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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1918-5-9, Page 2CONFESSIONS OF A GERMAN SPY A SUMMARY OF THE KAISER'S CHARACTER. Exposes Intrigue and Treachery in Berlin's Efforts to Stir Up Strife Among Nations. !tomes—but the face that met mine LIFE IN A GERMAN startled me almost Out of my compos- ure, for it was more like the counten- ance of Pancho Villa than that of Wil- liam Hohenzollern, "That face, as a rule $o majestic in -- aero of n place for receiving the its expression, was drawn and lined! BRITON DESCRIBES TREATMENT wounded for operations after the first his hair was disarranged and sbowed dressing in the field stations; also numerous bald patches which it ordi- narily rdi- AS 1YAIt CAPTIVE. the sick from the retaliation camps•-- for so o r scovered. And his mustachemany of them simply skin and bone camps— for many years the target of friendnd -- h 1 't ] and foe—which was always pointed Prisoners IIerded Into Unsanitary so arrogantly upward, drooped down and gave him a dispirited look which Cells and Forced to do Heavy X had never seen him wear before. Work on Poor Rations. PRISON CAMP bath, medicine and rt, special diet which is ahnost incredible to mY friends, "I remained in this lazaret all June, and all July in the Prisoners' Hospit- al at Tournai. This latter place was Character of Kaiser, Sea 4--1. An Automobile Cure, ltumm� skeletons. In this hospital, "There's a story for you," said n As T Taft the room the husband mot and also in Germany, aspirin !s nbout country doctor to the writer as an au- the only medicine available, The food tomobile passed and he lifted his hand' me and said. 'Well, doctor, what do Belgian aelief. here was pretty' good, thanks to the from the steeringwheel to return the You think of hex?' 'Think of her 1 think she will be in notony. Do you wonder I found her in the eoud'!tion she was? Life in a German prison camp is de- "In North France, under enemy con - very soldiers in London aro Von der Ga t er summary of the A year ago that man called at my d'oesn very much disgusted over the latest Kaiser's character is interesting; scribed in all of its terrible details in trol, the civilians aro very sympath- I , , the matt the shock of his life by tell - news of German doings in regard to a letter recently received by a friend etie toward the prisoners, giving food office and said, 'I don't know what's . g g "So T ]eft him—this man who is a of A T. Lister, of the British Army. wherever possible, but it is not allow- ,the matter with my wife. She doesn't' ing him just what he had done.was their own troops in France, says a menace to his people, not because he ed and T 'have seen several suffer in y, He had the sense to realize I and, London correspondent, He wrote from Switzerland, as fol- , seem 'to tri real! sick but she s so lino A German airplane has dropped is t;enot, or from any criminal ler_ lows: consequence. These poor people aro and down -hearted all hire time, Im'right, and the heart to bell, sorry P p tent; not I believe, because a ler- Confined in Underground Cells, to be pitied—all their men being away and down-hearted about her. I thought: with tears running down s cheeks, rubber balls, filled with mustard gas, conal ambitionssla are such that phis since the beginning a the war rate I getting ter stop and ask you to come! begged me to tell him what is do. A the American lines ri France. The eumrtry must bleed to satisfy them, "I hops a brief resume of my ex- news of them—they cannot even write .to out and see if you could fix her up.' `Get an automobile and get her out,' American troops are furious at this but merely scenics his mind is the poriences as a 'kriegsgsfanger' will through neutral countries" The next day I drove out to the I.told him, `Take her to town, take t take her but a few minutes before I knew I was anywhere so she will see something the house, nu and the Theywith "ways that are dark." Summing up the effects of Ger-, the principal streets. Upon our at tl Teuton People th htt•ed man, and have something in her They have long passed the possibility many's dastardly plot against civilize -j rival at the fort we were addressed t k the spirit m The husband was , goo of surprise, or even anger, at any- tion, Von der Goltz says: in very broken English by a German thing that the Teuton can contrive to 'Germany has played a consistent dressed in the khaki of a Canadian do• i game throughout. She has sought to battalion, to the effect that we shouldman The German does not lack courage