The Oregon daily journal., May 21, 1916, Page 41, Image 41

tVEBITlfV- VlSlBIlf FMtUHG AWAT By FranK H. Simon.
ppRBlf DENSER
Ancient Fortress Now
Beehive of Activity
City Itself Vanishes
Under Enemy's Fir
-. - - -? - - - ; 4ift
air'
Oopyrlght, ., The Tribune Association, Tha
New York Tribune.)
TUB citadel of Verdun, the bulwark
of the. eastern frontier in ancient
days, rises out of the meadows of
7hs Meuae with something of abrupt
ness of th skyscraper and atlll pro-
v i J t k mm yv- i niuvu . - - -
era of other ware to describe all
forts as 'frowning." It was built
for Ixmis XIV by Vauban. He took
a solid rock and blasted out redoubts
and battlements. The generation that
fallowed him dug into the living; rock'
and created within it a whole city
of catacombs, a vast labyrinth of pas
sages and chambers and halls; even
an elevator was added by the latest
engineers, so that one can go from
floor to floor, from the level of the
meadow to the level of the summit
of the rock, possibly a hundred feet
above.
fly reason of the fact that many
correspondents have visited this fort
ress since the war began, the world
has come to know of the underground
life In Verdun, to think of the city
as defended by some wonderful sys
tem of subterranean wdrks; to think
of Verdun, In fact, as a city or cit
adel that la defensible either by walls
' or by forts. But the truth is far
different; even the old citadel is but
a deserted cave; lta massive walls of
natural rock resist the sheila as they
would repulse an avalanche; but the
(una that were once on lta parapets
are gone, the garrison Is gone, gone
far out on the trench lines beyond
the hills. The Vauban citadel la now
a place where bread ia baked, where
wounded men are occasionally
brought, where live the soldiers and
officers whose important but unro
mantla mission is to keep the roads
through the town open. ' to police the
aahea of the city, to do what, remains
of the work that once fell to the lot
of the civil authorltlea.
To glide awlftly to the shelter of
this rock from a region In which a
falling shell has eerved to remind
you of the real meaning of Verdun of
the moment, to leave the automobile
and plunge into the welcome obscurity
of this, cavern thla was perhaps the
most comfortable personal Incident of
the day. The mere' shadow of the
rock gave a aense of security; to pen
etrate It was to pass to safety.
Sly Host la Verdtuu
Some moments of wandering by
corridors and stairways into the very
heart of the rock brought us to the
Quarters or our nost, uenerai jjudois;
to his kind attention I was to owe all
my good fortune in seeing hlh dying
city; to him, at the end, I was to
owe the. ultimate evidence of cour
tesy, which I shall 'never forget.
Unlike Petain or Joffre, General
Dubois Is a little man, possibly a tri
fle older than either. A white haired,
bright eyed vigorous soldier, who
made his real fame in Madagascar
with Joffre tnd with Oallienl, and
when the storm broke was sent to
' Vardun by these men, who knew him,
,: uu mo uuiiiuiL wuin Liittt. Lucre wets
i to be performed behind the battle
.line. There is about General Dubois
suggestion ui me oiu, as wen aar
me new. or ma xrencn general, ma
f private soldiers to whom he spoke
v aa he went his rounds responded with
V a, ...VIS J,aVaC. . ItU . a iivia
of affection era well as discipline; he
'Was rather as one fancied were the
soldiers of the revolution, of the em
pire, of the Algerian daya of Pere
' Bugeaud, whose memory is still green.
Our salutations made, we returned
through the winding corridors to in
spect the. bakeries, the water and light
plant, the tinauspected resources of
j thla rock. In one huge cavern we
aw the men who provided 30,000 men
With bread each day, men working as
the stokers in an ocean steamer labor
amidst the glare of fires; we tasted
the bread and found It good, as good
i as. all French bread is, and that means
a little better than all other bread.
Then we slipped back Into daylight
InH wsn.lnrpH ulnnir f Vi aa 1 a r a nf tha
fortress. We inspected shell holes of
yesterday and of last month; we in
spected them as one inspects the best
blossoms in a garden; we studied the
angle at which they dropped; .we
measured the miniature avalanche
that they brought with them. But
always, so .'far, there was the sub
conscious sense of the rock between
us and the enemy. I never before
understood the full meaning of that
phrase "a rock in a weary land."
A City Dying Hourly.
