Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1931-05-28
When Doughboys
Ended Cermany's
Dream of Power

~ - - ~ AsAkAS - OASAASOAs
president First Division, Society of
Washington. Chaplain General of the
Military Order of the World Warp
From the Kansas City Star.
Some twelve miles from Verdun
there is hogback mountain about
thousand yards long. Once there was
a little village named Vauquois on the
summit. 1t probably was just
hameau of straw-thatched chaumieres
and hardly had reached the dignity Of
a village. Like the nest Of an eagle,
Vauquois rested high above the sur
rounding country. It was an eagles
nest; for there an eagle defended her
brood. In the epic cycle of world
enlargement from monarchies to re-
publics. Vauquois vanished as a drop
of dew in the ocean of time. The
mountain stands; forever, the Sentinel
of Verdun.
Vauquois mountain is the rendezvous
Of the Unknown Soldier. In this cham
bered Temple of Silence, dauntless
valor sleeps sleeps in a winding
sheet Of rose leaves, Of oak leaves, Of
laurel leaves. No bard can sing his
lay. No poem tells the story of his
triumph. Perhaps this is just as well.
Let his story rest in the Chancery Of
Heaven, known to God alone unto
that Day when He shall muster those
who fell in holy cause.
Subject for a Hugo.
Vauquois mountain battles descrip-
ton. Our language must be recast. If
Victor Hugo could write page after
page about an old iron cannon that
rolled from side to side of ship; if
he could change iron into flesh and
endow it with all the faculties Of life !;
what would he have said had he stood
on Vauquois mountain and seen hu-
man flesh turn to steel and warm
blood to acid-had he stood on this
mountain for centuries while wave
after wave broke at his feet? Yes,
tidal waves Of flesh and blood that
for hundreds of years have broken on
this Gibraltar! If the mountain fell;
Verdun would fall!
The Sentinel of Verdun was faithful
unto the fullness of time: then fell.
Before he touched the ground he was
caught in the arms of the Americans.
The world changed from monarchies
to republics.
Who did it? Search your histories!
Who were these Americans? From
every banquet Of information the in
quiring soul Of man returns hungry
and unsatisfied. And here is a story
that should be on the lips of every
child that loves to gaze on stars.
They were men with an ancestry
As Of old, there were giants in those
days. Forty years ago there were two
distinct peoples on this earth. One
tribe was of that region staked by
Attila. 1t was preparing to conquer
and dominate the world
Meeting Seemingly Impossible.
Thousands of miles away, across a
great ocean, mountains, rivers, plains
barriers reared by Nature-another
strain was preparing for the response
bilities Of citizenship. It would seem
in all human probability that the earth
was large enough for tribe and strain
to live, and move, and have their be-
ing apart and forever. They would
meet when the poles Of north and
south met. i.
The greed for empire ever has been
dominant in the heart of man. Caesar,
HANNIBAL, Alexander, Attila, Genghiz
Khan, Omar, Tamerlane, Louis XIV
and Napoleon! More battles have
been fought near the River Rhine than
any place on earth and on piece Of
ground not much larger than Texas!
In the Franco-P russian war-more
than fifty years ago-the Prussians
easily captured Paris. They rolled
their heavy guns up and down the
Champs Elysees. They marched be-
heath the Arc de Triomphe, reared by