La Grange Journal. (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1915 Page: 3 of 8
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Describes the Place Where Miohty Armies Clashed in Death
Struggle as “the Kingdom of Desolation”--Prussian Sol-
dier, Wounded to the Death, Pens Farewell Letter
Full of-Subtle and Very Beautiful Emotions
BEREAVED BY THE WAR
W*v
By MAURICE BAR RES of tho French
Academy.
The other evening, leaving the
treadiea of the first line, we went
about to press the hands of our sol-
diers through the shelters flanking the
hill, where they came every three days
to lie. And then, after I had seen a
little teaslag of the Prussians, I was
led Into a little wood, 806 meters dis-
tant from their line. One of them
was stationed In advance, standing be-
tween two apple trees. We looked
at him. He gazed back at us. And
no one on either side moved.
Twilight waa descending. Between
that man and us la^ the bodies of dead
men which could not be gathered up.
1 shall never forget the sinister spot,
and the harmony between living be-
ings and landscape. Is It possible that
our rTSfi plains have come to such
desolation; that the best, morally and
physically, of France, are, hidden in
these kennels of beasts, and that IdeaB
of hate and of death alone occupy the
minds of the millions of Individuals
who face each other along this im-
mense line of battle? Of what dreams
that Prussian before me, as he
watches me through the mist of eve-
ning? He thinks of annihilating me.
and I, In the same way, think of de-
stroying him. These are circum-
stances In which the most particular
spirit loses Its Identity In all the
others, in which no soul Is kept apart.
That duty Is evident, certain. But
how deep do its roots strike down Into
darkness!
Facts and Mysteries.
In vain did my companion—no one
better experienced in the affairs of
this war—continue to give me interest-
ing details by the thousand. Behind
the facts there raises Itself a barrier
of mystery. And while we went back
through the stretch of country to
which this campaign has come, I nev-
er ceased to ponder upon it.
From time to time we came upon
people of our side, cooking In the lit-
tle hollows of the plain. They were
laughing, chatting among themselveB.
Then we went on again into the si-
lence and into the thickening night.
That ending of our visit to the ad-
vance postB resembled a return of
late hunters In autumn, but mingled
with it was an extraordinary disquiet
of heart. Never have I known such
a vital feeling of brotherhood as on
that journey; never a more profound
sense of the mystery in which our ex-
istence Is bathed.
All around us mow there reigned un-
imaginable silence, and one distin-
guished objects 60 paces away with
difficulty.
“Be careful!" said my companion
to me. “You have the river on your
left"
We arrived finally at a point where
the plain Is cut away abruptly Into
a deep valley, and leaning over, I saw
far below me, at the foot of the cliff
on which we stood, little pools still
beneath tall poplars. Their waters
shone with a sinister light through
the rifts of a shroud of fog. Mournful
vapors rose and grouped themselves
in great moving masses.
“There,” I said, “Is the kingdom of
desolation."
Wounded Man on the Marshes.
During five- days we had seen and
had listened to a wounded German,
whom no one could relieve. He was
one of a patrol upou which we fired.
His comrades had saved themselves
without a thought of carrying him
with them. The poor devil lay there
with a broken thigh. As you can see,
it waB not easy to go hunting for him
in those ravines and concealed
marshes. At last, on the fifth day, we
were able to carry him to our ambu-
lance, where he died, thanking us.
You will be interested, I believe. In
the emotions which animated that Ger-
man, wounded and abandoned.
What emotions?
Very subtle and quite beautiful.
One hour afterward, when we had
arrived at our quarters, and, before
everything else, even before I had rid
myself of my uniform and of the
mud which stained me to the shoul-
ders, I asked my friendly guide to
mark our course for me on a .chart,
and then to give me the last message
of the Prussian of the marshes.
The Letter of Farewell.
Here is the page upon which are
mingled, In startling manner, the
mists of Gerfhany and of the French
valley, which he with his Companions
came to desolate. 1 have changed noth-
ing. I have transcribed exactly the
final written pages of the little note-
book which be carried In his pocket:
“If that be the will of tbp All-Power
ful, let this be my last tarewelL A
French ball struck me while on.patrol.
It wounded me in the right knee in
such a way that I can nb longer walk.
