RUIN IN WAKE OF
HUN IN FRANCE
Nothing But Desolation Where
Prosperous Villages Smiled.
f #
FLATTEN OUT EVEN SCRAPS
One Can Motor for Hours in Region
Now Known as British Front and
See Nothing But Ruins of What
Used to Be Human Habitations—
People Hide in Cellars Lest Boche
Shells Find Them Out.
By FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE
of the Vigiiantes.
"Somewhere in France" —I never
imagined in the wildest tlights of fan
cy about war that to gain an objective
under modern battle conditions an
army has not to lay waste a position
or a village but practically a country
side. You can motor nowadays for
hours in the region generally known
as the British front, sweep the land
scape for miles in every direction, and
see nothing but ruins of what used to
be human habitations. Your guides
point to a scattered dump of brick,
mortar, twisted timbers, indiscrimi
nate rubbish of all sorts, lining either
side of the roadway along .vhich you
are spinning. Here and there at ir
regular intervals the bare, charred re
mains of what once were trees stick
up from amid the debris and the
chaos. There is not a suggestion of a
standing wall anywhere, nor even of a
door or window-frame, and, of course,
no semblance of a roof. There are
only cellars Into Miich houses, shops,
'churches, stores, schools —everything
J- —have been thrown into a crazy hold
all of a town-wide grave.
"We are now going through ,"
remarks our military cliaperone, la
conically, and we recognize the name
of a place prominent in the fighting
•during some important "push" weeks
or months ago—now wiped from the
!face of the earth as effectually as if
honest French peasants and villagers
'had never striven through the genera
tions to make a comfortable abode for
'themselves and theirs. One hopes that
'the ministering angels permitted them
to evacuate the town before their
homes were splintered and crushed by
15-inch death-dealers. One wonders
how many human remains may still lie
buried beneath the wreckage of beams !
and sandstone. One speculates
'whether men, women and children who
contrived to escape the shells will
Jever again be able to start life with
their dwellings, places of business and
cultivated fields mangled and devas
tated. One Is persuaded that stupen
jdous as Is the work of destruction
'wrought by twentieth century warfare, ;
'the task of reconstruction will be
euormously more gigantic still. Towns
that took years to make have been
shot to pieces in an hour.
Last Word in Perforation.
I have heard of towns in our own
wild and wooly West that have been
["shot-up." But is surely the
! last word in complete and scientific •
jperforatiou. In July, 1014, it was a
happy, thriving community of 35,000
or 40,000 inhabitants, a smiling town,
iwith a wonderful Grand place and a
picturesque Petit place, a noble Gothic
cathedral and a splendid town hall.
ißouud the Grand place ran a quad
rangle of colonnaded houses of sur
passing architectural beauty. For the
rest, the towu was typically French,
by which I mean a complex of neat
stores and dwelling houses, churches
and factories, schools and estaminets
(cafes). Today there is not a solitary
ibuilding of any kind in the whole town
that is not entirely or partially wreck
'ed. There is not a single thing of
wood, brick or stone that is intact.
Not more than 1,500 or 2,000 people
live there now, and they must hide in
cellars most of the time, lest Boche
jSliells search them out. Death lurks
in every street, even though the Brit
ish have held it for more than two
years and have extended their lines
beyond it considerably during the past j
few months. Though they have long
since turned the town into scraps of
•its former self, the Germans seem tilled j
with an insatiable lust to flatten out
even the scraps. You walk through
•the Grand place, hugging close to the
walls by order of your army guide, in
iperpetual danger that a souvenir from j
Krupps will land at your feet and send j
fragments of you Hying into the
■ethereal eternal. But you are only
living the life that the British garrison ;
aud indomitable little civilian rear
guard of 1.5C0 or 2,000 people—mostly
old men and women too fragile to seek
a safer abode further behind the lines
' —are living day in and day out.
