The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-11-06

1916, the Battle of France 1915" Truly the
service record of a veteran!
Paris, however, is fifty miles from Compiegne.
When the old car took its place with the other
immortals in the Invalides, there nothing
at the site in the forest except two boards
nailed to trees marking the positions of the
two trains LIE Matn of Paris the first to
move for a permanent monument. choosing a
spot beside the Compiegne-Francport road 200
yards away, presumably on the assumption that
nobody would ever leave the road and enter
the forest to reach the actual site. It's monu-
ment is a striking piece of work, golden sword
with its point resting on a fallen German
eagle but although it bears the Armistfce date
there is stronger flavor of Alsace-Lorraine in
it's inscription than of the Armistice
1.-THE next step taken by Fourner Sar-
loveze deputy from the department of the Disc
and mayor of Compiegne This was directed
to the raising of a monument at the actual site
which. although it is five miles from the town.
is just within the municipal boundary. The
monument which resulted was dedicated
Armistice day, 1922 in the presence of Presi-
dent Millerand and an impressive assembly of
marshals, admirals. ambassadors, troops and
tOwnsfok. 1t consists of a broad boulevard 200
yards long which has been carried into the
forest from the main road. and at the end of
which is clearing 100 yards in diameter with
a circular road surrounding the gardened circle
of the actual SITE The railway tracks from
Rethondes station have been torn up elsewhere
in this end Of the forest but in the clearing they
remain. Between the rails of each track slabs
of granite mark the positions which the two
trains occupied One bears the simple inscrip-
ton, Marshal Foch' and the other The German
Plenipotentiares. Both surrounded by low
granite posts connected by heavy anchor chains
given by the navy
lafo tha old fyipipy bod
showing the effect Of the weather to which its
outdoor position at the Invalides has exposed
it. Its return TO the site in the forest had been
contemplated for some time, but the problem
of the cost was not solved until A. 81. Fleming
of Pasadena, after consulting NJ Sarloveze at
Compiegne, offered 10000 francs (say S6,OOO)
for the construction Of a suitable building at
the site. Accordingly in April, 1925 the old car
was moved on temporary rails to the outer
court of the Invalides where it was taken off
its trucks and placed on two-wheeled floats to be
lowed to the Wagon-Lits repair shops for coat
Of paint and a general sprucing up before
starting on its last voyage. As soon as the
builders were ready for it at the site, it was
hauled back to Rethondes station and line Of
tracks into the forest especially laid for it.
It was pushed carefully into its new home at the
edge of the clearing and is now permanently
built in. And there, with an ex-poilu who limps
when he walks in charge Of it, you will find it
today, roped off, smelling Of fresh paint, and
at the first glance looking Hke-well, looking
about like dining car
1T is disconcerting to discover that the table
on which the Armistce was signed was so un-
pretentious table and that the chairs in which
the sgnatores sat, Won Winterfeldt opposite
Foch, Erzberger opposite Wemyss were ordi-
nary Wagons-Lits dining chairs. 1t is diff
cult to fit the play to its banal theater to con-
meet this eliminating episode of the greatest
of all wars, one of the supreme moments in his
tory, with the old dining car in which it trans
PRED Such, however is the immortality Of
Dining Car No. 2419D."
&c by Western Newspaper uniou.l