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grady County progress. Cairo, Georgia,
TELLS OF A TRIP Tl
Edward B. Clark Gives a Simple and Uncolored Story of Conditions
As He. podnd Them—Responsibility for the Destruction of
, Many Fair .Places of France One of the Ibings.'to Be
•.i ' Considered When. Final Day of Reckoning Comes.
By'EDWARD B. CLARK.
(Staff dorresponiiBnt Western Newspaper
Union.)
Sommeiliea, Prance.—As I mike a
few notes In this plaoe which once was
a village the
ground Is shaken
by the t r a n s *
mltted tremor Im
parted to the earth
by the shock of
the great guns
which are bellow
ing all along the
battle front from
St. Mlhlel to the
forest of Argonne.
Sommeiliea Is
beyond the pres
ent Indicated
range of the big
rifles, but an ele
vation of an Inch
or two to the muz
zles of the slego
pieces would re
sult In a rain of
Bhells falling on
a village, or at least the remnants of
a village'Which already has had not a
rain but » deluge of lire.
There is little chance that any gun
will be elevated, for the cannoneers
are too much occupied with the multi
tude of human targets and with the
sod and beam-covered trenches Imme
diately at their front to be willing to
waste Bhots at the well-nigh Invisible.
I am here with a French army officer,
Capt. Gerard de Ganay, who stands six
feet three. In his military boots and
who looks and Is a soldier. If the
enemy In the trencheB, battering away
over the hill and the valley at our
front wanted to put this officer out of
tho service with a shell, I doubt If It
oould see him, even If their range find
ing experts wefe possessed of triple-
powered field glasses. The captain Is ar
rayed In what they call “horizon blue,"
a color which so melts Into the skyline
that it becomes a part of It.
Ruins Where Army Passed.
To this place I have come after a
trip of two days’ duration In a high-
powered military motor through about
twenty of the desolated and devastated
hold that the abashes of shell boles In
the’ walls and the riots of houses
standing aloof, and whose Interiors
are scorched and., blackened ruins,
■proves'beyonir cavil that the fires were
set by hand. The Germans say that at
this placed some of the Inhabitants
were caught with firearins In their
hands. This plea will probably enter
later when all these acts are brought
to the bar of man’B adjudication. A
It Is, Hurton virtually has disappeared
from the face of the earth.
This village was proud of Its Gothic
Catholic church of St. Martin, which
has stood here for centuries. The
church is not beyond repair, but to
day It Is literally riddled with shot'and
Bhell. Within Is an undamaged shrine
of Mary the Virgin, and before it wom
en were praying for the success of the
arms of Prance.
Not far-from Hurlon stands the vil
lage of Qlennes, or, again let me say,
what once was Glennes. This village
was destroyed utterly by Bhell fire, ex
cept in the cases of a few of the largef
buildings. The church Is badly dam
aged, but, like the sanctuary at Hurlon,
it can be restored. I went Into the
churchyard at Glennes, drawn thither
1 think by a somewhat Bhadowed form
of curtoBtty. The shellB had fallen
thick and fast Into this place where
the villagers for centuries have burled
their dead. The church and cemetery
are pictures of gray and black desola
tion. Images and monuments are shat
tered almost to dust. Barely one of
the smaller tombstones in tbe ceme
tery Is left untouched. Here, however,
one sees the frequent freak of war. A
great tomb stands almost in the cen
ter of the churchyard. It dominates
the scene. All about It trees and head
stones and footstones have been splin
tered and smashed, and yet the great
tomb stands unmarred. Us escape is
one of tbe mysteries of the chances of
war. Within the tomb, as the inscrip
tion tells ub, rests the family of Jesson
Bolllea.ii. Jesson and his family still
sleep undisturbed.
Soldiers’ Sepulchers Everywhere.
After leaving Glennes, the country
Is nothing but a great graveyard.
Soldiers’ Bepulchers are everywhere.
Single graves are the exception. Ger-
W lit
Devastated by War.
.be found among ruined homes, but
confessedly there Is momentary forget
fulness of the stricken villages when
one looks on the beauty of the fields
which lie between the houses, of des
olation.
