The evening world. Newspaper, May 4, 1918, Page 11

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1918 Elinor Glyn Describes German Wanton Destruction _ Of Invaded French Areas, Worse Than Mediaeval Vandalism, Verdict of Noted Author | at the Front, in Vivid Word Picture of Ruins Left Behind When Invader Was Driven Out of “Somewhere in France.”’ By special arrangement, The Hvening World will publish a series of articles written by Llinor Glyn, in France, in wh.) Qe noted author will describe her war experiences and give word ptetures of France and her peopte under the burden of war, This is the first arti- ole,, The second will be published on this paye next Saturday, By Elinor Glyn s ARIS, ——- —.I am still so sturmed by the awful impression of the P sights that I have seen and the things that I have heard that I hardly know how to begin to write about them. By the kindness of the French Government and the courtesy of the ‘American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps, who provided the auto- mobile in which I travelled, | was enabled to visit the devastated region behind the French lines which the Germans have evacuated, All that fair part of France, in time of peace the most rich and smiling vista of culti+ vated fields, prosperous villages and orchards, is now one colossai scene| of devastation. ik We started from Compiegne very early in the morning of a perfectly! diyine spring day. All the fresh green of the trees, and here and there the song of a bird, made it seem impossible that death and desolation lay all around us. In the Foret de I’Aigle the lilies of the valley are in full bloom. Soon we passed small groups of burnt and blackened houses in a tiny hamlet, but the trees seemed to cover the nakedness as with a tender green cloak, and the first sense of real grimness came only when Bailly was reached—or what was Bailly—for the large village 19 merely @ series ot heaps of stones in two long rows, among which the foundations of the! houses are just perceptible, that fs all, One comes upon it suddenly from a turn in the road, and one is told that here a flerce battle raged for days and days. Alas! poor Bailly, smashed and annthilated by friend and foe. | I saw some much more terrible things during the day, but the first, | view of Bailly gave me, perhaps, the strongest emotion, because, in spite of descriptions and photographs, the actual hideousness and cruelty of | war had not fully come to me, ‘Try to imagine it! Kindly people who are reading this in your shel tered houses! All the neat little houses crushed to powder, and where they once stood are now deeply dug trenches and shelters and innumerable connecting underground gallertes, Even after this length of time—two months at least—strange evidences of family Jife protrude from the heaps of rubbish and stones—a poor old hedstead of tron—a eodden mattress—and, in one place, the head of u chilt’s toy horse. These simple, intimate things help to bring it all before | one, and what the bombardment must have been. $ A VAST DESOLATION OF BATTLE SCARS, The country for miles around Baflly and further on still ig one vase erolation, rendered the more piteous to look’ at by the contrast of the ender spring green of 4 ush or sapling which has chanced to escape the blast of shells, After this section, all the ground has been in German ands until the French advance, and each inch in some places has been | | ought for and won back at great cost; in other districts the Germans sim- | ply retreated before they were attacked, but, as I shall presently describe o you, not without creating devastation more complete and brutal because INVASION coommaepar ect WAS FIRS = In ‘the Path of the German SCENES FROM THE “PLEASANT LAND OF FRANCE, SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1918 “Frightfulness” of Invaders | Scars French Homes Deeper Than All Wounds of War |Women and Young Girls Driven to Work in the Fielda— | Little Children Flogged for “Shirking’—Homes De- spoiled, Churches Sacked—Nothing Left Undespoiled That Vandalism Could Destroy. jcounting from the AS IT LOOKED AFTER THE TIDE OF T ROLLED BACK. 4 sworn depositions before the commission, coples of which have kindly been given mo by the French authorities, The only reason the little town was not completely destroyed was that before the Germans left it they drove in—like cattle—2,800 persons evae uated from Nauroy, Rellenglise, Magny-la-Fosse, Jussy and Fiavy-lo-Marte). This, however, did not entirely prevent their firing upon the place when { the first French soldiers were seen in the dietance, Shells began to fall, the Presbytere was destroyed and four persons were killed. Then all the , poor people rushed into what shelter they could find. They hid in the j |cellars and there remained