use all the existing weaknesses of the not be treated as ordinary prisoners its public men, but to the songs that acutenimetenthslto blame' for rtg r For titter followed were out in the cos some - The persistence. But he is at heart a world for her own purposes—all the of war, but more as criminals, and the poets write and the soldiers sing; money "dirty fighter," !rivalries, all the fears, all the anti after a period of detention to be then they come glowing of emotion from he red-hot yearss the buildings, buy been more g ed pure where almost ever had day. firstIt ev the The American soldiers come from a pathies she has utilized as fuel for ' sent into the German front line to fur country whore fighting has its rules her own fire, Although she has play- work tinder our own artillery fire; power of the nation. It is illuminating chasing expensive machinery. To do woman before every trace of me an - and where a quick and breaks the ed the game with the utmost fore-' also conditions of food, work, billets, therefore, to read this translation of these things he had stinted his family chnew woman. olia was gone and she was literally Pate awaits the man who breaks the . sight, with a skill that is admirable in &e„ would be very hard. Instructions a battle song that was found on a of comforts and pleasures and made a a The other day I saw her and she rules. 'spite of its perverse uses, and with an had been received from the .German German MsoldWr taken prisoner in drudge he of is wife. playing. the interest told me that she and her husband had Among sportsman, such hitting be- ' unfailing assurance of success—she' authorities that we should be put un - low the belt as the Germans employ has come to the fourth year of "the! der these conditions on account of the the historian of Italy, has made it ing game of making his farm a suc- been to !town to a Red Cross meeting y public on this side of the water,• cess, his wife had been cooking and and that :she was going to get the wo- es always unthinkable. The German great war with the fact of failure English Fgov�rnment having taken lip p The song is worthy of the age when !staying at home, mending and sewing men of her neighborhood to organize a the ancestors of the modern Germans burst out of the gloomy forests of the north to overthrow an earlier Italian civilization. It is primeval, savage; it tells us what the Germans ink of their diplomatists' themselves think P �ws_sertion that this was for them a 'RGar of defense." If our readers wish to see what wide contrasts there may be between the war spirits of great nations at war, let them, after reading this, read Mrs. How•e's Battle Hymn of the Republic. Son of Germany in arms: Forward! This is the hour of joy and glory. Olt, our artillerist, thy powerful cannon, thine invulnerable brother, calls thee; was it not made to renew the world? Oh, our rifleman, behold! thou art the force that wins; wherever thou cheery greeting of a bright -faced wo- man and her husband, the insane'hospi�ttll in a month if she 't !have a cbange.' Then I gave latest example of "dirty warfare." outcome of a system and an education be of interest. Immediately after my The United States has only had a so divorced from fact that he could capture on Sfay 3 we were sent to a A GERMAN BATTLE HYMN. farm, I had talked with the woman her to the neighbors to vest , few months' experience of German brass up against the situation that every besides the four walls o£ methods. Hex allies have grown fa- It were explained to hint." ;hand awaited us and paraded through 'li,hich Reveals the Savage Nature of country physician meets at some time tall: to somebody besides y not see the evil of his own position if fort in Lille. At the station a to • or ano er. If we wisho now p' a d sort in his starved life besides lonelinese and which a people make war, we go, not way, not deliberately hard and selfish, drudgery.' to the guarded and formal speeches of I mean, yet his wife was in a state of The automobiilre WAS bought and the the always hits below the belt. Pariah Among the Nations. If the German could only have fought fairly this war might have end- ed with universal respect and good - ',o fellowship, for friendship often be -'Germany, a country of quiet, peaceful !Voris and their reason for it. After gins with an honest hammer -and- folks, as I once knew it, bearing no'ten days of close confinement in un - tongs "scrap." As it is sentimental - malice, going cheerfully about their I derground cells -101 men in each—not ists may talk of brotherhood, but for I