OCR Text |
Show Desperate Stand Made By French Nancy, Behind tho French Lines, Sopt. 27. in this cornor of Franco war correspondents aro still almost cntlroly out of tho lighting, but there aro other things besides tho central engagements. For miles along tho chief highways between Nancy and tho frontier cast nnd north tho battlo has raged backward nnd forward. Everj'whero thoro aro trenches, covered cov-ered and uncovered. Tho Gorman nnd French fighting has been so complU cnted and tlio positions chnnged so often that It Is practically lmposslblo to tell with anv exactness by what troops they wero occupied. Only the general position Is clear; only tho general destruction remains. Broken telegraph poles, hanging wires, hop gardens Bcorched nnd shattered shat-tered by sheets of lire, blackened corn stalks rotting whero they stand, plows t and farm carts twisted and smashed, festering bodies, dead horses In hldo-onsly hldo-onsly ungainly attitudes, capecoats, ' saddles, haversacks, socks, shirts-all shirts-all kinds ot things that men mado I and used and woro, all manner of . rubbish that onco had form nnd beauty beau-ty together mako up n horrible trag-' cdy of desolation, decay, of unuttcr-' nblo nolso and fury nnd suffering, death and tho dead, tho pltlablo little heaps of clothes, gray or rod and blue, that onco woro men that helped mako all this desolation. Its victims, nearly nil ff them, havo been burled, hidden awny in tho shelter of tho brown old earth. Taken by way of contrast, tho story ' of tho splendid stand nt Cprcjoull b tho French chasscurs-a-plcd mnkes splendid reading. Eight hundred ot them wero surrounded by tho Germans Ger-mans and called upon to surrender. With ono voico they refused. Tho order was given to tiro upon them by volleys. After each volley tho survivors sur-vivors shouted "Viva la Franco." . Finally by somo unheard of effort 250 of those who wero left managed to got tho upper hand of tho enemy. They retook tho position, leaving more than 1000 dead Germans on the field. |