Show SAVES A A N LIVES escape german shell when one of party stops tp dig up relic SEE SCENES OF desolation once richly cultivated valleys speckled with happy co now but a sodden panorama of churned up soil sol with the french annies armies in the I 1 told it 11 one of the party hada t stopped to dig up a boche bayonet from the road side this piece have been written 11 ra the french officer and his charges had tarried on the way bach back to verdun from ona one of the outlying forts to chat with a banch of bed red cross men and incidentally to watch the antics of a flock ot german airplanes as they dodged in and out among the fea fiery puffs of shrapnel the usual daly dally artillery strafe had been on for some hours hundreds of tons of metal had been boNNI bowling Ing above our heads from both sides far up and down the line at times there was nas a shot for every second but so far the boche bocho targets had been located a corn cont for or table distance away our officer had given the word to resume the journey and the chauffeurs were cran cranking lIng up when the opportunity of gathering in another battlefield souvenir intervened it ts Is still stin there careful figuring conducted very shortly thereafter in one of the bed red cross dugouts nearby convinced the whole party that it if it haan t been tor for the bayonet episode our cars would have collided with the big boche doche shell just at the tile moment of its explosion about a block down the road the experience had merely supplied a 11 vivid final touch to impressions already acquired of what nhat the soldiers of verdun have been undergoing in he be last eighteen months in this region nature has been given no opportunity as she has for example on the battlefield of the somme to repair as best she can the ravages of war nar from the top of one of the battered forta forts that now forms an unbreakable ring about verdun recaptured from the gergins with a valor and at a sacrifice of life that will make its name immortal in history stretches out as far as ten ply made in germany binoculars can reach a vista of utter devas ration scene of desolation once thickly forested hills bills and rich ly cultivated valleys alleys speckled with happy villages now a sodden grayl 6 monotonous panorama pa norima of churned up soli soil cairs crossed here and there with trench trenches eq and only an occasional stump or pile of crumpled stones to evidence its former beauty its like atre dame de do lorette almy messines and ridge all scrambled together all the forces of nature fire flood hurricane and earthquake could not have wrought such havoc only man could do it lien looking backward the only discernible color Is the green of the distant hills the shattered red tiled roofs of the fortress city and the clusters of purple wreathed graves where sleep the men who nho made the motto of verdun on ne passe pas no trespassers allowed I 1 a reality the germans now occupy much the same line as that from which the crown prince launched his costly but futile attack upon this stronghold previously we had traversed the valley of the marne whose landscape bears ample testimony to the characteristic french traits of dash mobility and resourcefulness just us as Ver duns pitifully harrowed hillsides hill sides will always be a monument to the hitherto less familiarly known french qualities of tireless energy and dogged stubbornness land grimly held by french then on through the forest of the verges down to where arance I 1 ranee in the early days of the war plu plucked cled and still tightly clutches a bit of what used to be hers its it 8 only a few square miles just about equal to the plot of ground hint alluin el luin now liolis of her on raishe d country lut entirely sufficient to exemplify an aud justify another fine french trait intense pride of accomplishment alsace I 1 proudly reads the sign over a little shop fir intIng the badly scarred old church la in the public square of thann nearly nil all the old signs have been changed ft from german but some have liae lia e been retained last just for souvenirs in this corner of the lost provinces there Is no doubt how the people stand are the people of ce tv war weary 1 yes so are those of all europe but they are not weary ueary to the point of even thinking of giving up the gle despite or rather because of ftfe th fact that of all the allies france a dens and her sacrifice in blood and det deia homes has been the greatest in a tour of the war zone and of jhb provincial towns behind the lines from the channel to switzerland one may find everywhere abundant evidence of a relentless determination among both looth soldiers and bome folks to see uie the thing through but the predominant sentiment in france today Is one of intense gratitude that has come it ir to help any fleeting courts as to tha th acome were dispelled alth the archal of the |