Frignlcourt has been swept from Its
place on the plains. Not one stone
rests upon another here. Was there
Justification for this laylpg waste or
was.lt sheer wantonneBs? Time per
haps will disclose the troth. I wanted
to determine for myBelt whether or not
the tales constantly told of Incendlar-
Ism were true or untrue. I began to
observe closely and I hit upon a means
of test which I have found that already
the Frenchmen have applied.
Faremont Is not far from Frlgnl-
court, and It was destroyed only In
part by artillery fire. A line highway
runs through the heart of the village,
and It was along this highway that the
Invading army passed.. The liouseB on
either side of the road and Immediately
confronting It have all been destroyed
while the bouses back of them are In
tact. Gunfire from a distance makes
no such fine distinctions. The houses
along the street were set on fire by
hand.
The old church of the village of
Faremont Is still standing. There Ib a
shell hole in Its tower, and more
breaches in the wall below.
From Faremont I passed through
FavreBses, Blesme and Maurupt-le-Mon-
toy. There Is little left of any one of
these places to give It the right to be
called a village. At Blesme there are
some curious contrasts. The lowly
homes or the villagers all were de
stroyed, but close to them an old and
beautiful chateau stands unharmed
amidst Its trees.
As If by Miracle.
At Maurupt-le-Montoy the bombard
ment caused heavy damage to the vil
lage church and churchyard. In the
latter, where the shells had fallen
thick, there Is a stone cross bearing
upon Its marble front a representa
tion of Saint Veronica’s* handkerchief,
upon which, according to the Catholic
belief, was Imprinted the face of the
Christ. In curious workmanship, upon
the marble handkerchief In this’ ceme
tery, the face of the Savior was inlaid.
Almost alone, this cross and this Christ
stand uninjured In this shell-Bhattered
acre of God.
Frequently stress has been laid upon
the eBcape from injury by shell fire of
representations of the Savior and the
Virgin, his mother. I know, however,
that these escapes are only accidental,
and while It may be pleasant for the
faithful to believe that Immunity came
to the things they hold sacred, it is
only tho part of truth to say that I
have seen the same destruction vis
ited upon crucifix and on shrine that
fell upon other Images and other sanc
tuaries of which Christians‘take less
account.
At Vaubecourt such walls as still
rear themselves from the ruins are
shaken dally and nightly by the thun
der of pounding guns. At least one-
half of the Vaubecourt villagers have
returned to their blhsted dwellings
ready again to take up life where their
forefathers lived for centuries. These
villagers give no heed to the trembling
of the earth under their feet. The can
non shot does not disturb tbelr
dreams. Hell came here last fall
villages of France which lay In the line
of advance and of retreat of a great
army. In the days to come, when there
Is a final reckoning to fix responsibil
ity for the destruction of thqse fair
placeB of France and for the killing of
more than a few noncombatants,
there will be a controversy as bitter as
that which has marked the battling
from the Marne, the high point of the
German advance, to the Aisne, where
the German now Is entrenched, with
the Frenchman on the. offensive and
striking daily and boldly at his front.
Included technically within the field
of war operations today Is a large part
of France, virtually all the scene of
JJ, the battle of the Marne is forbidden
' ground to all persons except those who
go with proper credentials.
It Is my Intention to take my read
ers .through some of these desolated
placeB of France; to tell a simple and
uncolored story of their condition to
day as my eyes saw them, and to re
peat ocaslonally the words of men and
of women who saw the acts of destruc
tion and who have formed their own
opinion as t.o the reasons, therefor.
One day the truth underlying all this
ravage will be known. The world
probably will continue to withhold Its
judgment, but the fact remains that a
score or more of thriving French vil
lages have perished from the earth
after a manner that seemingly will not
admit of the excuse or the explanation
that It Is simply the result of the acts
of ordinary and so-called civilized war
fare.
Was Fired by Incendiaries.
From Vltry-le-Francola, where I left
the train and took a military motor, I
went first to Hurlon, or rather to the
place where Hurlon once stood. The
French declare that this place was
burned by German Incendiaries. They
mans and Frenchmen alike rest under
the newly sprung May flowers in these
fields of the republic. Nature is cele
brating its own memorial day and Is
decorating the resting places of the
brave with daisies and dandelions, vio
lets, forget-me-nots and the while val
ley lilies.