It Is now five days that I have been
in this obscure forest I can no longer
endure my hunger, which up to now 1
have appeased with water: Often 1
have Implored God to send me aid.
None has come to this hoar. Mean-
while, I rest resigned; I am not Impa-
tient, because it is not for long. Then
I shall be again la my Fatherland, at
'home, with'my brothers, in that beau-
tiful country, where .we may roach
each other new hands anew, beside
streams of silver and crystal.
"Farewell, farewell; here on earth
or beyond there. In the light
“Signed, Wilhelm Baumer.’v
. This is what he wrote, In the si-
lence of death, his eyes, bright with fe-
ver, turned to the heavens—the Prus-
sian soldier, Wilhelm Baumer. And
at the moment, as I transcribe that
strange paper, full of delirium and of
religious fervor, I see again that sky
without a moon which, the other eve-
ning, stretched solemnly above those
marshes. What Germanic thought
transported that Invader, upon the bor-
der of a French river! Do the fairies
of the Rhine accompany these barbari-
ans? Did the water-nymph weep be-
side him, when he was abandoned by
hie brothers? Did she dry his face
with her green tresses? One thing is
certain, that he was picked up and
cared for by the generosity of the
French.
Gods of Germans and French.
What is it that I wish to prove by
this short quotation? Nothing pre-
cisely In the order of logic. It Is an
Impression which occupies my mind
and which I have retained from among
a thousand impressions of the field of
battle. Perhaps I shall not find, in the
haste of my work of the day, the
words to express'all that It hoIdB of
emotion. But it is manifest tp me,
that, among all the horrors which the
Germans have come to create method-
ically in our country, we continue, on
our side as well, the one and the other,
to be accompanied by our gods, as a
man is followed by his shadow.
The profound instinct which
breathed In that rider of the North
takes form, finds words. Near to death
beneath the poplars of France, his
spirit already half-separated from his
body, he returned to the vague poesy
of the Germans. He drew away from
his labor of the field of battle. And
we, too, we French, have also a re-
serve force, which completes and
makes Perfect our warlike valiance.
I mean that generosity which drives
us to risk our lives to succor an en-
emy disarmed and In agony.—Trans-
lated for the New York Evening
Post, by Malcolm W. Davis.
EATING HASTY LUNCH
Belgian soldiers taking out time for
a bite during an engagement in Bel-
gium.
HONOR FOR BRITISH FLYERS
Belfort Garrison la Paraded to Wel-
come Raiders of the Friedrichs-
hafen Sheds.
» ______
London.—The Chronicle’s Parts cor-
respondent Naylor telegraphs: "When
the two British aviators who made the
raid on the German Zeppelin sheds at
Friedrlchshafen returned to Belfast,
they were received with acclamations
by the French troops.
“The next day all the troops In the
garrison were paraded and In their
presence the general in command con-
gratulated the airmen and handed each
of them the Cross of the Legion of
Honor. A telegram from Zurich says
their feat has caused alarm throughout
Germany.”
GERMANS’ADVISED TO SAVE
Commerce Minister Warns People
to Be Sparing With Their
Grain.
Paris.—The Amsterdam Handels-
blad says the Prussian minister of
commerce has Issued a proclamation
which says that although Germany Is
well provided with grain the people
should not waste 1L
“The enemy,” the minister says, “are
trying to styve Germany aa If It were
a fortress. Therefore be sparing of
your bread. Remember that the sol-
diers wonld be gfsd to have on tba
fislAof battle the breed yon waste."
Wife and child of a French reservist
who was killed during one of the en-
gagements In the Argonne. Jean
Pedelstore, the husband and father,
was head waiter in a New York hotel
at the outbreak of the war.
LAUDS THE BANTAM SOLDIER
British Medical Journal Says ths Little
Fellows Are Good for Trench
Work.
London.—That little men have many
advantages in war time over their
bigger brothers is an argument ad-
vanced In the British Medical Journal.
After expressing the view that 30,000
have been lost to the army in the last
few weeks owing to the present high
standard, the journal says:
"Not a little Is to be said In favor
of short infantry. Short men occupy
less room In transport. They find
cover more easily and offer a smaller
mark to bullets and shrapnel.
are better sheltered In trenches and
require to dig less deep trenches to
protect themselves.