work, seeking their destiny with a I sufficient floor space for all to lay a long time to come the German will : will that has nothing in it of conquest. ; down on the concrete at the same time be a pariah among the nations—and j And I think of Germany embattled, I —a large tub in the middle of the this because of his thousand and one ruled by a group of iron men who seek room for sanitary arrangements—foul mean, underhand tricks. •. only their own ambitions as a goal— air, food, one slice of wear bread and I have been reading a newly pub -;who have brought upon the country one ladle of titin soup (barley and lished book which forms an amazing and the world this three years' tyran- mange) and one coffee per day—no record of German crime—an astound- ny of hate" utensils, so we used our steel hats for ing catalogue of sheer inhuman devil- ---4- basins—no spoons, no water, it was ry into which the German nation has I ONE THOUSAND DIE DAILY. sickening to see the fine healthy lads been led by its lust for world domin becoming dazed, weak as kittens. ation. Intolerable Conditions Exist Under In a Retaliation Camp. Von der Goltz is the German spy I'I the German Regime in Warsaw. "In this condition we were sent to who was arrested in England with a I Conditions in the Polish provinces work on the so-called retaliation camp. ! penetratest is Germany. false American passport, made out in now under German occupation have After a short railway journey, follow- Olt, our cavalryman,, spur, attack, the fictitious name of Bridgeman H. become intolerable. This is especial- ed by a fifteen kilometre march, we overthrow! let thy will spur on thy Taylor. His real identity was discov- ly true of Warsaw, where disease and arrived, exhausted, at our destination, horse like a winged victory. That ered by the capture of papers from privations have raised in one month at eleven p.m., and again addressed cowardly flesh (the Italians) is made Captain von Papen. He then confess- the death rate to 30;000 of a total to the same effect as above, our billet to manure the fields, which shall be ed to the detective authorities in Lon- population of 900,000. Two Swiss being a dirty, rat -infested stable, to thine and tth sons'. don that, under Von Papen's direction citizens who have recently returned lie down on the stone floor, without Son of Germany in arms, the great in America, he organized plots to from Poland, where they have been straw or blankets. In the adjoining hour has come. blow up the Welland Canal, and even from the outbreak of the war, brought building, two very high chimneys, used Life does not finish, it passes an and to invade Canada with the aid of Ger- to the Gazette de Lausanne a very for observation purposes. Up at five is?transformed without rest; the life man warships! gloomy story of the conditions in , a.m. the following morning; breakfast, of the conquered is absorbed by the Von der Goltz, in his book, "My Ad- Warsaw. coffee and small piece of dry bread• conqueror; the life of the slain belongs ventures as a German Secret Service They declared that all the horrible �N0 basins, &a, being provided, our to the slayer; see then how thou Agent," exposes the intrigue and pictures which appeared in various 'steel helmets and old tins were used. enlist gather on the breast of thy holy treachery which .Bert.,, ell not heli- papers about life in Poland are far The conditions of the work were most fatherland the life of the world. tate'toradoptin its efforts—fortunate- from being exaggerated, A very great severe. Eight hours continuous, from Do not bend to womanish pity to- ly unsuccessful—to set nations like percentage of the population of War- eight a.m. to four p.m., without a ward women and children; the child America and Japan, and America and saw has been reduced to extreme pea_ ,break for food, or even a rest, rushed of the conquered has often been the Mexico, at each other's throats.: urs As an illustration, they give the full speed by the guards, digging the conqueror to -morrow; and what will victory avail if revenge comes to - staring her in the face . .notice o' "Defeat! That is the end of this! German prisoners working in the Eng - silent warfare, this secret under -'dish front line. ground attack that has in it nothing; "Furthermore, they would compel f humanity and honor. I think of us to evrite home describing the condi- Murder, assassination, robbery, dy-'fact that a well dressed person can -'level main way for a railway, carry- namiting, the deliberate originating not wait for a street car on the cor- ;ing