. All this was but jwelimlnary, how
aver. Other automobiles arrived; the
general entered one. I followed in
the neit and we set out to visit
Vardun, to vlalt the ruins, or, rather,
to sea not a city that was dead, but
a city that waa visibly, hourly dying
-i-a city that waa vanishing by blocks
and by squares but was not yet fall
an to the estate of Ypres or Arras; a
City that in corners, where there were
gardens behind the walls, still smiled;
a city where some few brave old build
lngs. still stood four square and solid,
bUt -Onl V WAitlntr whaf Warn tn -nmi
Before I visited Verdun I had seen
many cities and towns which had been
wholly ot partially destroyed, either
by shell fire or by the German sol
diers In their great invasion before
tha Marne. Ona shelled town is much
ilka another, and there is no thrill
fill 1 1 A It Ira that VAll avnarl.nna .........
you sea the first. But these towns
V . 4 1 . J 1 a .
- - - - J " w Jvni, (au, aai-
deed. in most resurrection had bearun:
little red roofs were beginning to
shine through the brown trees anj
stark rulna. Children played again
in the aquares. It waa like the sense
you have when you see an old peasant
plowing among the cross marked
graves of a hard fought battle cor
ner -tha aense of a beginning as well
aa Of death and destruction.
But at Verdun it was utterly differ
ent. Of life, or people, of activity
beginning again or surviving there
kvaa nothing. Some time in the re-
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NOTE Dr. 'Eberla and Dr. Bralth
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hat whatever may ba tha disease, tha
fine seldom falls . in r. furnishing ua
lib a clue to tha principles upon
cent -past all tha little people who
uvea in these houses had put upon
wagons what could be quickly moved
and had slipped out of their home,
that was already under sentence of
death. They were gone into the dis
tance, and they had left behind them
no atragglers. The city waa empty
aave for a few eoldiera who passed
rapidly along the streets, as one
marches in a heavy snowstorm.
Vagaries of Shell Tire.
Yet Verdun waa not wholly dead.
Shell fire Is the most inexplicable of
all things that carry destruction. As
you pass down one street the 'mark
of destruction varied with each house.
Here the blast had come and cut the
building squarely; it had carried
with it Into ruin behind in the court
yard all that the house contained
but against the wall the telephone
rested undisturbed; pictures possibly
even a looking glass hung as the in
habitants had left it, hung as perhaps
it had hung when the last woman had
taken her ultimate hurried glance at
her hat before she departed info the
outer darkness. .
But the next house had lost only
the front walls; it stood before you
as if It had been opened for your
inspection by the removal of the fa
cade. Chairs, beds all the domestic
economy 'of the house sagged visibly
outward toward the atreet, or atood
still firm, but open to the four winds.
It was as if the scene were prepared
fcjr a stage and you sat before the
footlights looking into the interior.
Again, the next house and that beyond,
were utterly gone side, walls, front
walls, everything swallowed up and
vanished the Iron work twisted Into
heaps, the stone work crumbled to
difut; the whole mass of ruin still
smoked, for it was a shell of yester
day that had done this work.
Down on the Riviera, where the
mistral blows all the pine trees lean
away from the invariable track of
this storm wind you have the sense,
even In the summer months of a
whole countryside bent by the gales
In the same fashion you felt in Ver
dun, felt rather than saw, a whole
town not bent, but crumpled, crushed
and the line of fall was always ap
parent; you could tell the direction
from which each storm of shells had
come, you could almost feel that the
storm was but suspended, not over,
that at any moment it might begin
again.
Vet even in the midst of destruction
there were enclaves of unshaken
structures. On the Rue Mazel, "Main
street." the chief clothing store rose
immune amid ashes on all aides. Its
huge plate glass window was not even
cracked. And behind the window a
little mannikin, one of the familiar
Images that wear clothes to tempt
the purchase, stood erect. A French
soldier had crept in and raised the
stiff arm of the mannikin to the sa
lute, pushed back the hat to a rakish
angle. The mannikin aeemed alive and
more than alive, the embodiment of
the spirit of the place. Facing north
ward toward the German guns H
occucu io respond 10 mem with a
morituri salutamus." "Th ia
civilian In Verdun." the soldiers called
,hlm. but his manner was rather that
of the Poilu.
A -Factory That Was.
We crossed the river and the canal
and stopped by the ruins of what had
once been a big factory or warehouse.