“It takes less khaki to clothe them
and less leather to boot them. The
army blanket covers them more amply
and they need much less food than
tall, thin men to keep up their body
heat and maintain their marching en-
ergy.
“Those who stand the rigors of cold
climates are Aot always big men and
the sailor, like the wind-swept tree on
the coast, may be a short man.
Warmth and easy conditions of life
rather tend to the development of tall
men.
“The cavalry and artillerymen re-
quire to be big and powerful, but as
to those who burrow In the trenches,
how can it matter whether they are
four feet nine or five feet six ? We-are
not out for a show and a parade, but
to win a war of sieges and attrition.”
WILL HURL MOLTEN STEEL
Hammond, JrM Invents Projsctile THst
Scatters Whits Hot Metal And
• Deadly Gas.
Gloucester, Mass.—A new type of
projectllb which would scatter a
white hot mixture of molten steel over
the object of attack and at the same
time permeate the atmosphere with s
deadly gas which would make It Im-
possible for fire fighters to approach,
has been Invented by John Hays Ham-
mond. Jr., according to a statement
made by the Inyen’or.
The new missile may soon appear
In the European war, as some of the
belligerent nations sr« now negolla?
Ing for Its purchase, be said. The
United States government at present Is
conducting experiments with the new
projectile at Sandy Hook, he added.
The missile Is designed for use Is
-lege guns as an aid In destroying
and dirigible balloons
Attorney General's Department ef
Tease Flies Suit Against Seven
Big Browing Cameras.
Sulphur Springs, Tex.—Suits were
filed In the district court of the eighth
Judicial district Saturday by the at-
torney general against the Galveston
Brewing Company of Galveston, the
American Brewing Association and
Houston Ioe and Brewing Company of
Houston, the Lone Star Brewing Com-
pany of San Antonio, the Dallas Brew-
ery of Dallas, the Texas Brewing Com-
pany of Fort Worth and tho San An-
tonio Browing Association of San An-
tonio for penalties and forfeiture of
charters.
A statement from the attorney gen-
eral’s department explaining the suit
says:
“The state alleges various viola-
tions of the anti-trust laws; violation
of the laws prohibiting corporations
from using their means and assets for
purposes other than to accomplish the
objects for which they were charter-
ed, and particularly the misuse of
their means and assets In the politics
and the elections of the state cover-
ing a period of about twelve years."
A copy of the petition on file In the
attorney general’s department shows
it to be of great length, containing
scores of letters alleged to have pass-
ed between brewers In Texas, brewers
of this and other states and allied
brewers' organizations. Penalties are
asked aggregating $21,400,000 as max-
imum and $1,348,000 as minimum;
while the minimum claimed from each
defendant is $192,600 and maximum
$3,107,100. A total of $50 per day Is
claimed from each defendant from
June 24, 1904, to July 10, 1909, when
the anti-trust law was amended to
change the penalties so as to prescribe
a minimum of $50 per day and a maxi-
mum of $1,600 per day.
May Use Hatpins As Weapons.
Houston, Tex.—The use of hatpins
by women as a means of protection
against purse-snatchers will lessep the
evil to a considerable extent, accord-
ing to Captain of Detectives Kessler.
Numerous complaints of purse snatch-
ing have been made to the police with-
in the past few days, the victims In
most cases being working girls on the
way to their homes after working
hour?.
New Postmasters Announced.
Washington.—The following Texas
.postmasters were nominated this
week: Paul L. Alexander, Lamesa;
Cicero Harper, Moran; J. L. Craw-
ford, San Benito; E. A. Shelton, JS1
Paso; Virgil E. Todd, Gilmer; J. Les-
ter HodgeB, Junction; A. H. Wolfe, La-
dohla; George D. ZIVley, Lampasas;
Monroe R. Allen, Weimar.
SQUADRONS LOSE EVERY MAN
Russian Paper Praises Heroism of
Hungarian Cavalry In Desperate
Skirmish.
