The evening world. Newspaper, May 18, 1918, Page 11

1 SATURDAY, MAY 18 Wherever German Invaders Occupied a French Town They Left It in Ruins To Break Up Families, Demolish Homes, Sear the Land and Make Their Trail a Scar That Can Never Fade, Germans’ Fiendish Diversion, Is Noted Author’s Conclusion. This a the concluding article of a series written in France by Bnor Glyn and published, by special arrangement, in The Evening Worl. ‘ By Elinor Glyn Pi oer one had passed through the devastated, blackened country of | past battlefields and were in a district whose name must remain un- written. Located there was Prince Eitel Fritz's pleasure house or “Observatoir,” and I must tell you of that and of the shameful mutilation, deliberate and wanton, which the Germans have wrought upon the fruit trees in all the orchards—and the whole country here {s a plane of orchards point to St. Quentin, In the middle of this luxuriance there is a large and very high mound. It thrusts itself right out of a flat earth with almost perpendicular sides and has to be ap- proached by @ pathway from the road, now bordered by | hacked-down cherry trees. / You climb to it by a steep, serpentine path with steps here and there, and a wooden balustrade in “rustic” style. The summit once reached you realize tmmediately that you are upon ® spot where Germans have imprinted their mark. A chalet stands ther erected in real Teutonic taste, over the door of which {s written “Huber- vusha and making a circle round ‘t are low tables with benches by them, and a quantity of those seats carved and painted to look like toad- stools which one used to see at every German health resort and especially et Carlsbad. There {s an air of theatrical unreality about the whole thing— @ false note and discordant with nature. Inside this chalet the walle are lined with pale blue cotton stuff, kept almost from this rat ‘anton GLY. % place dy gilt wooden beading and adie nalled to the four walls; between the sinaort are ore '™ = How Germans Destroy Everything Before Leaving Invaded French Areas What a people! Full of sickly) ventimentality, but with no real sen-| timent at all, | This was the Kaiser's eecond | eon's observation post. From here! he could see everything for count-| Jess miles in one direction and over | *>) St Quentin in another. He used to climd up with his of- Wcers and drink beer, we were told, nnd was able to gaze and gloat over | what was then his conquered world. | must have been a delightful pi:-| ‘ure he examined before the tragtc | Cling of the orchards took place. | The order to do this was most scrupulously carried out. There is} mot @ tree standing, as {s shown tn photographs; al] were lopped off by @killed hands. But {n some Cases | «he sap has been 80 vigorous that the! branches have not died. | To stand there in front of the| eralet and let the eye take In the ole panorama causes one a shock | even at the end of @ day of shocks. ‘Toe general aspect, before one has | erasped the detatls, {s so green and (peaceful, at least when one's ecrutiny 13 directed away from the St. Quen-| Un side, but at length one becomes | conscious that the little villages scat- ‘ered about are not inhabited, but are | merely roofless ruins when they are vot actually heaps of stones, with SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1918 Orchards Cut to Ground, Farming Tools Broken And Grain Mills Burned Germans Did Their Malicious Utmost to Make Productive Countryside, Result of Generations of Labor, a Desert Waste Years Could Not Restore to Fruitfulness. rirending nes finished, the Germans only waited until he convoy of poor slaves was driven off, perhaps four kilometres from Most of them were |thetr homes, when they began a general pillage stealing everything of The arm appeared to be| gently bred creatures who had never done manual labor; they were driven | any value. Huge lorries drew up in the streets and wero filled with the It was the culminating note] out like slaves and forced to work under pain of punishment. Then in| furniture and belongings of the victims (I am quoting from the attested October, 1915, this corps was changed for a Corps of Guards, | papers in front of me), Then the heaviest taxes and fines were levied on ‘Then, there was the chateau of Avricourt. It was a fairly large, com- The unhappy people thought that this would bring them better con- all who remained, paratively modern house in a nice surrounding. It was built in a late! sideration, as the Guards officers were presumably gentlemen, But quite | When finally the brutes were obliged to evacuate Gruscard, they de Renatssance style, with pepperpot