Museum of German Savagery,
r This thought occurred to me while
isurveying the tumbleiVdown cathedral
and mince-meated town hall and the
limitless field of desolation and devas
tation lying all around them at every
turning: Why not keep it just as it is
today, a pile of glorious ruins, as a
world museum of German savagery?
Why not leave it, stricken, battered
and maimed m its every structural
limb, just as we saw it this day three
years after, for the admonition, horror
and instruction of a universe which
has rushed to arms for the overthrow
of liberty's foe? There will be vast
libraries of documentary evidence of
the Huns' atrocities to educate and
terrify posterity. But what are books
ani descriptions and docxuuEntary
proofs compared to such an ocular dem-
onst ration us threatened to loose the
tear-ducts of five prosaic American
observers today?
I was born and raised in an Indiana
town very much like dozens of French
towns which have been crushed be
neath the merciless heel of the German
i array. There are Illinois and lowa and
Michigan and Wisconsin towns just
j like them, too. I thought of those
j towns this afternoon. I said to my
self that if Essen's 17-inch murder
guns could ever be planted within
range of our own smiling Western
communities, the kaiser and his Ger
: mans would splinter them as gladly,
as ruthlessly, as completely, as they
have demolished this beautiful town.
Pershing's men are here to help save
France. But with every blow they
! strike to that noble end they are strik
ing to save our own Arrases, Ba
paumes and Peronnes from the fate
which has overtaken France's La
portes, Rockfords, Kenoshas, Daven
ports and Battle Creeks.
STARVED TOTS CARED
FOR BY RED CROSS
Story of Tragedy and Pathos in
Struggle of Life in the
War Arena.
A cablegram received at the head
quarters of the American Red Cross iu
Washington brought another human in
terest story of tragedy and pathos in
the child life of the French and Bel
gian' war areas.
"Six hundred find fifty underfed chil
dren, travel-worn after three days in a
closed train coming from Belgian prov
inces," says the cablegram, "crossed
the frontier last night and reached
Evian at dawn. The morning blare of
French trumpets met the children
who, some too young to know their age,
had traveled motherless and unac
companied. They poured into the street
crying 'Vive la France' and 'Vive la
Belgique,' shaking hands with every
bystander.
"Trumpeters, like six Pied Pipers of
Hamelin, led the dancing, shouting
throng to the casino—all except a few
sick children who were carried in
American Red Cross ambulances. At
the casino all received food; flags
were distributed and songs were sung.
Welcoming words were spoken by the
mayor. Even the small children knew
the words of 'Brabanconne' and the
'Marseillaise,' but some of them were
so tired that they slept right through
the music.
"Next came baths, examination by
an American Red Cross doctor; and
then lunch and sleep. Tomorrow these
children start for Longlandier, where
the American Red Cross will house
thousands of them—some orphans, oth
ers pretubercular or needing better
nourishment than was possible under
the German rule from which they had !
come.
"One little girl in the throng disem
barking at Evian clutched four franc
pieces in a pudgy fist. 'What are you
going to do with them?' she was asked, i
'Buy paper to write to mamma,' was i
the reply."
Another cablegram received at Red
Cross headquarters says that in a
speech to the last trainload of repat-i
ries, the mayor of Evian called par
ticular attention to their gratitude to
the American Red Cross for the splen
did work it is doing in hospital care of
sick children. The speech was instant
ly responded to with shouts of "L'Amer
ique vive nos allies."
MEMENTO OF WORK
IN SERBIAN HOSPITAL
lip. tHi 1- • \
Miss Elizabeth Shelley of Washing
ton has a memento of many months'
work conducting with Mine. Slavko
Grouitcli a children's hospital in a lit
tle Serbian town in the early stage of
the war. His name is Bogaljub, which
is Slavic for God's love, and his chief
ambition is to be a Boy Scout and an
American citizen. Bogaljub is four
years old, one of the few Serbian or
phans allowed to depart from Serbia
after the Austrian occupation.
Clothing is Needed.
The Red Cross society is informed
that great quantities of clothing will
be needed by the civilian population of
war-stricken countries of Europe.