pntil the French finally retook the place. | The stories told me personally by individuals from these unfortunate hamlets, which are not in the commission papers (as some of the worst | outrages have occurred since the commission sat), would fill pages and | | Pages, but I will only repeat one, the apthos of which ts terrible, WHAT HAPPENED TO ONE FAMILY, I cannot from delicacy give the name of the poof family, but here are the facts, The officer who told them to me had lain in hospital next an- other, a well-to-do gentleman whose Httle chateau was in the environs of have been describing. He was a man of forty-five and seemed unable to rest or remain still for his wounds to heal; he tossed and moaned in his bed; at last he told his comrade of the horror on his mind. His wife, aged forty, and bis two girls of twenty and sixteen were all three enctentos as he spoke to me from the brutal assaults of the hateau was in their hands, just before the ter the 10th March, this year. The hideous picture was ever before his eyes, and the still more hideous thought of what the Words are useless here. The {imagination of each horrible drama. agony of mind of these women.—the frantic rage of the poor What would you do In auch a case—fathers and wothors and husbands of Amertea? one of these villages which T G French retook it, man officers when the nonths would bring one of you who reads can complete the Concetve the wounded man! Does It not make you feel ready to go out and kill? . . . ‘ Phe tlre mended, we started again on our tour. The same deserted country and silent woods and {lelds, until we came to the Chateau Lar- roye, another giant skeleton ruin crowning a small hill ' And a few kilometres on {s Suzoy. Here many houses are burnt and | battered, but the Germans reserved for themselves a schoolhouse which they turned {nto @ casino for officers, where they could drink and gamble |when off duty { It remaing as they left It They had stolen furniture from the netgh- boring chateau and dggorated the walls with frescoes drawn with wonder- ful talent. ¥ is 4 photograph of one wall. Observe tho cynical uglt- { ness of It- the unconscious self-revelation it gives of the frightful and abysmal minds which concelved it. It 1s we if they were expressing their own gouls, and these the souls of devils. “REST BILLETS” IN A DEAD TOWN, n othe Wides of the room are the oval portraits in malicious cariea- of the deposed Czar, the King of Italy, King George and President Poincare each drawn with the characteristics which the Germans be- {| lleve them to possess. Bee OS aim 3 J “4ARS ELINOR GLYN. ' ) These precious works unique sample After leaving Suzoy the country became more devastated still until igny, which {s a melancholy ruin, Not a single house nothing but the bare, perpendicular walls of what were rous French houses; not a sound or eight of living thing art ave preserved and covered up, #0 that -“pleees de conviction” for all to see—e f German officers’ tastes nas document we reached Las {| with roof or floor and, most ; Hie tragic of all, the boautiful old church, now merely a shell with cracked of its deliberation, than any made by the chances of war, pillars, The terrible silence strikes one, for even the birds seem to have At last we came to the Otse, over which all the original bridges have fed heen cpetroyed) end he car wae slonved every. tew yaide by spatries sying 1 ‘on all these ruined places are notices roughly painted in the walls directions as to which newly made detour to take, and then we had to ice: tik direction ct Gig eube atelin Lav Ok Leones eee cilmb wearily up and over the army crossings made of thick timber which beard aN WiaRe sacilnales ie’ outs suka Glare Gla naa fa fb he Genie construct apparently in a few hours. i oO} 5 ere, y a ; 5 k i ai Barat eaming and he told us an army corps was soon cor to rest ¢l During all this time, except the men on the Jorries in the Rols de| & a vs vanmaiaiods bi ged bie se us eee a Pp : ae re ss snr eee a — ae “seohaiacbechaias ‘0 res r ! One w » wonde VAigle, and the sentries guarding the bridges, and these men near (hem a . remaking the torn-up roads, we would go for miles without meetin “Tho laborers of the commune of Vendellos have becn severely pun- | ‘The church even was not spared, its sacred relics were annexed and} That it could seem a desired haven to reach! A little town which was @ f , ished all the cloths of the high altar and the vestments. But this did not finish} heap of stones, roofless, floorless, grim and lonely! What are the con- single living thing, either human or animal. Bally was a place of th {°To be published) GLOSS, matters, for when nothing remained in the town each house was rendered | ditions they are leaving If this Is a coveted place of rest! dead, and