turrets at the corners—the top of one of| the contrary. These brutes passed their lives in continual drunkenness | stroyed all the tmplements of agriculture and began setting on fire the them was lying on the ground. and the most scandalous orgies and inflicted levies on the town worse than | mits for the granges which contained cornu, but the fortunate appearance Nothing remains standing here, the shells beat the whole place almost | thetr predecessors, of the first French troops prevented them from carrying out their whole to powder. You cannot { ie confused mass {t 1s composed of when | As late as the 15th of February of this year two hundred and fitty-two |programme of devastation. The witness concludes his testimony with these closely looked at. Basins and jugs, chairs and tables, screens and books, | people were taken, from fifteen years old to sixty, among whom were 122 | word smashed to fragments. Bits of staircase, halves of'doors, all pounded into | men and boys and 130 women and young girls. They were all collected and one another in frightful disorder—the whole so pressed together that one driven off in the direction of d’Avesnes, for what purpose no one knew, nor can climb up on the heap to moderately firm footing. have they been since heard of. Elinor Glyn Gives Vivid Word Pictures Ot How Germans Treated Invaded France THEY BRUTALLY HEAPED ONE OUTRAGE UPON ANOTHER DESCRIBED BY NOTED) AUTHOR. HOW Theme he Here {fs another moving picture—a broken and desecrated Christ, torn | When the 9th from the cross and set up there tn derision, It gave the most strange and | forced all the weird impreaston seen in the evening light. raised in appeal, the body looking Ike flesh of horror in the scene. Corps Reserve were there under Gen. ydn Boehm, he women and girls to toll tn the fleld “A very Intelligent and well-informed Sous (officer) sald to me, ‘Ger many’s offer of peace having been re d, the war ts going to enter Into a now phase. We shall no longer respect anything The door you can see in the photograph opened into a dressing room, Imagine the ish in the families “use all the. members were One wonders what this could mean of further frightfulness, since it can and beneath it {n an abyss reposes a broken wardrobe—while on the top of not selected-on t Think of the agony of mind’ hardly be concelved that human cruelty could invent anything beyond what the warst mound Hes the marble bust of the father of the owner, with tho | of the mothers seeing their young daughters carried off! Girls careft the Germans have already demonstrated {n every town of Northern France nose broken off, It looked the most wretched object when I saw it, worked | brought herded together with men and women of all classes, and then | and Belgium, up by all the hideous sights of the day—I could hardly k a fit of nervous laughter which was quite near to tear marched away lke cattle for some hideous use SLAVERY THE DOOR TO PILLAGE. from going into he poor bust had » expression of all the rest of the early Victorian era We CHAUNY—THE RUINED CITY. To end my series of descriptions of th tragedy of mutilated Northern hat ultra-respectab » cold to chronicle such Yry to imagine France, I have only to tell you of the large and prosperous town of Chauny. and what answers to the same period in France—the Louis Philippe. fl would be, you who read, ich a frightful thing could! which is a complete ruin. The history of the annihilation is another proof GERMAN “FRIGHTFULNESS” AT GRUSCARD. e4n your own town! Some of the poor women left behind } of German wantonn When their general evacuation began in March The last little town that I must tell you of before reaching Chauny !s | gone mad, and one distraught creature followed after the departing troop, this year they chased all the inhabitants Into a suburb, crowding them into Gruscard, partly ruined like Roye. According to the reports of the com- | shrieking for mercy for her girls until she fell in the road! Picture to cellars ike rats for the space of several days after having left (hem stand mission, the Germans here committed their usual brutalities, deliberately | yourselves the agonizing speculation which must still be golng on In these | ing in the Place in the pouring rain for twelve hours, during which some stealing the furniture and pillaging the houses as they felt inclined during | women’s minds, with no news, only the most terrible supposition as to! old people died of exposure, and thelr dead bodies lay there among the the whole occupation, | how their daughters are being treated! living. And then troops of soldiers under leaders especially adapted to