Women who are not able because of
home duties or physical disability to
take up clerical work- siv urged to
make garments for the noncombatant
peoples of Belgium, France and Po
land.
WAR LEAVES
MAN SIGHTLESS
AND ARMLESS
■
Another Hero Brings to Victim
Priceless Reward.
ROMANCE OF THE TRENCHES
Village Belle on Hearing of the Maim
ing of Farmer Eoy Acquaintance Of
fers to Marry Him— Care of Sight
less and Armless Husband Splendid
j Example of the Spirit of the Women
of France.
A "Metro" train pulled into the Alma
station on the Champs Elysees line. It
was nearly six o'clock and every seat
was taken and the aisles were crowd
ed. The crowd, as in the New York
subway during rush hours, packed
itself tightly around the side doors of
the cars.
A slender, fair-haired, well-dressed
girl—not more than twenty years old —
managed to burst through the knot of
officers, fashionably gowned women
and civilians who were jammed at the
center Side door of the first-elass car.
Behind her trailed a man wearing the
unii'orrh of a French soldier.
She held his sleeve clutched tightly
in her hand, and he followed her with
fumbling steps.
No sooner had they < ntered than
the train started, and the girl, still
pulling the solVjier after, edged away
from the door and to the nearest seats
—there are cross seats like in railway
ears in the Paris underground system.
Two young women—clad in furs and
silks, their blackened eyes, scarlet lips
and crimsoned cheeks proclaiming
("hom of the demi-monde, were occupy
ing the nearest seat.
"Will you pleas ive your place to
a mutile of the \ r?" said the fair
haired girl, the soldier always at her
heels.
Instantly, as the crowded train
stared with curious eyes, both women
arose. The girl pushed her companion
forward from out of the crowd and he
sat down. She sat beside him.
- When the soldier sat down one |
could understand why the girl led him, i
| and why he stumbled uncertainly. He
! was sightless, and the blue powder
marks still staining his cheeks and
forehead showed what had blinded
him.
And as he sat there one could see
why the fair-haired girl had led him .
by the sleeve. He had no hands! Both
arms had been amputated just below
the elbow.
I
Sorrows of Their Own.
The crowd stared as crowds will
■rtare —some curiously, some feelingly,
some dispassionately, for they had un
dergone their own sorrows in this war, j
others critically as they wondered who
the beautiful, fair-haired girl might be
and what was the name of the soldier
liero.
Nearly all had thought, when the
! qrirl entered the car with her compan
ion, that she was an American, one of ;
those engaged in war relief work and j
attached to a hospital or home for the j
blind, taking out a sightless man. Such
sights are common in Paris; American |
, sjirls and women take blinded and crip
; pled soldiers walking in the Bois de
Bologne, in the Champs Elysees, in the ;
; Tuileries gardens. And they take j
them to the outdoor terraces of the
I cafes along the grande boulevards and
i to theaters, too.
But the perfect French uttered by
llie fair-haired girl when she request
ed the seat for her companion indicat
ed clearly enough she was no Ameri
can. She was French, born and bred.
The soldier, a young, rugged, black
haired figure, clad in the familiar ho- '
rizon-blue uniform of the French line
regiments, wore the Croix de Guerre,
with two palms and a star, the Me
cJaille Militaire and the Cross of the
Legion of Honor, pinned to his tunic.
France has no other medals.
He sat half facing her and the girl
sat half facing toward him. He hudged
her with the stump of the arm nearer
her and she took it under her own
arm. The soldier was plainly greatly
fatigued and he leaned toward her,
whispering something.
Soldier and Bride.
Apparently in answer to his request,
she removed the horizon-blue kepi,
with the gold numerals, "107," indicat- i
ing the number of his regiment, on the
front, and smoothed his shock of raven
black hair. When his hat was removed j
one could see a great V-shaped scar in
the front of his scalp, where trepan
ning had been resorted to for a frac
tured skull.
