there is a grotto. Piece by piece the mosaics were detached from the ceiling. That is what hurts so in Gerbéviller—the careful, the systematic devastation. It is difficult to understand how men could go to such minute pains to destroy."
We re-entered the automobile and went on through the ghastly streets of Gerbéviller. Before long the car stopped. A heap of stones blocked our way.
"I can go no farther, sir," the soldier chauffeur said.
We alighted, made our way around the rubble, and continued on foot.
"It is worse than Pompeii," the Quaker mused.
"That ancient city is more habitable, would be far simpler to restore."
Ahead was a wooden shack, constructed against a piece of ruined wall.
"The old and the new," the staff officer said, "but that is about all that has been done towards the restoration of the city. It is so hopeless; but some day we will see, for a few of the inhabitants have clung to their homes. After the war something will be done for them.
"The Germans made a more thorough job here than in Louvain," the Quaker commented.
"Nothing could have been much more thorough," the staff man answered. "Where