Cour-de-Manges is a village not far
from QlenneB. In It only a tew houses
escaped fire or Bhot. Into the desola
tion of this place the people are begin
ning to enter. They scattered to the
four parts of France when the storm
broSe, but this was their home, and
here few by few they are coming back
and are seeking the means to build
again their houseB as they already, in
the retreat of the enemy,, have built
again their hopes.
The mayor of Cour-de-Manges dwelt
In a handsome house with outlying
grounds closed in by an iron fence of
fine workmanship. Today, there '
nothing left of the official home but
Its foundation stones. Shell and fire
took their toll. The outlying garden,
however, seemingly knew nothing of
the ravage of battle. It had been un
tended since last autumn, but nature,
the restorer, today Is making it to bios
som with spring's rare coloring. War
showed no favoritism at Cour-de-
Manges. The houses of the poor and
the house of the rich alike were
swept to swift destruction.
It is only a few miles from Cour-de-
Manges to Frignlcourt, but the jour
ney Is from Desolation to Desolation.
All the way between the villages, how
ever, there is a land of beauty. The
peasants, following on the heels of
the French army in ItB forward move
ment, ' are cultivating every possible
patch of ground, leaving untouched
nothing but the graves of friend and
foe. The grace of enjoyment 1b not to
HOME
TOW
HELPS
TOWN PLANNING AN OLD ART
Ancients Well Understood the Value
of. Making Their Cities as Beau
tiful as Possible.
Town planning Is not a modern art.
The ancients appreciated the value of
a civic center; the Roman forum and
acropolis at Athens are examples of
this. Coming down to medieval times,
we have tbe Piazza della Slgnorla at
Florence and the Piazza of St. Marks
at Venice, public squares beautified
at the public expense, from which
many a mighty dictum for weal or
woe went forth. Paris owes a great
debt of gratitude to Baron Hauss-
manu, whose ingenious city planning
has produced one of the finest cities
In the world. The French capital has
probably more expatriated Americans
In residence than any other European
city, for a beautiful city will always
attract people. Although the French
respond quickly to an authentic ap
peal, their native thrift is never lost
sight of. They know that a beautiful
city Is sure to bring commercial pros
perity and they have learned well the
art of making beauty the handmaid of
utility. Let us then follow the ex
ample set us and begin to teach our
young people that there is no antag
onism between beauty and utility and
that civic pride Is only local patriot
ism. With a city plan developed un
der competent leadership and a town
planning board Invested with proper
authority, tbe hasty building of the
present moment will be obviated, and
a city will be developed that future
generations can pronounce a thing of
beauty and a joy forever.
SUBJECTS FOR CIVIC CLUBS
Chief Matters Concerning Welfare of
Town That Should Come Up
for Discussion.
f”
The question Is often asked: What
can parochial social service organi
zations do in the way of promoting in
terest? Here. Is a list of subjects on
the program for the Chicago Cathedral
Civic club, which Is reproduced be
cause of its suggestlvenes3. The club
Is auxiliary to the parish social serv
ice committee.
Markets, Pure -Food; Housing, Sani
tation. Infant Welfare (A visit to the
station at the mission house); What
Is Being Done for the Children In the
Public Schools. City Garbage (Illus.).
Evening Meeting (before, election);
Election Issues. Work of the Juvenile
Protective Association; Bathing
Beaches (Illus.). Visit to the Under
ground Tunnel or Some Other Excur
sion. Clean: Air; Fresh Aiir; Clean
Up. Jails. Telephone Girl's; Rest
Rooms and Vacation Houses for Tired
Girls. The Immigrant Girl; Our Play
grounds. CItyr Welfare Work. County
There was terrific fighting at Vaube-1 Work; County Board. Conservation;
court and in the country all about it ! Forest Preserves; Wild JFlowers;
and there is still terrific fighting near
at hand. The village has been bat
tered from its foundations by shell and
shot. When the time comes for an
swering the question of responsibility.