the whole country round also. There are no signs of cultiva “Colonel and Commandant.” hakitade ‘i | 100 Dieant Mi Arndivate, 1 P uninhabitable, Coprrigit, 1018, by the Beant Marmat Byndiea ion; nature has done its best, but that by alt for the entire civil popula- Does not this make every one of your hearts burn with indignation Ee Likes Ue Peaches, Mention Villans o0t far ewan, tb heciie alle = ba si 3 plied capa 3 been iain iy 4 aie the rich fields have remained wn-| yoy American mothers who read? Little children flogged if they did not Hero the Brutal Germans took all tho population of both sexes which re t tilled. This continues beyond Sempigny ierins k 1 work! And this is what would happen in all other conquered countries it | mained betwoer ; > nee all ninety-three per oO of he ye pa are au on a It ‘i aed uuined between four tec sty years of age, in all ninety We passed a large chateau on a litle hill, burnt and sacked, its win-| those savages were allowed to win the way hod pecan, fours ol Abdo Tage ye cee ta ec dows like gaunt skeleton sockets looking down upon us, sightless and I then had conversations with eome of the people in authority and be ee ore te ets a Ae Aa the Book ancien: ig KIBBE TURNER'S tof success, and becomes a perilous grim, It seemed to ent the note of compleie devastation and to show was permitted to the sworn depositions of persons from various com-| og. ‘Then the same pillage hat which had happened at Sempigny began. 1 ' t i ' a k attractive wore forcibly still that nothing had been spared. And so at last to of nen (he same pillage a h bad Bappened a Dollars’? is published (Little, | woman in a runabout at las munes round Noyon, which had been given before the Commission of In In May of 1915 the : girls of the commune of Freniehes were : / Bet 4a) : Noyon, which was to be the starting point for the really important part ay . é 1 n A Komance The million run > Zetta runs the | ligrima: part) vestigation on the 4th of April of this year ected In a certain he the Mairle, Here they were completely un-| ; wild, Bill Morgan rung to nerves and 0 grimace. t : i e ‘ ; WHERE "FRIGHTFULNESS” KNEW NO BOUNDS dressed and then made to go through the most horrible medical examina-| pic of Speed has to be steadied by his level headed It was about 10 o'clock of that lovely spring day when we arrived at| | aiihed bi At Sempigny, which We passed through, It appeared that on the 13th some of then with fear and pain the while. Young mar = u hangs | Death runs young Pow Noyon, but until {t was reached no woman was seen, nothing but soldiers | Letead Be hrough, It app at on | 7 Lead : ee Hv eben DB bus soldiers! of February lust the Germans took away 130 inhabitants, including boys |ried women were taken also. And the vile German officers looked ou and|upon tho great © > the ditch and runs Paso when thore was any Bh Oye Oran Mt By Very: DiCtureagae Old Frpnck | oe cout, as well as the chief people of the town, They were taken | laughed, the Major commauding them being the most and brutal | 6 a little anybo T oa finish in Europe, And town, with an interesting cathedra) and countless antique houses in 18 | to Grandru the of Noyon, and put with other i ected fr ! fe ping the doctor {4 work. American men who may be read nake 200 miles an hour on|ail the way through the right of dis narrow streets, All building seems to have stood still since the revolu- . ; pe jaa B Macrae: 88; om : by ‘ “ie i Ge the. motley, aliW Rien aster io Speed, Mr. Turners stom tion of 1793. | various other village Among them was a girl of thirteen who had been that L write ‘ do you feel about it tit your daugh S hod as ie ; i A hiet ’ We * year a Me ) > c weare nu ls n om be} other. i de) ans the pera ga nn teal- | tere an yo wive would yo t Kee red? ¥ ie Perhaps some of you who read may have passed through in happier ee fre a r mas T i ih then ls a op af the tow : a | ae ae ; ate 1 rile r ; hoa 2 ee | moans Polly after the « days. Now wherever the little stream runs through the town tho bridges |B °ve"tHn veD ORNS Up oF burning & at wai story begins whe a All of us, Faster have been blown up and the houses on either side with them, and among s i | Thomas into the br sll Aowstnerl Anaad : al Jowr shop of Bill Morg everywhere — always. the wreckage and heaps of stone and what-not of one of them a bit of old P. k th P k t ; F Ol D R ta c1V, 1 jshowa up vat ow -fangled er ust @ ttle faster! It beautifully carved Louis XIV. panelling hung in midair, ic ing te ockets O ame umoy |[eeee ot TOR nae ee| HC A al wait al Noyon is full of French soldiers and is uartier General of ’ ; ; ; 7 4 re ase hit up h ie it 1 Moxon i# 4 BeAnSh soldier the Quartier General of a You Can’t Blame the Russians for Being Bilked by the Germans, as It Is Has starved for