Petrograd.—The Rusekoye Slovo
has an account of a skirmish, east of
Luzk, between Russian hussars and
Hungarian cavalry. In which two Hun-
garian squadrons werecut down to the
last man. The paper, In speaking of
the marvelous bravery of the enemy,
says: “The Magyars faced certain
death, but fought like Hons and wield-
ed their sabers as if they were axes.
One Hungarian officer, a handsome
fellow, struggled on desperately, even
when our husSara literally lifted him
into the air with their lances. The
wounded resisted to their dying
breath, emptying their revolvers and
striking at the legs of our horses. Four
hundred fell to the last man. Such be-
havior changed our opinion of the
Magyars.”
Farmers Will Plant 8puds.
Brownwood, Tex.—As further means
of diversification and to get further
away from the cotton planting In
Brown county, some thirty fanners of
the Bangs community have formed an
Irish potato club and have agreed to
plant quite a large acreage in - spuds
in the spring.
Mexican Town Is Now Dry.
Douglas, Arlz.—Agua Prleta, the
Mexican town across the border, has
gone dry, shattering the hopes of
American saloon keepers who were
put out of business Dec. 31 by the
Arizona dry law and expected to open
In the Mexican town.
Bandits Headed for Hills.
Tulsa, Okla.—Headed west, appar-
ently for the lamost Impassable Osage
hills, two highwaymen who held up
the First National bank of Owaasa for
nearly $700 In a bold daylight rob-
bery Tuesday, have made good their
escape. It seems.
Unemployed Besiege City Hall.
Austin. Tex.—A crowd of 260 un-
employed men, composed of whites,
Mexicans and negroes, besidged the
city hall Monday morning and clamor-
ed for a chance to earn bread. Most
of the men aro residents of Austin
with families to support
Soldiers Capture Eleven Mexicans.
Laredo, Tex.—United States sol-
diers Friday captured eleven alleged
Mexican filibusters, near Zapata, a
Texas border tewn southeast of La-
redo. The men were said to be for
mer federate.
Children March From Fife.
Jefferson, Tex. — Jefferson, public
school building was completely de-
stroyed by fire Friday. Over three
hundred children marched out of the
building without an accident
A CORNER IM ROUEN
$3,100,000 in Gold Sent to Villa.
Fort Worth, Tei.—Real sinews of
war for Pancho Villa to use In his
revolution against the Carranza gov-
ernment, $3,100,000 in gold, passed
through Fort Worth Wednesday night
from New York, destined to Juarez,
Mexico, just across the border from
Li Paso. The money was shipped by
Wells Fargo express by Morgan ft
Co., bankers, in- New York, and was
billed to Pancho Villa, Juarez, Mex-
ico. Eight guards' accompanied the
shipment, which was made In a spe-
cial express car. The money was
packed In the Wells Fargo Express
Company Iron.boxes. The guards re-
turned East through Fort Worth Fri-
day night, having delivered the money
to the consignee.
OUEN, although barely sixty
miles in direct line northwest
of Paris, and considerably less
than one hundred miles from
the scene of the present savage
struggle in northeastern France, sits
In peace and cares for thousands of
the wounded allies In her hospitals,
writes E. N. Vallandlgham in the Phila-
delphia Record. She believes her
noble old cathedral, with Its fantastic
spire of Iron openwork shooting more
than 460 feet heavenward, safe from
the fate of the lovely structure at
Reims, less than 160 miles distant
The bombardment of Rouen Would
mean the ruin of some of the noblest
and oldest ecclesiastic structures In
France, but Rouen has maintained her
serenity on her beautiful site beside
the Seine In these last months and has
sent forward again to the front many
a soldier nursed back to life and
health. Her ancient churches, some
of them worn, as It ware to the bone,
by centuries of wind and rain, have
been even more frequented than usual
by these praying Normans, and heir
lovely little street shrines have attract-
ed more and more the pious glances of
the passers-by.
Looks Its Age.
Rouen Is one of the few old Euro-
pean cities of considerable size that
really look their age. Bhe has accom-
plished the seeming marvel of modern-
ising her political and. industrial life
without throwing off her medieval
garb. Here dwell 126,000 or 130,000
people, forming an active modern com-
tnunity, with the public appointments
and conveniences ojt a twentieth cen-
tury city, yet thousands of them live
In houses from 260 to 600 years old,
and the region round about seems to
the traveler enriched at every step
with the dust of centuries.