The girl kept the kepi in her lap
and the tired soldier leaned his head
]
on her shoulder. His eyeless face was
close to her milky white throat. Then
she turned her head toward him and
kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Not even the most brazenly curious ■
dared stare for a while after that, but
the kiss had shown plainly enough that
the couple were married. Then it came
back to most of the passengers in the
car who the soldier was and who his
bride was. It was only a fortnight ago
that the daily newspapers told of a
beautiful girl proposing to and marry
ing a soldier who was sightless, arm
less and had undergone a trepanning
operation for a fractured skull.
The girl and the soldier had both
been born and brought up in the same
little town in Normandy. They had
' scarcely known one ojiother except in
school; for while he was the son of
a poor farmer, <he was the daughter
of a shopkeeper in the town, and,
moreover, she was the prettiest girl
in the locality. Prosperous youths from
the surrounding villages paid court to
her; the farmer boy had never dared
to aspire to her hand.
Then the war came, and the farmer
put on his uniform, took up his rifle
and went to the front. He was wound
ed three times, but each time was able
to go back. Then, at the Aisne, in
the summer of 1916, he was mutilated
by a hand grenade when on a night
raiding party headed for the German
lines. He lay in No Man's Land for 26
j hours, until the following night, when
his comrades crept out to the shell hole
just in front of the enemy barbed wire
entanglements where he lay, and car
ried him back to the French lines.
Surprised the Surgeons.
He lived through it. to the surprise
of the surgeons who attended him.
News of his mutilation reached his
home town, and a few weeks ago he
received a letter from Mile. Marguerite
Lavenue, just twenty years old and
the belle of the village, telling him
that she had heard of his misfortune,
that his duty for France was finished,
but that hers had just begun, if he
would consent to marry her.
Sergeant Georges Roy, himself only
twenty-three, was stunned at the pro
posal. He could not believe it was true
until she came to Paris, to the great
hospital located in the Grand Palais
on the Champs Elysees. and told him
she meant it. They v. ere married soon
afterv; rd in the church of St. Pierre
de Ch: 'Hot, and then took a honey
moon nip to the south cf France.
Geor-re dossier, the champagne man
ufacturer, and Mrs. Valentine Webster,
widow of an English officer killed early
in the war, are carrying on relief work
for blinded French, Belgian and Brit
ish soldiers. And it is from their fund
that Sergeant Roy and his bride went
on their honeymoon. And from the
same fund Mr. Kessler has purchased
a home in Normandy for the blind,
armless soldier and his bride. They
are going down to the country in a
few days.
Mr. Kessler and Mrs. Webster are
going to continue to look after the
couple and already Roy has been grant
ed a pension of I.U l francs a year.
But theie are 8.000 other blinded
Frenchmen who must be looked after,
and it takes money for them, too. •
WOMEN ARE URGED
TO TRAIN AS NURSES
Needs of Our Army and Navy
Must Be Met to Utmost
Extent.
"In the United States today is found
a large proportion of the available
nursing service of the world. Our
allies in this war are looking to us to
supplement their nursing service. If
the women of America fail to realize
their duty at this time the American
men who have been called upon to
offer their lives for their country may
suffer accordingly."
This was a statement recently made
by Miss Jane A. Delano, director of
the American Red Cross nursing serv- !
ice.
"If this war goes on we shall be com
pelled to extract aid to the last frac
tion of trained nursing material avail- i
able in the United States," said Miss
Delano. "The men on the fighting
fronts must be nursed back to health.
They are relying in large measure
upon the American nurses for this
service; the nurses must not fail
them.
"The problem confronting us is to
meet to the utmost extent, with the
trained nursing personnel available in
the United States, the needs of our
army and navy and the armies of our
allies, protecting as best we may the
welfare of our civilian population.
"Several thousand American nurses
are now in France assigned to duty
in the various branches of the military
service and almost as many more are
needed for our own cantonment hos
pitals. If we are to continue to meet
the demands made upon us, the women
of the country must be willing to ac
cept equal sacrifices with the men. The
public, too, must be willing to sacri
fice the service of nurses who are re
quired for military purposes.
