics
OF this battle or that one. Every
few kilometers there is a cemetery
a spot of British soil, wall-inclosed.
where all the graves hold boys 10
years old or less.
There is an Italian cemetery. a.
quadrangle of graves with black
wood crosses showing Germans are
buried there, and, largest of all, the
French cemeteries, where two men
are buried in every rose-covered
grave, and two crosses stand back
to back to mark the names.
Calls Chateau Accused
The shattered walls of a French
chateau Won Hindenburg once oc-
cupied still are standing. It's owner
regards the. building as accursed
and will not let it. be touched. An
American officers widow has bought
the headquarters Pershing occupied
in Chateau Thierry and lives there
so that she may go every day to her
husbands grave.
Belleau Wood is almost unchanged
from war days. Barbed wire still is
tangled among the trees and rusted
machine guns still stand in holes
half filed with water. It was rich
Frenchman's hunting preserve once,
but with the ground full of unex-
ploded shells and honeycombed
with holes, he did not wish to use
it again for hunting.
He sold it to the Belleau Wood
| Memorial Association and the
American flag flies over monu-
ment to fifty Americans whose
bodies have not been recovered
from the wood. At Verdun, the
trenches are being preserved.
Still Talk of War
To some of the Gold Star mothers
the most bitter realization of all
comes from indications here and
there that the war in which their
sons gave their lives has not ended
war; Going about in the. recon-
structed towns one hears snatches
of talk about next time. We
will be ready next time.
On the spot where the armistica
was signed is a great marble tab
let, bearing the words, in French.
Here, on Nov. IL, 1918, capitulated
the criminal military power Of the
German empire, vanquished bysthe
sree peoples it sought to enslave-"
Bitter scenes sometimes take placa
at this tablet.
Gambling Cases Dropped