Hardly eight miles away, approached
through the magnificent public forest
of Roumere, covering 10,000 acres, Is
the perfectly preserved twelfth cen-
tury Norman church of St. George de
Boechervllle, while at every turn one
meets In the city ancient towers, aiiu
lovely remnants of old ecclesiastical
architecture. Rouen long ago outgrew
its walls, though s bit of the old de-
fenses that actually defied Shake-
speare’s Prince Hal almost exactly 600
years ago still stands.
Broad, new thoroughfares have pene-
trated the very heart of the old town,
yet everywhere the middle ages crop
out, and there remain at least a score
of old streets so narrow that the over-
hanging upper stories almost meet,
while there Is scant room for pedes-
trians to pass one another below, *Ae
narrowest streets have no sidewalk
whatever, while in many others, busy
and crowded, the footway la less than
two feet wide.
Remains of the Normans.
It Is, of course, not Oeltlo Rouen, the
seat of a bishopric more thfcn 1,600
years ago, that now survives, but
rather Norman Rouen, which Is only
1,000 years old. How those tall, crazy-
looking, half-timbered
so that the sun In
penetrates to the
alleys between, have--------
tlon by fire all these centuries
shall guess? Much _ ,
dtevallsm has sought to hide Itself
hind a superficially modem i
What looks like a
boose, at most 60 years old, t
ben one prise a bit to be i
or sixteenth
heavy, he#
are carried on in houses built long be-
fore such occupations were known to
men. Inns that bid for the custom of
the tourist still rotaln the old central
court where plays were enacted with
the well-to-do looking-'on from the
hotel balconies, the common folk from
what we should now call the pit, then
the roughly cobbled inn yard Itself.
Such Inns have the oddest, unexpected
stairways, the queerest red-tiled hall-
ways, narrow and dusky, great beams
showing beneath the plaster, windows
a single pane wide between the per-
pendicular timbers and fireplaces, now
nearly bricked up, but once open and
generous, with blazing logs before
which basked the. tired travelers (If
600 years ago.
Normans of Today.
In meeting the Normana of today M
they go about their ancient capital,
one feela anew the marvels of theli
history- One fancies in watching the
common people of Ronen that one seel
In these descendants of Duke RoUo’l
sea-wolves a persistence of the traltz
that made their ancestors the most
dreaded pirates of their day, ths foun-
ders of kingdoms In widely sundered
parts of Europe. The women In par-
ticular have a high distinction In foot
and figure. Girls walk with a sin-
gularly charming grace, with ths air ol
possessing the earth that they tread,
and carry their heads proudly, as 11
recalling the rough glories of their
race for 1,000 years. Beauty of line
and expression Is the dower of many
women In Norman Rouen, and both
men and women are quickly responsive
to courtesy from a stranger.
A lively and active race are these
Normans of Rouen and its environs.
Cider, their faVortte drink, Is served
at the simpler sort of Inns instead of
wine and at all restaurants and drink-
ing places. Sometimes It comes to the
table hardened by many weeks In
barrel; sometimes It appears
ly colored red, heavily sug
strongly charged with its own or
gases. A substantial luncheon of
bread, cheese, salted butter and a quart
of cider may be had at soma of the
suburban villages for about twenty
cents, and excellent is it In all re-
spects. Perhaps this drink has saved
the Normans from stronger liquors.
Joan'S Memory Honored.
The alums of Rouen show as repel-
lent human manifestations as one can
find In almost any city, and waterside
loafers are sometimes desperate look-
ing characters, though, perhaps, this
Impression Is due partly to their
squalid dress, unehaveh faces and un-
familiar dialect. Soma.of tha woman
who Inhabit tho lofty old rains on tho
edge of a sewerlike canal in
Rouen’s worst quarters would 1
excellent models for tl
Norman criminal llfa. E
flotsam and jetsam Is
small proportion of tha
deed, Normandy
served the ideals and
Here, If
of sainted
'M
j
-nsrer
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1
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La Grange Journal. (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 14, 1915, newspaper, January 14, 1915; La Grange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth998569/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.