We crawled through an open shell
made breach in the brick wall and
stood in the Interior. The ashes were
still hot, and in corners were smoking
fires. Two days ago, at Just this
time, your guides told you, men had
been working here; making- bread. I
think. At the same time we had
come to the ruins the same time of
day. that is the Germans had dropped
a half dozen incendiary shells into
the building and it had burned in ten
minutes. Most of the men who had
been there then were still there, un
der the smoking mass of wreckage;
the smell of burned human flesh was
In the air.
A few steps away there was a little
hcaise standing intact. On the floor
there" were stretched four rolls of
white cloth. The general and those
with him took off their hats as they
entered. He opened one of the pack
ages and jou 'saw only a charred
black mass, something that looked
like a half burned log taken from the
fireplace. But two days ago it had
been a man, and the metal disk of
Identification had already been found
and had served to disclose the Vic
tim1,, name. These were the first
bodies that had been removei from the
ruins.
Taking our cars again, wa drove
back and stopped befora the Marie
and passing under the arch entered
the courtyard. The bullfllng had fared
better than most, but there were many
shell marks. In tha courtyard were
four guns. Forty-six yeara before
another German army had come down
from the north, another whirlwind of
artillery had atruck the town and laid
it in ashes, but even under the ashes
the town had held out for three weeks.
Afterward the republlo of France had
given these guns to the people of
Verdun in recognition of their heroism.
Tha Fireman of Tardon.
In the courtyard I was presented
to a man wearing the uniform and hel
met of a fireman. He waa tha chief
of the Verdun fire department His
mission, his perilous duty, It waa to
help extinguish the fires that flamed
up after every shelL In all my Ufa
I have never seen a man at onca ao
crushed and so patently courageous.
He was not young, but his blue Lor
raine eyes were still clear. Yet he
looked at you. he looked out uoon tha
i world, with undisguised nm7-mon
For a generation his business had been
to fight fires. He had protected his
little town from conflagrations that
might sometimes, perhaps twice, have
risen to the dignity of a "three alarm."
For the rest ho had dealt with blazes.
which it la to be treated, and accurate
knowledge concerning the nature of
the. disease can thus be obtained. vIf
backache, scalding urine or frequent
urination bother or distress, you or It
uric acid In the blood has caused rheu
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urine this 'will be carefully dona with
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years of experimentation haa discov
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Now, out of the skies and th dark
ness and out of the daylight too,
fire had descended upon his town.
Under an avalanche of Incendiary
shells, under a landslide of fire, his
city was melting visibly into ashes.
He had lived fire and dreamed fire
for half a century, but now the world
had turned to fire his world and he
looked upon it In dazed wonder. He
cojld no longer fight this fire, re
strain it, conyuer it; he could only
go out under the bursting shells and
strive to minimize by some fraction
the dv.3truction, but it was only child's
play, this work of his which had
been a man's business. And there was
no mistaking the fact that this world
was now too much for him. He was
a brave man; they told me of things
he had done; but his l.ttle cosmos had
gone to chaoa utterly.
Where tha Crown Prince Came Hot.
We entered our cars again and went
to another quarter of the city. Every
where were ashes and ru'n, but every
where the sense of a destruction that
was progressive, not complete; it ill
marched. It was as Arras had been,
they told me, before the last wall hat
tumbled and the Artoria capital had
become nothing bu a memory. We
climbed the slope toward the cathedral
and stopped in a little square still un
scathed, the Place d'Armes, the most
historic acre of the town. After a mo
ment I realized what my friends were
telling me. It was in this square that
the Crown Trlnce was to receive the
surrender of the town. Along the road
we had cljmbed he was to lead his vic
torious army through the town and
out the Porte de France beyond. In
this square the kaiser was to stand and
review the army, to greet his victori
ous son. The Scene as it had been ar
ranged was almost rehearsed for you
in the gestures of the French officers.
"But William has not come," they
said; "and he will not come now." This
Uat was not spoken as a boast, but as
a faith, a conviction.
Still climbing, we came to the cathe
dral. It Is seated on the very top pin
nacle of tha rock of Verdun, suggest
ing tha French cltiea of Provence. Its
two towers, severe and lacking orna
mentation, are the landmarks of the
countryside for miles around. When I
came back to America I read the story
Of an American correspondent whom
the Germans had brought down from
Berlin to see the destruction of Ver
dun. They ,had brought him to the
edge of the hills and then thrown some
Incendiary shells into the town, the
very shells that killed the men whose
bodies I had seen. The black smoke
and flames rushed up around these
towers, and then the. Germans brought
the correspondent over the hills and
showed him the destruction of Verdun.