It is probable that no fine Interroga
tions will he raised as to whether this
place was swept from the face of the
earth by bombardment or deliberate
incendiarism. Here, the question will
concern. Itself with tho right’of the in
vader to put to death summarily three
French soldiers whom they found In
the village.
Were Shot as Spies.
The cure of Vaubecourt, a priest
who stayed loyally at his post, told
me that tlie French soldiers were In
uniform and In advance of the enemy's
Unas and that therefore they could not
have been spies. The Germans, how
ever, have said that these soldiers
were spies and it was on this ground
they shot them.
The priest of Vaubecourt has gath
ered a part of his flock together once
more. He is l'Aboe Perrenot. He was
sentenced to be shot by the order of
the commanding officer of the Invad
ing army. He added that this officer
was a good deal of a brute but that
his immediate junior In command was
a soldier and a gentleman. The.junior,
he said, secured his release. So pne
hears 5 the stories and so one may or
may not paBS judgment as he will.
As things are, however, the village
of Vaubecourt as a village of homes
and houses Is no more, but the people
are coming back to And the May sun
shining on the ruins and showing forth
the ravages of a storm that has passed
on a little way and which now vexes
priest and villager only with its noise
. Muoh more has been heard In Amer
lea of the destruction of the village)
of. Belgium than of those of France. .
had no conception of the ruin that had'
been wrought by artillery and by fire
in this part of the French republic
which lies under the shadow of the Ar
gonne forest and not only within
sound but within range of some of the
heavy guns as they play hourly today
along the banks of the Aisne, the
Meuse and the Orne. I visited a dozen
places other than those of which I
have written and the story of the deso
lation virtually is the-same. It is
hard sight to look upon and a hard
story to write. I turn from the last
blackened picture while the roar ot
the distant guns reminds me that
these scenes elsewhere, if fate so wills,
may be re-enacted In all their horror.
Work of Sanitary District Trustees;
Taxation, etc. Evening Meeting; Elec-
; tion Issues, followed by Illustrated lec
ture. Reception to Civic Workers and
I Club Presidents.—The Living Church.
SCHOOL GARDENS AT CAPITAL
Washington’s Plans Have Been Fully
Perfected, and Good Results Are
Confidently Anticipated.
The first home garden club to be
organized in the public schools, of
Washington was formed a short time
ago.
The object of the club Is to stimu
late Interest In vegetable and flower
gardens In the homes aa, well -as on
the Bchoot grounds. Several gardens
have been made on school grounds by
the students under the direction of
teachers. It Is the plan of the teach
ers at the Brookland school and
parents of children attending school,
to arrange a’ oourse of lectures for be
ginners in gardening, and to visit the
gardens of the children in their homes
regularly In order to see that the work
Is carried out according to the in
structions of the teachers. A "garden
show” will be given next fall. It will
consist of exhibitions of products
from the gardens. In addition, a com
mittee will report on the gardenB in
the homes and prizes will be awarded
for the work done.
Advertise
1 rsr
THIS PAPER
Right Now Is The Time
GULL Ity STRANGE MISHAP
Bird’s Life Endangered When Its
Beak Was Caught Between the
Shells of Clam.
At first thought It is hard to Imagine
how a clam could endanger the life of
a bird.' That such a strange circum
stance Is not Impossible is shown by
the following Incident.
A settler on one of the small islands
near Vancouver was returning to his
home by way of a beach of hard sand,-
•when he beheld an unusually large
flock of seagulls gathered In a
compact mass and beating with their
beaks and wings upon the sand. Evi
dently they were attacking some en
emy. Overhead dozens of gulls
wheeled and screamed in evident ex
citement.
The settler was almost upon the
fighting birds before they burst apart,
and flew, chattering, toward the
clouds. One, however, lay flapping
upon the ground, and the man saw
that a monster clam held the gull’s
beak in a viselike grip. It was too
heavy for the bird to fly away with,
and for all the gull’s frantic strug
gles; it could not loosen the claim’s
tenacious grip.
With his hunting knife the man
pried open the shells and freed the
captive. The gull was exhausted from
its desperate efforts, and at first could
only stagger Tike a drunken sailor
toward the water. Finally, however,
it flew away, and soon returned In
the- van ot a croud 1 of gulls come to
Inspect the enemy that had trapped
one of their tribe.—St. Andrews Beo-
com.