the rails and sleepers anything up morrow? What sort of a father and ill and all of thesent of crimeseb ere unhes nor without soon being surrounded g- ;to the railway other members of working the thy lenemythou and aif thou shouldst leave alive a dozen or more emaciated and rag- � tatingly committed. by Germany's se- ged men, women and children, ; Party were carrying shells over a the enemy of thy son? cret agents in America, with the ap- stretching out .their hands and ask- : hundredweight each right up to the Son of Germany in arms, forward! preys!, and in many cases by the di- ing for a few copeks, with which to front, under our own fire, one lad Fulminate, shatter, beat down, tians- rect incitement of the German buy a piece of bread. The hunger while I was at the camp being wound- fix, devastate, burn, KILL, KILL, author- ities. causes terrible ravages among the ed. For such heavy work the food ra- KILL! Reporting to the Kaiser. ' people, whether directly or through ; tions were very slender—per day, one- The hour of glory opens for us. . The Kaiser's personal knowledge of diseases which it brings about. quarter loaf of bread, one thin soup f l f �is secret agents' criminal proceed- In the single month of July there as mentioned before, one spoon u a The Silent Army. nags is proved by the fact that in the occurred in Warsaw 30,000 deaths, of Jam or `worst and occasionally a raw No bugle is blown, no roll of drums, early days of the war Von der Goltz a total population of 900,000. In the salted herring. My first three or four No sound of an army marching, was summoned back to Germany to following months some relief was clays of this work is still a nightmare.' No banners wave high, no battle cry make a special report on the Ameri- brought by the harvests, but the aver - 'After three weeks I was congratulat- Comes from the war worn fields where can situation to the All -Highest. age daily death rate continued to be ing myself I had trained my system i they lie, "It was still dark," he writes, from 300 to 400. to stand the demands, in spite of my The blue sky overarching. "when at 4 o'clock, I entered that There are in Warsaw four to five logs, first, and then my body swelling The call sounds Clearer than bugle • rooon the ground floor of the castle suicides a day. Most of these are due to an abnormal size, when I reported m call; where the Emperor of Emperors to poverty and despair, in cases of sick and was admitted into hospital. From this silent dreamless army. worked and ate and slept. In the dim People who were once wealthy. A I have since met lads who spent three "No cowards were we, when we heard night at Cumieres and fell in a heap light I saw him, bent over a table on great many houses have neither win- weeks in Lille fort and nine to twelve the call, at Lieut. Fabre's feet awaiting the which was piled correspondence of dews nor doors. The tenants, before months in retaliation ramp under For freedom we grudged not to give bullet. A group of French -officers, and etaying at home, washing and ironing and scrubbing—and staying at home some more. There had been variety and mental stimulus in the years for him. For old routine year same 1 Y ear in just the her,js and year out, and loneliness and mental barrenness in the pitiful mo - sewing club to make Red Cross sup- plies in co-operation with the town women. So, you see, the automobile is get- ting her in touoh'with her interests just as I hoped and believed it would," the dootor added with obvious pride in his "automobile cure." AN OFFICER'S FORBEARANCE. Incident of the Foreign Legion at the Battle of Cumieres. After the Battle at Cumieres, writes Mr. Gerald Brandon, Lieut. Fabre of the Foreign Legion was left for dead on the field. During the night while he lay there wounded, a party of Ger- man plunderers spread over the field and began their work of robbing the dead. One of them, an officer, finding that Lieut. Fabre was still alive, snatched a rifle from one of his men and plunged the bayonet into the breast of the helpless wounded Frenchman. But Lieut. Fabre did not die. He was brought in by a patrol that had gone out to search for his body, and he subsequently recovered; but his hatred for the murdering German be- came almost an obsession. One day when he was reviewing a new batch of prisoners he suddenly BRUTALITIES. OF GERMAN CAPTORS EXPOSED NAKED EIGHT HOURS IN SNOWSTORM. Unspeakable Cruelties Exercised on British Prisoners in Hun Prison Camps. Brush wounded officers and men who have just arrived in Rotterdam from Germany to board hospital