| OCR Text |
Show Sermaize, France, an Example Ex-ample of the Ravages of the Invading Armies. Sermaize I-.es Bains. Franop via Paris Xov, 16. 10:30 a m This re- ' Kfonal town of 2800 inhabitants before the (lerraan invasion is representative representa-tive of what happens to a plaro in the path of tho hostile army, Thero were t'"11 houses and no a o.-cn bnl-1,1 bnl-1,1 scarred buiidinss are standing 111 the otbera have been knocked to pie-c. pie-c. s bv shells or burned. Walls of brick or stone, constructed with old fashioned care, burn by the 1 heat, an- tumbled In ruins across the stn eta Two hundred persons live in the dozen houses or in Improvised ' shelters set up against some of tho half ruined walls. Where are the others? A cr.uple of hundred men anBWeited tho mobilization call posted on the city hall on August 1. Then the ' French army In retreat cam-' through and upwards of 2000 inhabitants took ' to flight some by their own conveyances convey-ances others on the wagons of the f army transport and hundreds on foot. carrying packages and their small a children Many Times Under Shell Fire. Sermaize, which is 17 miles east northeast of Vitry le Francois, was - on the battle line of 120 mil. - cho-r cho-r sen bv General Joffre for the French stand. It was under shell fire when the French occupied the place, again when the Germans held it and when n lay between the two armies. This went on for five days The lightened inhabitants lived in the cellars cel-lars until the tumbling ruins began to choke the entrances Then the Germane, withdrawing for tho last time, set fire, it Is alleged, to all dwellings left standing and most of i hem were burned The 200 resi-, resi-, kins remaining took refuge in the open fields. An indeterminate number num-ber it is said, were killed or wounded by accident. Thus a prosperous lit tie city in a district which is the cen ter of sugar manufacturing, was almost al-most effaced. The correspondent has seen seven such towns and there ap-pear ap-pear to be a hundred more iu the country recovered from the Germans. |
