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Show oo ARRAS A CITY OF DESTRUCTION By PATRICK DE BATHE. Northern France, Dec. 4. With tho exception of Lille-Fives, a suburb of Lille, that city has been spared by the Germans Arras on the other hand, has suffered terribly A correspondent who left Lille November No-vember 29 states that the inhabitants have not suffered from any unsual exactions The Germans have satis-fled satis-fled themselves with levying upon necessaries of life; they have even undertaken to see to the importation of eggs, butter and milk. The cafes are open and the tramways tram-ways are running between Lille, Rou-baix Rou-baix and Tourcoing. All tho workshops work-shops and factories have been left Intact. M. de la Salle, the mayor, is compared to the redoubtable Max of Brussels He seems to exercise a wonderful influence over the German authorities and fights with the greatest great-est tenacity for the rights of his fellow fel-low citizens. Typhoid, contrary to reports, his not broken out in Lille. Several cases ca-ses have been reported from the German Ger-man army, any one of which if it develops de-velops in the town is removed to the neighborhood of Lomme. All of the hospitals in Lille have been taken over by the German authorities. au-thorities. They are full of German wounded. The chief German surgeon in charge of the Red Cross work at Lille told a French doctor that the Germans lost over 150,000 men on the banks of the Yser. The story of Arras is different. The dally number of shells poured upon the town is now reduced to an average aver-age of 200. The hours of bombard- I ment are always the same from 10:15 a. m. to midday and from 2 p. m to 6 p. m. During the night -i marmlte, as they are called, is dropped drop-ped at hourly Intervals to mark time and replace the clocks which have been destroyed. The hospital of St. John has been completely destroyed; two bare portions por-tions of its east wall arc all that remain. re-main. The Hotel Des Postes is three-quarters three-quarters In ruin; the historic belfry is entirely gone. The Rue Fatdherbe, the principal business thoroughfare, is in ruins. The Palais de St. Vaast, tho cathedral, the archbishop's palace, the college and every monument and historic building lie smouldering in ruins. Over 350 houses have been leveled and 300 others partly destroved The total casualties, on the other hand, ire only sixty killed and eighty wound -el. all of whom were civilians. |