it. After | Rol But Bill Morgan lies division of army and a station for the Red Cross, We waite ; f while a tire was being mended and were then handed over to the care of an officer who was to show me the country a ted sitce the frig ful destruction caused by the recent fighting and, what is more hideous! cruel still, the demolition and devastation wrought deliberately by the re-| <iring horde of Germans. VLOGGED LITTLE CHILDREN TO MAKE THEM WoRK ‘5. Hin ehigl: anainesr The population of Noyon appeared quite composed, the Little shop ‘ are open and the inhabitants seem to be leading thelr usual lives. ‘Th A ARS) DME pn were many 1 posted The Kaiser wept when he tossed one of hi ments and restrictions for the conquered people. Here is of Flander exact translation of one which Lad been ‘removed from Holnon, a village further on, and 1s now in the bands of th yet uny Famous U Boats Are U-Bum, U-Bel an By , Preay Publishing Co, (The New Yor * las figured out a way to make jewelry out of old Who make our Christinas jewelry are f German notices sti won the walls of fines, punish Heng 08 PAlDY) hed ndicating that he is descended from a croc Hank Ford thinks he eyes on the ruir odite on his paternal can make the Presiden authorities. This notice wa tial chair hit on all four cylinders, Maybe Hank is right, but she is bi put up in 1915 in the twenty-five communos of the Holnon area ting on twelve right now. If Henry gets to the White House, traffic cops iE Caine eecatat ie Py BEEN Saly i 1915, |_| will have to saluie every flivver that flatwheels by, and you know thera are ordered to work ir i ideq, | ain't that many sal n the world, You said it, Science hasn't mad from 4 A. M. to 8 P.M, (French t lowed such wonterful strid that a moth can’t spend the winter In your in the morning, one hour at midd afternoon Beach suit without you hearing bim, Russtans are starting to rea: company for the period of the har rack und th har can’t blame the Ru for being bilked by the Germans, as !t is tough German non-commissioned officer the rvest the shirkers wi for a man to think he {s running. undergo six months’ imprisonment, every third day on bread and ‘The bustle is coming back into fashion again, Bustles aren't so #48) Women who shirk thelr w< rds be deported to Holnon to | put they aren't built volving doors. Vacant expression on ( “The Commandant, in addition, reserves the rig f administering | ine of Clown Princ ars gave the alarm and the sparrow was defeated @wen-y strokes every day to a rs who shirk, | by three waves of the Imperial Roquefort Foozellers, the Kalser's own Tough for a Man to Think While He Is Running--Three of New York’s Most Arthur (“Bugs £ oven Be fale ino 4ead| 1 till morning, just staring Bil Morgan's floc Bur] seeing that boy of ‘Tom Powers's dU-Said it, » finds Bh j hare andor the ¢az mon have turned| The only folks in the book who give ; : jan impression of taking time are e This almost bankrupt t Fy ) Ba qT. | ; iy him into the maln- |¢ xh financiers who, put on the ck troops. Sultan suys he can win as Ai 1 new business | sce B B , finally ab ng Of until next fall, which meu © Sultan intends to pay ‘em off in| yforgan mortgages the house that! SPB the Hoodlum, with its patents Yea bo, He's wrong all ove ke @ giraffe wit ore neck ora te wite First asking " potentialities and everything. wo-foot yardstich | © still-faced men with Infre- ich a busbund would. He borrows | , i ; ps. {auent, thin Upped emiles and with m n at & nt th i ee aaliaeiy white hands that do not move ner \ and took a w turn off the spigo hat’s ono country | Thomas § ma ye hands of /YoUslY. ‘hese men do not race, ‘They they do! how to pronounce hg containing than | Pre Pietra ahaa hs Th wa With @ certainty which dis. ) per cent ) i : cee yoles for | MAYS 8nd disarms even Bill Morgan Three of New York is U boats are U-bu ta pdt, [Pee ete oer EI bet his fighting Jaw and his ready he Yonkers Home Guards report all quiet along t et t baeregl told T eiae a except for the usual barrage of poker chips. Uncle Joe Cannon haga Horn somewhere in America, the nfe and nan ame ansioun 4h tell ¢ a i Thomas carburetor finds its date vetealc andes lara Ne wi But through | Oven home in Detroit, But spreads that i hi , i eR ; is speod-up qualities broadcast, Bll hat thos¢ ) ) 0 mu nco mage, in which Banker! yorgan’s million ts not, after all, ¢ Germans } t 1 a which asc Phe German ate to ee rcs nm REAL COURAGE ey havea r the I , ung wits jo you mean by having the and ( , i Pe eek te cali Urage of one’s convictions? r vr Pacohies np! of smash-ups, Young Pow A “bie example is a man whe te ates fOr the ¢ ippears, emerges from 5 willing lo eat mushrooms that he hes parch and to be as papular tameness, un the impetus gavhe: 1 himselt.”"—Pittsburg Post a ee ae ee ee Ce ee