Baby's Bedroom.
The room In which a baby sleeps
should contain no upholstered furni
ture- or heavy curtains on which dirt
and germs can find a lodging and
breeding place-. The walls, if possible,
should be so finished as to allow fre
quent wiping with a damp cloth. The
temperature of the baby’s room should
be kept not higher than 68 or 70 de
grees In winter and In summer should
be kept as cool as passible with awn
ings and . shutters.. The windows
should be kept open day and night in
summer and in winter the. room .should
he aired two or three times a day.
FEW WAR PLAYS HAVE LIFE
Writers Seldom Successful In Produc-
, ing Dramas That. Long Hold
Public Attention.
To write* a long list of plays which
have in their day figured as war plays
would neither prove nor disprove any
thing except this—that they were bo
written as to deserve recognition from
posterity, or not; if they were they
got It, and if they were badly done,
nobody remembers them; certainly
the fact that they exploit a passage at
arms, a battle of war, never kept bad
plays out of the limbo ot forgetful
ness.
Dryden’s'enormous product includes
at least two dozen war plays, and they
are the deadest In our literature, ac
cording to the Theater Magazine. He
loves alarms and excursions, but white
one ode devotefr to them in a spectacu
lar way Is spouted by every schoolboy,
.the plays of this poet In which war
'as a spectacle figures even - more
grandiloquently are quite lost to all
but the bibliophile.
The first war plays that naturally
recur to the Angro-Saxon mind are
Shakespeare's histories. These are
war plays, indeed, ff any exist in Eng
lish. Armies march and countermarch
•through them, battles are joined, lost
or won, cities are besieged and taken,
the sight and sounds ot sixteenth cen
tury warfare are constantly heard and
seen; they are perhaps the model war
plays ot our language; and Shake
speare’s free hand was the only hand
to deal with them.
Pennsylvania Nature Story.
1 Arthur Neefe of Sweden, Bradford
county, set a trap In the woods, and
on account of the snows was unable- to
get to It. Last week it was visited
and a lively fox: found therein. The
captive had been sustained by his: fel
lows during the imprisonment. Within
reach were a gray rabbit, a white
rabbit, four mice and a woodchuck,
some of them partially devoured. Im
prisoned, he had been visited' and
nourished, by his own tribe. He was
taken Into further captivity, and
other than the loss of the foot by
which he had been held in the trap,
appears none the worse' for his expe
rience.—Philadelphia Record.
In trying to get her rights many a
woman goes at It in the wrong way
What the average man really should
have lp not his rights, but his deserts.
Importance of Good Chimney.
An examination of fire statistics
would show that defective flues are
the cause of a great majority of the
fires that occur In dwellings. It is
an old saying among architects that
money put Into a thoroughly good
chimney Is never wasted. So far as
safety from fire is concerned, the
chimney Is the most Important struc
tural feature of a building. But al
most countless fires have shown that
careless ■ workmanship, and In some
cases bad design, In chimney construc
tion prevail to an alarming extent.
Cara of Residence Property.
A choice section Is not created by
costly dwellings. A street ot plain,
homely or even ugly houses Is trans
formed, becomes . a smart suburban
residence district, if scrupulous pains
are taken to keep out disorder. And
a atreet of handsome and expensive
bouses looks dowdy, decadent and run
down if the back yards are allowed to
become slatternly.
Hits; the Particular
Southern Taste
Long ago Yankee notions of cook
ing gave place to the dainty, torthsome
cookery of the South, and today in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia or Chicago the
; honors for “extra good” items on a hotel bill
of fare are shared between th,e skill of the
Parisian chef and the dictation of the South-
> em housewife to her skilful “mammy.”
To match the culinary skill of the South
land, a new, unique end ready-to-eat com
food was originated—
The praise of Southern women for this
delicious dish seems to indicate its great
measure of success - in a section where ex
ceptional cookery is so common.
, I * %
If you are interested in something “sweet
to eat," that requires no cooking, ha3 a rich
com flavour, and carries a pleasing smack of
satisfaction, why — order horn your grocer
a package of Post Toasties.
The Superior Corn Flakes