the work of demolition made a house to nh removing articles o value which they could quickly lay hands on and some of the good fur |niture, T bombs were placed fn leach house and the whole place re | duced to chaos | "Phere is not a yard of the whole | of Channy, with the exception of that b where the people Were ° visitation, NOT EVEN “‘ MILITARY NECESSITY” AN EXCUSE FOR WANTON MUTILATION AND DEMOLITION one suby | imprisoned, which {9 not in this same leonditton! And all the jumble of debris is intermingled with persona furniture everything which prosperous natural!» | possessions, household | clothes—in short, |human habitations in jetties all over the world | contatr to think what your own town would appear like were It sud denly overwhelmed with such a dl ter—that will bring the pleture of {t more vividly before y In one atreet thore ft almost Intact such a pretty Louis XV. drawing room— the walls, I moan, just as high as the frst floor, are still standing, and the finely carved gray panelling looke so cruelly out of place, wi mound of rubbish in the middle my deseription of the awful havoc I am still stunned and stupefied a the magnit of tt. In places where the bombs 1 NOT create destruc tlon enough fires were systematical ‘ d so not one habitation € 4 rem Now t roads have been ehurch towers broken, if not gone | altogether—and then there is the | Vast mutilation of the poor, gashed THERE IS NOT A TREE STANDING—ALL WERE ILISH SLAUGHTERING OF TREES WHICH leared by tho neh soldiers to the transports to pass—but vhen the Germans left the place prac LOPPED OFF BY SKILLED HANDS--A DEV- HAD TAKEN YEARS TO GROW. enable WITH FIENDISH INGENUITY THE GERMANS CONVERT TOWNS INTO MUTILATED REMAINS —THIS RUBBISH HEAP WAS ONCE THE CHATEAU OF AVRICOURT. fruit trees, I wonder what the soldiers felt av their busy axes felled them! Did they think of their own homes and orchards or are they brutalized be ad the consideration of such things? And how did it take them to destroy so many square miles of country? And did the Prince look on ay encourage them? Who can toll? It appears be had a habit of annexing the furniture from the different chateaux he occupied, always with the excuse that {t was necessary to add to the comfort of the one lie wa moving on to, and that the removal of other people's belongings was but a temporary loan. But none of it has ever been returned! How out of piace those refined old French tables and chairs will look in that land of crude vulgarity where one must suppose that they have gone! THE SACK OF ST, QUENTIN. I looked across at St. Quentin, The from masses of slaty smoke clouds, emerging from which the glow of flames could be seen—so fire had come to the stricken town as well as t ~~and only the Cath black against the lurid s t. Quentin! 1 could {magir more standing in the “Place,” as in other days, having just quitted 1 Latour hung. What has become of them now? “Temporartly removed for ono has been told; but perhaps it will be with them aa with the! furniture for the ubodes of Prince Kite! Fritz—the priceless pastels may | never return to France again | You can conjure for yourselves the pleture of the “Observatoir.” A stupendous example of wanton revenge, wreaked on harmless nature to | serve no military purpose. A devilish slaughtering of trees which had taken years to grow and come to their power of producing fruit, This ts the German method of “Kult IT suppose’ And seer tune with other German acts, ONCE HOMES NOW RUBBISH HEAPS. And now We come to FPlavie-le-Mortel, It is @ scene of long sky above the horizon was avy sword ood out as a ul, quaint to of tw o towers w ne ‘Town Hall where the masterpieces of 3 in { | | | | wanton, not | necessarily war, destruction, And this 1s how tho whole country looks | yrom which the Germans have retreated | With flendish ingenuity they destroy everything before they leave Endeavoring to walk over the pitiful debris, one steps warily, afraid of | falling into some unseen trench or cellar, and one recoils afrighted when | just about to step on some mutilated remains of a home, | The most pathetically intimate things seem to have sur rubbish, and one can quite imagine what the emotions of peasant were when ho returned to his cottage which were his daughter's dot and which he had ht would be difficult enor oeate the ptood—much less find the { ved in the © poc to search for the bonds den in an old jug. I » the habitation h spot tically no trace of streets could be . °. | observed, merely so many square mile M u r 1 n I stood there in the Place of the Hotel v a n l c y y g magine what my own feelings would have had I undergone the a