A Journey Through France in War TimeButler, Joseph G. (Joseph Green)
History
A Journey Through France in War Time
Butler, Joseph G. (Joseph Green)
France -- Description and travel; World War, 1914-1918
After the luncheon Colonel Tautot and the sub-prefect led the Commission
to inspect the ruined cathedral. This was a pitiful and fascinating
sight. This once famous cathedral is practically a wreck. I doubt very
much if it can ever be restored. We were taken into the interior and
were shown how wonderful stained glass windows had been blown out. We
picked up a number of the pieces of fine glass from the ground. The
making of this glass is a lost art and the coloring is most beautiful. I
brought home some of the glass and had it used as settings for a number
of rings which I presented to friends. The sub-prefect presented me, as
a relic, a bone--the front part of a forearm. This cathedral was the
burying place of number of archbishops and ancient royal personages,
and all these tombs were blown up.
[Illustration: Ruins at Reims. Upper and Lower Plates--The Cathedral.
Middle Plate--The Archbishop's Palace.]
Adjoining the cathedral was the archbishop's palace, famous the world
over, and its contents priceless. This was utterly destroyed. One of our
party, in looking about the ruins, picked up a large sized key, which
proved afterwards to be the key to the archbishop's residence. He was
given permission by the sub-prefect to retain this, and I subsequently
acquired it.
We also visited the market place and the old Notre Dame church built in
1149 by Charlemagne. This was a most beautiful church, the windows
almost equalling those of the Cathedral of St. Elme at Nancy, but
inferior to those in the Reims cathedral, said to have been the most
beautiful in the world. In this church we saw a statue of Jeanne D'Arc,
and a very fine painting of the "Ascension".
We were taken to the city hospital at Reims, which had been fired upon
and almost completely destroyed by the Germans while occupied by French
wounded. The range was obtained by the aviators, and then incendiary
bombs were fired. These bombs set fire to the buildings with which they
came in contact. We were told that hundreds of French soldiers were
killed with this mode of warfare. We could hear the bombs on the Aisne
front exploding while we were visiting the ruins of the hospital. We
were next shown around to view the ruins of the town. Twenty-five
hundred acres of houses were almost blown to pieces. We were told that
thousands of bodies of men, women and children were still under the
ruins. In an isolated part of these ruins, absolutely alone, we found
and talked to an old French woman, still occupying her house. She had
refused to move and insisted upon staying in her little home, one or two
rooms having been left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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