He described it vividly, and concluded
tuat the condition of the town must be
desperate.
Teutonic Stage Management.
They are a wonderful people, these
Germans, in their stage management
Of course, this was precisely the thing
that they desired that he should feel.
They had sent their shells at the right
moment, the whole performance had
gone off like clockwork. Those poor
blackened masses of humanity in the
house below were the cost that was
represented In the performance. And
since there 1s much still left to burn
in Verdun, the Germans may repeat
this thing whenever they desire.
But somewhere three or four miles
from here, and between Verdun and
tha Germans, are many thousands of
Frenchmen, with guns and cannon, and
hearts of even finer, metal. They can
not even know that Verdun la being
shelled or Is burning, ;and - if it burns
to ultimata ashes it - will - not ' affect
them or their 11 ilea This is tha fal
lacy of all tha talk of tha destruction
of 'Verdun city and tha desperate con-
Ruin wrought by German artillery
dltion of Its defenders. The army left
Verdun for the hills when the war be
gan; the people left when the present
drive began in February. Even the
dogs and cAs, which were seen by cor
respondents in earlier visits, have been
rescued and sent away. Verdun is
dead; it Is almost as dead as .are Arras
and Ypres. but neither of these towns,
after a year and a half of bombard
ment, have fallen.
-The correspondent who was taken up
on a hill by the Germans to see ver
dun burn, after it had been carefully
set on fire by shell fire, was discov
ered by French gunners and shelled.
He went away, taking with him an Im
pression of a doomed city. This pic
ture was duly transmitted to America.
But two days later, when I visited the
city, there was no evidence of desper
ation, because there was no one left to
be desperate. Doubtless on occasion
we shall have many descriptions of the
destruction of this town,, descriptions
meant to impress Americans or encour
age Germans. The material for such
fires is not exhausted. The cathedral
on the top of the hill is hardly shell
marked at all, and it will make a fam
ous display when It is fired, as was
Rhelms, as were the churches of Cham
pagne and Artois. But there is some
thing novel in the thought of a city
burned, not to make a Roman or even
German holiday, but burned to make
the world believe that trie battle of
Verdun had been a German victory.
Tha Madonna of tha Tree.
For two hours we wandered about
the town, exploring and estimating the
effect of heavy gunfire, for the Ger
mans are too far from the city to use
anything but heavy guns effectively.
Th3 impressions of such a visit are too
numerous to recall. I shall mention
but one. Behind the cathedral are
cloisters that the guide books mention;
they Inclose a courtyard that was once
decorated with statutes of saints. By
some accident or miracle there are al
ways miracles In shelled towns one of
these Images, perhaps that of the Ma
donna, has been lifted from its pedes
tal and thrown into the branches of a
tree, which seems - almost to hold it
with outstretched arms.
At length we left tha town, going
out by the Porte de France, which cuts
the old Vauban ramparts, now as de
serted as those of Paris, ramparts that
had been covered with trees and wero
now strewn with the debris of the
trees that had fallen under the shell
fire. In all this time not a shell had
fallen in Verdun; it was ,the first com
pletely tranquil morning In weeks; but
there was always the' sense of Impend
ing destruction, there was always the
sense of the approaching shelL There
waa an odd subconscious curiosity, and
something more than curiosity, about
the mental processes of some men, not
far away, who were beside guns point
ed toward you. guns which yesterday
or the day before had sent their 'de
struction to the very spot where you
stood.
Fear In tha Open.
Yet, oddly enough, in the town there
was a wholly absurd sense of security
drived from the fact that there were
still buildings between you and those
guns. You saw that the buildings
went to dust and ashes whenever, the
guns were fired; you saw that each ex
plosion might turn a city block into
ashes, and yet you wera glad of the
buildings, and there was reassurance
in their shadows. Now we traveled in
the open country f 'we began to climb
across the face of a bare hill, and It
was the face hat fronted the Ger
mans. Presently, the general's car stuck in
the' mud, and ,we halted, for a minute,
perhaps; then we went on; wa passed
a dead horse lying In tha road; the, of
a . sudden, cams , - that same terrible
grinding, metallic crash; I have never
In villages in vicinity of Verdun.
seen any description of a heavy shell
explosion that fitted it. Behind us we
could see the black smoke rising from
the ground in a suburb through which
we had Just come. I saw three explo
sions. A moment later we were at the
gate of Fort de la Chaume, and we
were warned not to stop, but to hasten
In, for the Germans, whenever they seo
cars at this point, suspect that Joffre
has arrived, or President Poincare, and
act accordingly. We did not delay.
