Hollweg; Muktar Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador
to Berlin; Major Langhorne, the American Military Attache, and other
celebrities.

Rheims Cathedral was said to be about four miles away, but through the
powerful magnifying telescope (of the scissors type and so contrived
that only its two eyes peered over the breastworks while the observer
was completely hidden from view) it showed up as clearly as Caruso
through an opera glass. The top of one of the two towers had a decidedly
moth-eaten appearance--it looked as if one of the corners had been shot
away, and the roof was evidently gone, but otherwise the exterior of the
cathedral looked--through the telescope--to be in a good state of
preservation and likely to enjoy a ripe old age. No French observer was
seen on the cathedral towers, and I was informed by First Lieut. Wengler
of the Heavy Artillery that none had been since his admonitory shells
had carried their iron warning to climb down. A staff officer of the
---- Division had introduced him to me as "the friend of the Rheims
Cathedral," explaining that it probably wouldn't be standing today but
for him.

[Illustration: VICE ADMIRAL FREDERICK STURDEE,

Commander of the British Squadron Which Destroyed the German Fleet Off
the Falkland Islands.

(_Photo_ (C) _American Press Assn._)]

[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR JOHN FISHER,

First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Who Holds the Guardianship of the
English Coast.

(_Photo from Underwood & Underwood._)]

"So you are the vandal?" "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral" was asked.

"Yes, I am the 'barbarian,'" he laughed modestly. He wears the Iron
Cross of the first and second class, and, although still only a
Lieutenant, commands two batteries. A most picturesque but paradoxical
"barbarian," with a soft-spoken lisp, mild blue eyes, boyish face in
spite of a tawny-reddish full beard of long standing, and slightly bowed
legs, it required a most rigorous reportorial inquisition as practiced
on millionaires and politicians at home to extract these details from
the modest "friend of the Rheims Cathedral":

"The French observer on the cathedral was first noticed on Sept. 13.
After that the French artillery fire became uncomfortably accurate.
Eighty shells fell here in one day alone--killing only one cow," he
added, with a plaintive note of reminiscence. He pointed to three big
holes in the ground close by and all within a circle of ten yards'
radius, where three French shells