ships for England after two or three years' captivity, tell of terrible cruelties in- flicted by the Germans, especially upon soldiers and sailors who have been taken unwounded, says a war correspondent. I have names which cannot be pub- lished because the Germans have a turned pale and, stopping a German system of vicarious punishment. These officer, asked him if he had been at men have been warned before leaving Cumieres on February 16th, and whe- camp in Germany that if they give then he had gone out on patrol that out any details of their treatment it night. The German replied that he will mean more severe punishment for had been at Cumieres, and that most those left behind. Drastic Punishment. One story told me was of a maty to whom Ambassador Gerard spoke on his first visit to Doberlitz in Decem- ber, 1914, He was standing outside in the snow cleaning vermin off the only shirt he possessed. When ques- tioned by Mr. Gerard he said it was his only shirt. The man was exposed on a hill naked in a snowstorm for killed in the same way? But that eight hours for having told this to Mr. Gerard, whom did not know. time you missed, and I saw Your face in the moonlight. I have hungered to is certain Lieutenant was taken meet you, but scarcely dared hope to, prisoner with' a bullet wound !n the ankle and was sent to a hospital. The Say your prayers, for you are about first dressing was left on the wound to die!" twenty-two days, when gangrene set The German, who up to that mo- in and the leg was amputated four ment had faced the pistol without tames until it was cut off almost to alarm, suddenly remembered that the hip. likely he had been one of the patrol. Lieut. Fabre could control himself no longer. Springing at the prisoner, he forced him against a wall and, pointing a pistol at him, broke out into a volley of abuse. "I hate you! Assassin! Murderer! And I will make you pay. You do not remember the helpless blesse you bay- oneted that night at Cumieres? How many wounded Frenchmen have you all kinds. He did not seem to have dying of 'hunger, have used them as similar conditions. From ties time for- I our a11," heard me enter the room,- and as he fuel for their stoves, ward I had a run of remarkably good Is the call from the silent army. continued to work, signing paper after r' paper with great rapidity) I looked Nitrate of soda, three to five pounds dawn and noticed that, in my haste to to a tree spread under the trees about appear before him on time, I had the time the leaves begin to appear, dressed completely save for one thing, will increase cons!de' bl• the yield of fortune, only experiencing periods of hunger and a few other trials. Got Special Treatment. "It was indeed a very good thing for me to be sent to the field hospital Y was in my stocking feet" fruit. pre- sence. He looked up then. ' I at Templeave (sixteen kilometres "I coughed to up then, and T saw ea my pre- The housewife must not practise ; from Lille). I was the only English - economy at the expense of the health man there, and received every possible that he wore a Litewka, that undress attention from several skilled German military jacket evhicb is used by sol- of her family. Growing children must diens for :stable -duty, and which Ger- have gond milk to drink, as well as doctors and attendants. Special man oificers wear sometimes in their other nourishing food. 'treatment for my complaint; electric Hushed and quiet and still they lie, This silent, dreamless army, "Shoot the pig!" said one, "We will While living comrades spring to their report that he tried to escape." side, a Lieut. Fabre's finger tightened on And the bugle call and the battle cry the trigger. Then with an effort he Is heard as dreamer and dreamless controlled -himself and said contempt - lie, ouously: Under the stars of the arching sky, "Get up and take your place in the The men who have heard from the ranks, You richly deserve death, but men who have died, I am a French officer, not an execu The call of the silent army. tioner." attracted by the tumult, had come up and were silently watching the drama. They knew the story. IP 111 fa 17) trA3 gS, C- 13„"e. Tom, THAT coLLAee Does afar Loole poop ole cote- 1 boN'Y sze WIN You WCAfZ 1Y OHCOIJuIM TOMM'i,'tea Wag- LIKE A MoeINCoDDLE IN THAT Col LAR 7 v ll� 3">a% Porl-r Lilo THEY `NEI - — / " Si SHOu4D Melee ABolar ye VIM"' YHE`t YNINeC. I 1 of Mel CLDfleGa •- OR WIIAv' AN116ODY ELSE Y 1 YIIINKS, > oR THAT s � qi, I DO EN I WELL dl1ST iEki) CU �� � `low AWN BU.uyr:•SS: --v �� �=a., 'ter �,{q I Cwr t�tllg+ �/ i{ 1 y •<3 r o1 i 1•!i ti. - + h � y y; "' e.. � r =4 P�^• , i-1 Vie SEEN YOU I Wag)? WoR6e,JU�?