Fort da la Chaume.
Fort de la Chaume is one of the
many fortifications built since the
Franco-Prussian war, and Intended to
defend the city. Like all the rest, it
ceased to have value when the German
artillery had shown at Liege and at
Namur that it was the master of the
fort. Then the French left their forts
and went out to trenches beyond, and
took with them the heavy guns that
the fort once boasted. Today Fort de
la Chaume is Just an empty shell, as
empty a$ the old Vauban citadel in the
valley below. And what is true of this
fort Is true of all the other forts of
that famous fortress of Verdun, which
is no longer a fortress, but a sector in
the trench line that runs from the
North sea to Switzerland.
From the walls of the fort staff of
ficers showed me the surrounding
country. I looked down on the city of
Verdun, hiding under the shadow of its
cathedral. I looked across the level
Meuse valley, with its little river; I
studied the wall of hills beyond. Some
where in the tangle of the horizon was
Douaumont, which the Germans held.
Down the valley of the river In the
haze was the town of Bras, which was
French; beyond it the village of Vach
reauville, which was German. Beyond
the hills in the center of the picture,
but hidden by them, were Le Mort
Homme and Hill 304. Verdun is like a
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AND
SOR
lump of sugar in a fingerbowl, and I
was standing on the rim. It seemed
utterly impossible that any one should
even think of i...s town as a fortress
or count its ashes as of meaning In
i..e conflict.
Tha War Invisible.
Somewhere in the background a
FrEnch battery of heavy guna was
firing, and the sound was clear; but .t
die not suggest war, rather a blasting
operation. The German guns were still
again. There was a faint billowing
roll of gunfire across the river toward
Douaumont, but very faint. As for
trenches, soldiers, evidences of battle,
they did not exist. I thought of Ralph
Pulitzer's vivid story of riding to the
Rhieims front in a military aeroplane
and seeing, of war, just nothing.
The geography of the Verdun coun
try unrolled before us with absolute
clarity; the whole relation of hills and
rivier and railroads was unmistakable.
But, despite the faint sound of mus
ketry, the occasional roar of a French
gun, I might have been in the Berk
shires looking down on the Housatonlc.
Six miles to the north around Le Mort
Homme that battle which has not
stripped for two months was still go
ing on. Around Douaumont the over
tune was just starting, the overture to
a stiff fight In the afternoon, but of
all the circumstances of battle that
on. has read of, that one still vaguely
expects to see, there was not a sign.
If it suited their fancy, the Germans
could turn the hill on which I atood
into a crater of ruin, asthey did with
j. ort Loncln ab Liege. We were well
within range, easy range; we lived be
cause they had no object to serve by
sucih shooting; but we were without
even a hint of their whereabouts.
I have already described the mili
tary geography of Verdun. I shall not
attempt to repeat it here, but It Is the
invisibility of "Warfare, whether exam
ined from the earth or the air, which
impresses the civilian. If you go to
th trenches you creep through tun
ne's and cavities until you are permit
ted to peer through a peephole, and
you see yellow dirt soma yards away.
You may hear bullets over your head,
yoa may hear shells passing, but what
you sea is a hillside with some slash
ings. That is the enemy.. ' If you go
to an observation post back of the
trenches, then you will see a whole
range of country, but not even the
trenches of your own side.
From the Grand Mont east of Nancy
I watched some French batteries shell
the, German line. I didn't see the
French guns, I didnt' see the German
trenches. I didn't see the French line.
I did see some black smoke rising a
little above the underbrush, and I was
told that the shells were striking be
hind the German lines, and that the
gunners were searching for a German
battery. But I might aa well have
been observing a gang of Italians at
blasting operations In the Montclalr
mountains. And the officer with me
said:: "Our children are "Just amusing
themselves.''
atVaacbeoa Underground.
