An official dispatch from the foreign office in Paris, dated August 28, said:

"Yesterday the French troops took the offensive in the
Vosges mountains and in the region between the Vosges and
Nancy, and their offensive has been interrupted, but the German
loss has been considerable.
"Our forces found, near Nancy, on a front of three kilometers,
2,500 dead Germans, and near Vitrimont, on a front
of four kilometers, 4,500 dead. Longwy, where the garrison
consisted of only one battalion, has capitulated to the Crown
Prince of Germany after a siege of twenty-four days."

FRENCH TRAPPED IN ALSACE

The German view of early operations in Alsace-Lorraine was given in the following dispatch September 2 from the headquarters of the general staff at Aix-la-Chapelle:

"The French forces were trapped in Alsace-Lorraine.
Realizing that the French temperament was more likely to be
swayed by sentiment than by stern adherence to the rules
of actual warfare, the German staff selected its own battle
line and waited. The French did not disappoint. They
rushed across the border. They took Altkirch with little opposition.
Then they rushed on to Muelhausen. Through the
passes in the Vosges mountains they poured, horse, artillery,
foot—all branches of the service. Strasburg was to fall and
so swift was the French movement that lines of communication
were not guarded.
"Then the German general staff struck. Their troops
from Saarburg, from Strasburg and from Metz, under the
command of General von Heeringen, attacked the French all
along the line. They were utterly crushed. The Germans
took 10,000 Frenchmen prisoners and more than one hundred
guns of every description. Alsace-Lorraine is now reported
absolutely cleared of French troops.
"The armies of Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm and of
Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria are moving in an irresistible
manner into France. In a 3-day battle below Metz
the French were terribly cut up and forced to retreat in almost
a rout. It is declared that in this engagement the French
lost 151 guns and were unable to make a stand against the victorious
Germans until they had passed inside of their secondary
line of defense."

THE GERMAN "SPY POSTERS"

Just prior to the declaration of war, cable dispatches from Paris told of a remarkable series of posters dotting the countryside of France. These posters, innocently advertising "Bouillon Kub," a German soup preparation, were so cleverly printed by the German concern advertising the soup, that they would act as signals to German army officers leading their troops through France.

In one of our photographic illustrations, one of these "spy posters" is seen posted on the left of an archway past which the French soldiers are marching en route to meet the Germans near the Alsace frontier.

The ingenuity of the signs was remarkable. Thus a square yellow poster would carry the information, "Food in abundance found here," while a round red sign would advertise, "This ground is mined." Many geometrical figures and most of the colors were utilized, and animal forms, flowers and even the American Stars and Stripes were employed to convey their messages of information.

The French Minister of the Interior got wind of the system, and orders were telegraphed throughout France to destroy these posters. Bouillon Kub, therefore, is no longer advertised in France.