This gave rise to stories of "furious bombardment of Rheims," but
also caused the withdrawal of the "Long Toms" to spare the city.
A General whose name is familiar to every reader of THE NEW YORK TIMES
said:
"I could take Rheims with my corps in twenty-four hours."
But there was no present advantage in storming it at this time, and
certain disadvantages, for in addition to certain strategic reasons, it
was explained, the Germans would be saddled with the burden of having to
administer and feed the large city.
The "battle of Rheims" looked to me very much like a put-up job, a game
of trying to silence one another's batteries and nothing more. A heavy
artillery duel is essentially a contest between trained observers trying
to get a line on the whereabouts of the enemy's guns, and looking down
on Rheims from the German hills, even a lay correspondent could sense
the military necessity which would drive the French to make use of the
only high spots in town from which you could see anything for
observation purposes, and the equally grim necessity for the Germans to
dislodge them. I came away with the impression that the world owes a
real debt of gratitude to "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral."
Richard Harding Davis's Comment
_To the Editor of The New York Times_:
I have just seen a letter in THE TIMES from a correspondent in the
German trenches outside of Rheims.
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