"For many years to come, the de
mand for women trained for nursing,
including woman welfare work and
health service, will increase tremend
ously, and to meet this need women j
of ability and education can do no bet
ter than to take seriously the work of
training as nurses believing that they
are not only qualifying themselves for
most important service on the comple
tion of their course, but that even dur
ing the period of training they are
helping to solve the nursing problems
confronting us."
TOBACCO "NECESSARY"
Lord Rhondda, British Food Control
ler, Says It Is Not a Luxury.
Tobacco is a necessity not a luxury,
declares Lord Rhondda, the food con
troller, in a statement published here.
"We must have tobacco," he says. "I
believe that its loss would be a na
tional misfortune. It means much both
to the manual laborer and to him who
works with his brains. Men would
eat a great deal more if they did not
have tobacco. I hold that the depriva
tion of it would work great discom
fort."
Some system of "rationing" tobacco,
however, is forecast hj the newspa
pers.
WEST TO SUPPLY
NEEDED SULPHUR
Comes From Gases Evolved in
Smelting of Zinc.
HO NEW PROCESS NECESSARY
Development of Large Zinc Fields Re
cently Discovered, Will Insure Sup
ply of Sulphur for Sulphuric Acid
That Will More Than Meet the De
mands in the United States During
the War.
Eastern manufacturers will have to
turn to Kansas City and the middle
West for their supply of sulphuric
acid during the war. Prof. Erasmus
Hawortli, dean of the Mining school,
has made a survey of reports of pro
ducers in various portions of the coun
try, and finds that the West will soon
be depended upon entirely for the sup
ply of sulphur and sulphuric acid.
The main supply of this acid will
. come from the zinc district around
Baxter Spcings, Kan., and Miami,
Okla., and in part around the Joplin
(Mo.) ziuc district. The Joplin dis
trict w T as always known as one of the
largest zinc fields in America, but the
discovery of the field around Baxter
Springs, the extent of which is un
known, makes it the largest in the
world. With this field being properly
developed the output of zinc will be
enormous, and as this ziuc is smelted
the sulphur can be collected from the
gases, making a supply of sulphur for
acid that will more than
meet the demands in the United States
during the war.
No New Process Necessary.
At the present time only about 10
per cent of the sulphur is saved at
these smelters. To save the entire
supply no new process or invention is
necessary, as the process has been in
use in some places for 30 years. The
United Zinc and Chemical company
of Kansas is already one of the larg
est sulphuric acid producers in the
Missouri valley. This company uses
the ores in the Joplin district. With
the eastern concerns closed on account
of the high cost of transporting min
erals to the East, the western firms
will enlarge their smelters and amply
supply the entire United States, Pro
fessor Haworth points out.
The question of adequate sulphuric
acid supply came before the chemists
of the country at the recent conven
tion of the American Institute of Min
ing Engineers in St. Louis. The east
ern companies reported that the United
States was threatened with a short
age of sulphuric acid, since the sup
ply of pyrite, which had been import
ed, was cut off. Geologists in the West j
and South are now asking the eastern
chemists and manufacturing compa- |
nies to turn to the West for the sup
ply. Sulphur is being mined in Louisi
ana and Texas in vast quantities now
as fast as the market will consume it.
Near the mouth of the Brazos river,
in Texas, sulphur Is in high piles
awaiting transportation.
POET DECORATED MANY
TIMES FOR BRAVERY
J" I ■ ■ ■ 1
Gabriel D'Annunzio, eminent poet,
author and playwright, has" won great
distinction as a member of the Ital
ian aviation corps. He has been cited
for bravery several times and has fre
quently inspired the Italian army to
greater efforts by his valor. Recently
he was given the military cross by
King George of Great Britain and a
silver medal by the king of Montene
gro. D'Annunzio entered the service
as a lieutenant, but was promoted rap
idly. He lost the sight of one eye in
an airplane accident last year.