From Fort de la chasm we rode
back to the citadel; and there I was
the guest of the general and the offi
cers of tha town garrison; their guest
because' I was an American who cams
to see their town. I shall always re
member that luncheon down in tha
very depths of this rock in a dimly
lighted room. I sat at tha general's
right, and all around ma wera tha men
whose day's work, it waa to keep the
roads opn, the machinery running In
the shell-cursed city. Every time they
went out into daylight they, knew that
they! might not return. ' For two
, months the storm had beaten about
this irock. It had written Its mark upon
all Hhese faces, and ret it had neither
extinguished the light nor the laugh
ter; the sense of strength and of calm.
nasi waa Inescapable, and never have I
known such charming, such thoughtful
hosts.
.When the champagne came, tha old
general rose and made ma a little
speech. Ha apoka In English, with
abaolute correctness, but aa one who
apoka It with difficulty. He welcomed
ma aa an American to Verdun, he
thanked ma for coming, he raiaed hla
glass to drink to my country and the
hope that in the right time aha would
ba atanding with France in tha cause
of civilization. Always in hla heart, in
hlj thought. In hla speech, the French
man ia thinking of that causa of civ
ilisation; alwaya thia ia what the ter
rible conflict that ia eating up all
Franca meant to him.
"Bonne Chance."
Afterward we went out of thla cav
ern into daylight, and the officers
came and shook hands with me and
said goodby. Ona does not say au re
volr at the front; one says "bonne
chance" "good luck; it may and it
may not be we hope not." We n-te-ed
our cars and were about to start,
when suddenly, with a blinding, stun
ning crash, a whole salvo landed in the
meadow Just beyond the road, we could
not. see where, because some houses
hit the field. It was the most sudden
ly appalling crash I have ever heard.
Instantly the general ordered our
drivers to halt. He explained that it
might be the beginning of a bombard
ment, or only a single trial, a detail in
the intermittent firing to cut th road
that we were to take. We sat waiting
for several moments, and no more
shots came. Then the general turned
and gave an order to his car to follow,
bade our drivers go fast, and climbed
Into my car and sat down. The wan
dering American correspondent was his
guest. He could not protect him from
tha shell fire. He could not prevent
it. Bat he could share the danger. He
could share the risk, and so he rode
with me the mile until we passed be
yond the danger sone. There he gave
me another "bonne chance' and left
me, went back to his shell-cursed town,
w'.'b its ruins and Its agonies.
r
PRINCIPAL NEWS EVENTS
OF THE WEEK REVIEWED
FOR THE BUSY READER
(Continued From Page 8. This Section.)
mandlng increased wages, 600 addi
tional laborers, known as "bolter-ups"
struck. They .-want their pay In
creased from 2.5 to $2.75 and $3 a
day.
JTew Haven, Conn. Yale students
are up In arms against congress. The
legislators were attacked by the Yale
News because the orders to Yale
battery to go to Tobyhanna, Pa., for
the summer 'camp have been counter
manded. Washington.
TACOMA Convicted of criminally
libeling George Washington, first
president of the United States,
Paul R. Heffer, a young social 1st;
Thursday was sentenced by Judge
Card in the superior court to serve
four months in the county Jail.
Oregon. .
NOSTH BEZTO A company formed
of Coos Bay capital has leased
for a term of years the old mill
of the Simpson Lumber ' company and
will repair and operate it, expecting
to turn out about 60.0Q0 feet of lum
ber a day. Interested in the deal Is
Kruse & Banks, ship builders o.
North Bend.
Salem Despondent over illnesr,
Philip Rees, aged 76 years, a farmer
residing five miles south of Salem on
the Jefferson road, slashed his throat
with a razor Thursday morning and
died almost instantly. He went out
on the front porch to end his life and
the body fell forward on the grass.
Albany Clarence Koon, aged 65. of
Junction City, was killed and three
persons were injured, one perhaps
fatally, in an auto accident about a
mile and a half aouth of Peoria, 20
miles south of here. May 14, when a
car plunged 20 feet from a bridge.
Salam Declaring that the parties
to the contract or franchise between
a city and a public utility are tha
only ones who can change it, Circuit
Judge Galloway set aside an order of
the public service commlslon raising
rates of the Western Telephone com-
. pany in 'Woodburn. The decision is
uoecu vii wiq uuiug wa . w .tii.aa.aai.a, .
of the state laws.