`i0U -to 6E )N SYyLE t } i iixf.,f� , '5 { ' ' . r � II f/ rr►�s/�•, 4�� lig .. r,4':_d.. LMATMR. epy s. t✓ A. ' 7 1. ,',' �y r... - . .. " Men sent to work in salt mines re-. turn after a few months like skeletons, with incurable running sores and brain power gone. Dutch business men returning to Denmark from Berlin say Germany is short of anaesthetise and operations are being performed without them, the soldiers suffering horrible tor- tures, and many succumb. Surprise your house by giving it a new coat of paint, but first consult your wife to see what color she pre- fers, HUNS COMPLETE RAZING OF RHEIMS FIRE FINISHES RUIN BEGUN BY ENEMY SHELLS. Cathedral .malls Stone by Stone and Nothing Will be Left of Magni- ficent Structure. Rheims, which has been on fire for a week, is now nothing but a great pile of smoking ruins, writes a corre- spondent on April 19th, During the last week the Germans have fired more than 100,000 shells into the heart of the city, according to the cor- respondent of Le Matin, and flames from the burning buildings can be seen by aviators sixty and seventy miles away. There are no traces of streets and thoroughfares, which have disappear- ed from view under the accumulation of debris. Ancient buildings in the Place Royale and the market place and the Musicians' House, which datea from the sixteenth century, have been reduced to dust and ashes. The vaulting of the famous Rheims Cathedral, the correspondent says, is falling stone by stone and soon there will be nothing left of the edifice but the west front and the pillars. Shells are still bursting all around the build- ing. Notwithstanding the terrible bom- bardment, forty Paris firemen are still in the city working to save the furni- ture and portable effects of the inhab- itants. Some of them have lost their lives. Now City of the Dead. Rheims, before the war a city of more than 100,000 souls, has slowly, but none the leas surely been falling a victim to German hate. In their first advance in the fall of 1914 the Germans held Rheims for several days, but the battle of the Marne stopped their advance and they fell back to a line a few miles north. and northeast of the city. Since then the big German guns have been bom- barding the city and its famous cathe- dral. The population of the city until a few months ago was less than 18,000, but these persons lived in dugouts or in cellars and the city was virtually dead. The cathedral was one of the most magnificent examples of early Gothic architecture and was begun in 1212. The west facade had three portals, which contained about 530 statues. Up to November 1, 1916, the Ger- mans had fired thousands of shells into the city, 1,000 of which had struck the cathedral. Since then, whenever the German troops met with reverses the enemy guns took up the bombardment anew. German military authorities have attempted to excuse the bombardment of the cathedral on the ground that it was being used for military purposes by the French, These Are Grave Hours. These are grave hours, and yet we should not brood On peril, rather look it in the face, Abjuring fear, and every lingering trace Of darkening doubt, in an exalted mood. Let us each take new grip on fort!- . tude; Let us not quail nor flinch, for that were base; Let us have heart, for we are of a race That against wrong has ever steadfast stood! These are grave hours. 'Twrere futile to deny The threat of Might, and its embat- tled powers; A dreadful menace looms upon the sky! Nearer and nearer the black shadow t Shall theowers; lose faith and trust? Nay, let us ery— "Couragel" and "Courage!" during these grave hours, --.Clinton Scollard. MORE HORSE MEAT SOLD. Increase in French Supplies Fails, However, to Lower Prices. The extended sale of horse meat is one of the means counted upon by the city authorities to relieve the provi- sion market, says a Paris correspond- ent, The, salve of horse flesh for many years has been considerable in the poorer quarters of Paris and it bas incrensed considerably daring the war. Last year 48,884 horses vete killed at the Vaugirard slaughter houses, The increased supply of horse meat had no depressing effect upon prices, how- ever, The British army is new the chief source of supply of horses for killing. IVlore than 12,000 horses were vacate - tad from that source last year, yet the prices went from the equivalent of twenty-eight cents a pound to forty cents for ordinary outs and from thirty-five cents to fifty cents a pound for the choice bits of Iloilo flesb, Awkward Squad. Irate Captain Melt there.) Astonished—What'e the matter? Irate Captain Yteer horse's hind legs 'are out bf step with the fore legs. .cls , e - .d.