THE EFFECT OF AN 8-IN. SHELL IN THE PREMISES OF "LA MUTUALITÉ," IN THE RUE DES ELUS (SEPT. 8, 1915)
In February, 1915, the exodus began again, but at the end of May in that year there were still some 26,000 people in the town. In February, 1917, after twenty-eight months of bombardment, there remained 17,100 people, or 100,000 fewer than in 1914. At the beginning of April in that year, the mayor and later the sub-prefect, requested all those who were not prevented by their duties to leave the town.
This invitation not having the desired effect, the military authorities, in view of the increased intensity of the bombardment and the imminence of the French offensive, announced that they could not guarantee food supplies for the town, and decided that the civil population must leave not later than April 10. The evacuation was effected by carts and motor-vehicles to Epernay, where trains awaited the people.
A part of the inhabitants returned to Rheims after the French offensive of April-May, but for a few months only, as, in February, 1918, the coming German offensive compelled the civil population again to leave the town.
During the thirty-one months, during which a considerable portion of the population persisted in staying in Rheims (September, 1914, to April, 1917), life and work went on in the bombarded city, the people adapting themselves courageously to their precarious existence and to the danger. They were supplied with helmets and gas masks, like the soldiers. Shell and bomb-proof shelters were organised, and the cellars, with which the city abounds, became the people's ordinary dwellings. The Town Council, with the exception of a few members who left on the approach of the enemy, remained at the Town Hall until it was destroyed, then installed themselves in a cellar, under the constant chairmanship of the Mayor, Dr. Langlet. The services rendered by the latter during these trying times were such that the French Premier decorated him personally in November, 1914, with the Croix de la Légion d'Honneur. The General Post Office had to change its quarters several times; but until the complete evacuation of the town the postmen went their rounds regularly.
The Courts of Justice were set up in the cellars of the Palais-de-Justice.
REMOVING THE WORKS OF ART IN JANUARY, 1918
The archbishop, Mgr. Luçon, was absent from Rheims in 1914, being retained in Rome by the Council. As soon as the latter was ended, he returned to Rheims and thereafter, like his coadjutor, Mgr. Neveux, and the unmobilized clergy, he remained at his post until the evacuation of April, 1917. The Cathedral architect, M. Sainsaulieu, who, like Mgr. Luçon, has been made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, remained constantly at his post, repairing from day to day, as well as might be, the damage caused to the Cathedral, and saving the art treasures spared by the German shells.