Salam Tha city of Wlllamlna must
pay V. R. Dennis and P. C. Christen
sen, copartners, $4928.49 as damages
for street improvement work, the su
preme court held in a decision.
Salam The state public service
commission denied the petition of
the Home Telephone & Telegraph com
pany of southern Oregon for an in
Like A Boy at 50 Bubbling Over -With
Vitality Taking Iron Did It
Doctor gays Nuxatedlron is greatest of all strength builders
' Often increases the strength and endurance of delicate,
nervous folks 200 per cent in two weeks time.
NEW YORK. N. T. Not long ago a
man came to me who waa nearly half
a century old and asked me to giva
him a preliminary examination for Ufa
insurance. I was astonished to find
him with the blood pressure of a boy
of 20 and aa full of vior, trim, and
vitality as a young man; In fact a
young man he really was notwithstand
ing nls age. The secret he salu was
taking iron nuxated lroij- had filled
him with renewed life. At $0 ne was
In bad health; at 46 careworn and
i .11 X7nv aa K ft vnira laa .
1 vitality and his ic beaming with the
P. . - . h... Aa. 1 k.lF. U aa
hundred tlmea over, iron la the greatest
of all strength builders. If people
would only throw away patent medi
cines and nauseous concoctions and
take simple nuxated iron, I am con
vinced that 'the lives of thousands of
persons might be saved, who now die
every year from pneumonia, grippe,
consumption, kidney, liver and heart
trouble, etc. The real and truo causa
which atarted their diseases was noth
ing more nor lees than a weakened con
dition brought on by lack of iron in
tha blood. Iron is absolutely necessary
to enable your, blood to change food
into iivlnr tissue. Without It, no mat
ter bow much or what you eat, your
food merely passes through you with
out doing you any good. You don't
get the strength out of it and aa a con
sequence you become weak, pale and
sickly looking just like a' plant trying
to grow in a soil deficient in iron. If
you are not strong or well you owe it
to youraelf to make the following test:
Bee how Ion you can work or now far
you can walk without becoming tired.
Next take two five grain tablets of
ordinary nuxated Iron three timta per
day after meals for two weeks, v Then
test your-strength again and see for
As we left Verdun, tha firing v
Increasing; it was rolling up Ilka -a t
Ing gale, tha Infantry fire waa beet
ing pronounced, tha Germans wars i
ginning an attack upon La Mort Ho
me. Just befora sunset we pas
through tha Argonne Forest and oat
out beyond. On a hill to tha .nor
against the sky, the monument Of Vi
my atood out In clear relief, mark!
tha hill where Kelermann had turn
back another Prussian army, than
slipped down into.the Plain oC Chalo
where other Frenchmen had .met s
conquered Attlla. At dark wa halt
In Montmirail, where Napoleon won 1
last victory before his empire ff
The sound of tha guna wa had left 1
hind was still in our ears,' and t
meaning of these names In our mint
Presently my French companion aa
to me: "It is a long time, isn't It
He meant all the yeara ainca tha fir
storm came out of the north, and :
think the same thought Ji in eve
l'inchman"a mind. Then vhe told r.
his story. , J .,;:,
"X had two boys," "ha said; "ona wi
taken from me yeara ago in an act
dent; he was killed, and it waa tarr
ble. But the other I gave. . . I
"He was shot, my last boy, tip he
Verdun, In the beginning of the Wtt
He did not die at once, and I want
him. For 20 daya I sat besldalitm 1
a cellar, waiting for him to die. .
bought the last coffin In tha Villas
that he might be burled In it, and ke.
It under my bed. Wa talked man
tlmea before he died, and he told rr
all he knew of the fight, of tha nu
about him and how they fell.
"My name Is flnishod, but I say-'t
you now that, in all that axparienci
there was nothing that was not beaut
ful." And, as far as I can analyse
put in words, the impression that I
have brought away from Franca, fro r
the ruin and the aufferlng and tha d
struction. I think it la expressed 1
those words. 1 have seen nothing ths
was not beautiful, too, because throug:
all the spirit of Franca ahone clear an
bright.
Next Sunday:
tleflelds."
"On the Lorraina Bat j
crease of telephone rates at Madford
Jacksonville, Gold Hill and Rogu
River, .with the exception of farm
party line switching fhargea, whlcl
are ordered slightly increased.