GIM.S MAY BE CONSCRIPTED
Germany Considers Training to Match
Boys' Military Service.
Plans for general conscription of
women after the war are being made
in Germany, and there is a general
feeling that girls, as well as boys,
will be compelled to undergo a regular
period of training corresponding to
the German youth's service In the
army. The service proposed for girls
is not military but civil. It is pro
posed that all women should, prefer
ably at the age of seventeen, be taken
from their homes and compulsorily
"trained" either in a profession, a
trade or in household duties.
The characteristic German division
between rich and poor is maintained
In the project. Girls of the upper
classes are to be trained in special
institutions; poor girls will go to fac
tories or be placed in private house
holds, where their employers will give
them a trifle of pocket money and
make a contribution to the state.
The idea meets with wide commen
dation in the German newspapers, but
one English critic notes that "there
is some difference between male con
script ion, which puts a man into a
regiment run bv and for fch state,
and a female conscription, which
makes a girl work without wage for
the profit of private individuals. The
latter cannot with accuracy be called
anything but slavery."
p!T- -—— ... ,'-i
11'. La* I Jf* 1 > is
L•. msmm 1 i J
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I F M»sr-rm-tsfm
6* r _—:—■' '-ir ! '«l t
SHOT IN HIS CELL
Man Who Denounced America and
Killed Marshal, Himself Killed.
A man who told the police of Mai
den, Mo., he was L. H. Wissmann of
Havana, HI., was captured in a swamp
near there by a posse of several hun
dred men after he had shot and killed
City Marshal R. S. St. Clair when ths
marshal tried to arrest him for utter-
Ing disloyal sentiments. A member of
the posse that captured Wissmann
shot and probably mortally wounded
him in his cell In the jail here after
his capture.
Members of the posse say Wissmann
was heard to remark a few days ago:
"To with the Red Cross, the
government and Wilson!"
Maps showing the farms of this part
of the country with the names of the
owners and a list of their principal
products were found in Wlssinann'a
possession.
BASUTOS SING PSALMS
Africans Surprise Congregation of
Noted Church in Paris.
An odd spectacle was seen at the
Oratoire in Paris recently. Twelvfi
Basuto laborers stood before the al«
tar and sang several Psalms in theii
own language. They are part of ths
contingent brought to France last Jan
uary by the British authorities to
work behind the front and were pay
ing a visit to Paris, in charge of Lieu
tenant Mabillo, son of a Swiss Protest*
ant pastor, and a naturalized Afri
cander.
Pastor Shrlstol, who was a mission*
ary in Basutoland for 25 years, wel«
corned them at the Oratoire, and two
of them replied in Basuto.
NEW CAMOUFLAGE DISH
"Agmomoto," Noted Japanese Chem
ist Calls His Invention.
War prices for foodstuffs will have
no terrors for citizens of the United
States if they adopt the "meat caraoth
flage" invented by Dr. K. Ikeda, a Jap
anese chemist of note.
"Aginomoto," or "taste creation," tilfl
brown men call 1L
; Yutaka Tanaka, a Japanese commer
cial agent visiting in Denver, describes
"aginomoto" as a preparation made
mostly from the humble turnip. It is
.manufactured in powder form and
wwhen spread on any article of food It
imparts a delicious meat flavor.
This Judge Had a Heart.
"She told me and the court clerti
she was just eighteen years old, and I
signed here," explained Peter P.
Swartz of Colony, Okla., charged by
his father-in-law, E. V. Upchurcb, of
perjury in securing a license to man •
the pretty daughter bf Upchurch. T1 •
judge- took a look at the pretty bride
and her young husband and decided
their defense was enough to dismiss
the case.
Beavers Use Scarecrow.
So troublesome have beavers become
to the farmers along the Walla Walla
river in Washington that one rancher
erected a beaver "scarecrow," which
was effective the first night. On the
second night the beavers cut down the
scarecrow and used it in their dam.