Show grim reminder of war marks verdun struggle the greatest battlefield of the war was verdun at and about it french alone were killed how many germans perished there we do not know fifteen years have passed since that mighty battle began shell hole holes still scar tl e landscape stumps and trunks of deadened trees mutely tell a story the grimmest relics are the bones they are gathered put in long boxes and la belled with the name of the sector in which they were found and the boxes are then deposited in the close by fort Dou amont A huge building with a crypt for each sector serves as a memorial the american legion joined in the dedi cation in this the mingled bones of filand and foe rest together till the judgment day sou you look into a wooden box larger than a casket it la is full to overflowing of bones bones bones arm bones leg bones ribs and jaws vertebrae and skulls the eye less bones of some mans man s head are grinning at you he may have been a prussian junk er with imperious waxed mustache turning saucily upward once frown tag ing on inferiors as his saber rattled X A light which will forever shine over one of the great battleships of history the beacon above the ossuary at dou aumont which was dedicated on the fourteenth anniversary of the beginning of the battle of verdun by his side he may have been a peasant from brittany who left hn ox cart by the side of the house and his wooden shoes in the chimney cor ner he may have been some ger man landsman who wanted war no more than the rest of us but who fought bis his best because he thought it was bis his duty to his country there they lie ile together now these are the dead with names unknown the unforgotten dead what say they about bristling armaments iron fists and pieces of paper that threaten peace speeches were made at the dedica tion of this by statesmen and warriors who live and breathe but the greatest speech of all came from thoe bones whose utter silence shout in peals of thunder we are the dead |