Oorrallis The annual United Btat
military Inspection of the Oregot
Agricultural college cadet corpa W:
made Tuesday under the supervisloi
of Inspecting officer Captain Tenner
Ross, of the general staff, Unite..
States army. ... j
Portland li?
CO. UOWH, niotorman on a St.,
Johns car. was . fined $26 Thurs-
day. He was charged by George
W. Walker, a Jitney driver, with tun
ning his car 30 miles an hour orr
Williams avenue. The offense wa,
committed May 3. t
Mrs. Helen Jennings was found'
murdered in her bed at her home on:
the Gore farm near Tualatin Tuesday
afternoon and police officers of 'two
counties undertook a search for tha
body of Fred Itlstman of Portland, a
jitney driver, who also is believed to
have been killed. Suspicion pointed
to Bennett Thompson, a paroled con
vict, who waa arrested near St. Johns
lata Wednesday afternoon. -J-
Jean Fllnlskls, waiter in an oyster
house, was found in Washington park
Monday morning at 0 o'clock with a
bullet hole through his brain. The
man was found on tha second flight
of steps leading to the hilltop from
the Washington street entrance by
Mrs. Anna McNeil, who was out for
a walk.
rive members of engine company
No. 8 at Sixteenth and Washington
streets, who refused to assist other
firemen in the recent cleanup cam
paign by removing debris from .
vacant lot adjoining the fire station,
wera suspended for 16 daya and given
rebufce by Mayor Albee. v'yi:'
Robert X. Campbell, commissioner
of naturalization, has requested the
Portland school authorities tosend a
representative to a convention of su
perintendents and principals to be held
In Washington, D. C, the week of
July 10. ;v
Tha northwest Steal company has
secured a contract for furnishing
structural steel for the new naval
wireless station at Keyport, Wash.,
near tha Bremerton navy yard.
Word was received here Tuesday
of the marriage in San Francisco
Monday of Albln T. Lundborg, man'
ager of tha Hotel Benson, and Miss
May C. Perry, of San Francisco,
Ths flower of Portland's sohoolf,
nearly 6600 boys and girls, marched
on Multnomah field Wednesday after'
noon for the greatest May festival the
city has ever known.
.Leasing1 of a plot of ground, for the
Vernon play grounds was authorised
by the city council Wednesday.
yourself how much you have gained.
I have seen dozens of nervoua, run
down people who were ailing all ths
while, double their strength and endur
ance and entirely get rid of all symp
toms of dyspepsia, liver and other trou
bles in from ten to fourteen days' time
simply by taking iron in the pjoper
form. And thia after they had In soma
cases been doctoring for months with
out obtaining any benefit. But doa't
take the old forma of reduced iron, iron
acetate or tincture of Iron simply ti
s&va a few cents. You must take iron -in
a form that can ba easily absorbed
and assimilated like nuxated iron if
you want it to do you any good, other- -wise
it may prove worae than useless.
Many an athlete or prizefighter ha
won the day simply because ha knew
'the secret of great strength and endur- -ance
and filled hla blood with ' iron
befora he went into the affray, while
many another ha gone down to in--.
f:lorious defeat simply for the lack of
ron. E. Eauer, M. D. , , . .,
NOTE. Nuxated Iron, rcommaod bo
by Vt. Sauer U sot a patrnt iwdtcliie cor :
eeret remedy, bat me whtch la wU kaewa
to druggtata ami wbuaa iron eonalltoeata are '
widely prescribed by railnent phyalciaas arary. , -wbrt.
T'nllk the elder Inoff nle tnm prod- ' . -acts.
It la racily altnllated, does sot tujar -.
the tmta. nuke tbrm black, oor npaat the
aic-fDccb; on tbe rontrarr. It ia BMat potest f "'
reuaaj, in urartj ki. .tnia n uraiinuna, aa ; .
well fur nerua. run-down conditions. Tbe
niEonfartarera bat aucb great eonttdsnee h
Nnxatcd Iron tbat they offer to forfeit 1100.00
to any cbarltabU Inatftutlon If tbey canaot .':
take any nun or woman under 60 wbo iark
Irot. aod lucraaae their atreugta 200 pet cent.
or over ia fear week' time, provided , they ' ,
haa no eerloos organic trouble, Tbey aloe
offer la refand your atoney If It does Dot il f'
least doable your strength arid endurance la
tea daya flans It Is dlapenaed la tbla city M
tbs uwt urug v aaa au outer arugguts.
V