• `I�ftY+;'tt)r+a. ��4 ill 17 � i�♦. 116 t N't ✓ 1.25.0,1.-. ��i M _< town) eme. 70a aav ev • CaNDo- xi` `fsi IP ANYBODY 'MAT 1 W 1=IaR KNOW MINT CAN .,}, tt* s' .�• .16 3 .W ., t= 1��1jj %wi Op A s Porl-r Lilo THEY `NEI - — a >i 1 i1. d ��1 .. !` 4� �Pb``yr- +r:. . s, ;, l1141 .. \ /// ., o �� HUNS COMPLETE RAZING OF RHEIMS FIRE FINISHES RUIN BEGUN BY ENEMY SHELLS. Cathedral .malls Stone by Stone and Nothing Will be Left of Magni- ficent Structure. Rheims, which has been on fire for a week, is now nothing but a great pile of smoking ruins, writes a corre- spondent on April 19th, During the last week the Germans have fired more than 100,000 shells into the heart of the city, according to the cor- respondent of Le Matin, and flames from the burning buildings can be seen by aviators sixty and seventy miles away. There are no traces of streets and thoroughfares, which have disappear- ed from view under the accumulation of debris. Ancient buildings in the Place Royale and the market place and the Musicians' House, which datea from the sixteenth century, have been reduced to dust and ashes. The vaulting of the famous Rheims Cathedral, the correspondent says, is falling stone by stone and soon there will be nothing left of the edifice but the west front and the pillars. Shells are still bursting all around the build- ing. Notwithstanding the terrible bom- bardment, forty Paris firemen are still in the city working to save the furni- ture and portable effects of the inhab- itants. Some of them have lost their lives. Now City of the Dead. Rheims, before the war a city of more than 100,000 souls, has slowly, but none the leas surely been falling a victim to German hate. In their first advance in the fall of 1914 the Germans held Rheims for several days, but the battle of the Marne stopped their advance and they fell back to a line a few miles north. and northeast of the city. Since then the big German guns have been bom- barding the city and its famous cathe- dral. The population of the city until a few months ago was less than 18,000, but these persons lived in dugouts or in cellars and the city was virtually dead. The cathedral was one of the most magnificent examples of early Gothic architecture and was begun in 1212. The west facade had three portals, which contained about 530 statues. Up to November 1, 1916, the Ger- mans had fired thousands of shells into the city, 1,000 of which had struck the cathedral. Since then, whenever the German troops met with reverses the enemy guns took up the bombardment anew. German military authorities have attempted to excuse the bombardment of the cathedral on the ground that it was being used for military purposes by the French, These Are Grave Hours. These are grave hours, and yet we should not brood On peril, rather look it in the face, Abjuring fear, and every lingering trace Of darkening doubt, in an exalted mood. Let us each take new grip on fort!- . tude; Let us not quail nor flinch, for that were base; Let us have heart, for we are of a race That against wrong has ever steadfast stood! These are grave hours. 'Twrere futile to deny The threat of Might, and its embat- tled powers; A dreadful menace looms upon the sky! Nearer and nearer the black shadow t Shall theowers; lose faith and trust? Nay, let us ery— "Couragel" and "Courage!" during these grave hours, --.Clinton Scollard. MORE HORSE MEAT SOLD. Increase in French Supplies Fails, However, to Lower Prices. The extended sale of horse meat is one of the means counted upon by the city authorities to relieve the provi- sion market, says a Paris correspond- ent, The, salve of horse flesh for many years has been considerable in the poorer quarters of Paris and it bas incrensed considerably daring the war. Last year 48,884 horses vete killed at the Vaugirard slaughter houses, The increased supply of horse meat had no depressing effect upon prices, how- ever, The British army is new the chief source of supply of horses for killing. IVlore than 12,000 horses were vacate - tad from that source last year, yet the prices went from the equivalent of twenty-eight cents a pound to forty cents for ordinary outs and from thirty-five cents to fifty cents a pound for the choice bits of Iloilo flesb, Awkward Squad. Irate Captain Melt there.) Astonished—What'e the matter? Irate Captain Yteer horse's hind legs 'are out bf step with the fore legs.