eatigld of the poor people of Chauny-—had I been driven into a small rhaps with men and women strangers to me, and kept there in and hunger for three day tenting always to the hell of noise ns and failing walls, and knowing that my home among hattered and destroyed and endeavored to misery New York Has Busted Out Into a Rash of Manicuring, With the Accent on the Man and Little Hope for the Cure-—Broadway Has an Epidemic of Gents Who Are ; Having Their Nails Polished for Their Country, and It’s the Old Birds Who Are The vision wa: too full of emotion. I could not face it, and we rapidly Holding on Hardest With Their Fingernails— The Manicurist Doesn’t Marry the t on to the church, The only part which by some miracle escaped and Old Fish Because She's Mercenary, It's a Case of Love at First Nearsight- Hou oa RU eek jute rth caidas sean igo Near, of Course, Depends on How Close He Is With His Money. down serenely, un 1. A screen anvas has been BY ARTHUR (“BUGS”) BAER. vara alia i . ross Taldlahing ( The New York Evening W hip bi ‘ r students refuse pa & w aside the sail cloth ain aud 1 into strange nent, it ts tall time that the Boclety for the P Wed wa motormen, as over in wall high up, and {t fell down upon a lier who wae to Whoozus should take brogan eye a gloves off k olin !n prayer by the altar ra a i nrown back and 1 1 ir decades older tha es p , ands Aspe ) worship, wh ‘ i 4 moon the floo mahogany s Watery halibut eye on the manicuring situati on & Sanskrit ate >a who fall for the wring iff It was a fitting memory to carry away Ww r The spirit of man un The lst of 8 for 1918 shows that ven adult nonogenaria Wher na alr has departed without signing another lea on quered by misfortune in communion th God and thus uplifted te and six juvenile octogenarians had grabbed time by the toupee pend the da 41 und the nigh the bu ¢ beyond these voices there ts peace eloped with different shades of blonde manicurists p his comp wrinkled like'an accordion, ‘ ; wright Rome's tumble Was due to luxury, The Romans had the » dy to fal! like a cracked Zeppell n of heay p : neat ; the ears with downhill pull for centuries. But when they fors a blonde angeletto playing a celestial jazz tave of Indians Lived in Flats Before Columbus Came recipe and started In to use siphons instead of blackjacks they siepped fingernatly, with two thumbnalls for an eaco 5 « On ike anoedad aiflaar ae ike knw shecgetia ila Paka yt on thelr own double chins, The vandals slewfooted it down from era y the orange stick stenc ure the lad N Fast, but the vast expanses of t giving air « suburbs and busted Rome loose from its purple outdoor h ho Most o! are ¢ a Bu the West gave America ! e toa rooms, I. The gods are indulgent to those whom they would lowbrid i] ftera ears with a wife who wa miy daug aport t muse, Excava ne ea ta 1 its separate Romans were hep to But still they kept on ing for the d er ofa ynalre w nanufacturer and who looks a he & A of Northwestern | 4 t ® bd until Attila flathoofed It {n and ¢olded ‘em up Mke a trick Davenpor ore than her share of his estate, you can't blame t for Mexl ented Am f , When luxury bec a necessity it 1s time to page the ep A manicu pree when the Grim Reaper slit are PRAM OS OE SOI a Mt partment. And America is not essentially a manicur rhe t ‘ murry the ¢ h because : ti ‘ : have knitted monuments to the inventor of the locomo char a of lov r " build $59 eamboat and the lad who apprehended electricity. But tha 4 good wife to tab f him tn the twilight of W280 feet, thr a high, Rutan Rivets all seven heavens and annexes we haven't crocheted a granite e the nve moved “ p an hour he he re of ind # of T W found to the bird who discovered charlotte russes, ght, When the gr we of evening alga t or f these Wo don't know how the man got into manicuring, but purpling t nt t 1 fath A und foo: t dmany “"y ‘ cture al Wakao tour up Broadway and lamp the epidemic of « at t ith a a of orangewood et t 4 48 an of ¢ \ ave been ex having ‘heir x pollshed for their country. New York has busted r up his fast fading hours. Even tho 1 ha erte mus Ir BER 4 i gee ina rash of manicuring, Even a etevedore refuses to ling a mean bale nd life is emptier than a non-refillable bottle he wt wiy he gel Fane ee Se nee were found bodies, stone hook around a crate of hard-bolled barbed wire unless he has his fing « t fath cheered to the end by the comfort bought |, fait and ane AAG ta v NS rea polished up pinker than @ spanked baby. Structural stee: work ngeroa en't lonesome. wide (erraces » a ‘ ysed ~ ltt age st aR ~. % OR Swe ee Oe t ” - —— | = SS a ee ee eS ee ee tne ee noes nonzesmsmsnpnmmnopomt nse une a RDN i