Evening star., 1914-12-21
Bodies of Germans, After
Fierce Attacks, Cause Ter
ribIe Conditions.
TEUT0NS BURN KILLED
IN GREAT BRICK KILNS
Victims of Ruthless War Tied To-
gether in Bunches and Hurled
Into Flames. 81
BY HERBERT COREY.

LONDON. December Io.-"And so"
said the old woman. he died scream-
ing"
IT was in a little village in France
This war has been oddly spotty in its
operations. Here one may find Il little
patch of territory that is untouched
Twenty miles away from the greatest
battle line in all history the trains may
be running regularly. People are going
about their affairs. SO it was in this
little town. Its people had ha ardly
heard the thunder OF the guns
1T was a stranger who did it, said
the old woman. ~ madman. jacques
was walking down the street. peaceful
as you and me, thinking OF his ducks.
good man. This stranger met him.
They talked together, and then the
stranger shot him and ran away.
jacques died screaming"
Stranger Madman.
All this happened six months ago
The stranger was not a soldier. but a
madman. He is now, presumably. safe
in some asylum. The traeedy-the one
tragedy of that happy village for fifty
ycarS-haS been the topic OF conversa-
tion there ever since. Its people have
heard. but they have mot comprehend
ed, the stories of murder by wholesale
only a few miles away. They still
think of the murder in detail of which
they know
We are all that way, to a greater
or less extent. The censored phrase
ology in which the story is told means
nothing to US. To say that the Brit
ish held the line" is AS paliid as to say
they had a breakfast OF bacon. To say
the Germans made unavailin- efforts
to break through" offers no picture
One must bring imagination TO bear to
visualize the horrid scenes of slaugh-
ter and agony out there On the front
That is my apology for this relation.
1t is an effort to furnish ftw of the
friehtfuI facts on which ina gination
may feed.
Why British Moved Back.
Our line has been moved back three
times in two weeks said a British
officer. speaking of one narrow point.
upon the battlefield. 1T was not that
we were forced back. We could not
stand the stencil
The Germans had charged across an
open field upon that first British
trench. They had died there by hun
dreds They had fallen there wounded
Neither side would agree to armis-
tice Few of the sorely wounded were
taken from the field under cover of
darkness. The dead lay thereto rot
Rot-that's the only word-to rot.
They could not be buried. Neither
side would give an inch. Other Ger
mans charged over these dead forms.
and in their turn were cut down by
machine guns and fell and rotted. Be
tween charges the Germans could and
IN tSfa "a ~
full field. The British stayed in their
trenches.
Our men could rot stand it, said
the officer. Twice. we dug new trench
line
Unusual: Not at all. The same thing
has been reported from every corner
of a 200-mile field. - The general olii-
GERS on both sides welcome the cold
weather They do not fear they viii
be unable to provide their men with
food and clothing and shelter against
the weather. Even. if they were un-
able to do SO the men could stay IN
the field. They could hold the line.
But there are some stenches too ghast-
ly for humanity to stand.
when frost comes" the officers will
tell you, conditions will improve"
Another Glimpse of Horrors.
That is the military way of sugar
coating a fact for soft civilian con-
sumption. Let me give you another
picture glimpse at the mon
strous thing that is going on over
there in France. As this is being writ
ten the Germans hold Chartered At
Charleroi and the nearby towns are
great brick kilns. We have ali seen
them. A brick kiln in any country
looks like any other brick kiln At
one time the fighting was described
by the press bureau particularly
spirited about Charleroi.
There are things left behind upon the
ground memcntos of that hghtlnE-
They are shapeless now. some of them.
They are unbearable TO the eye. they
offend-good God. how they offend.
They imperil the health. They are n
hindrance to military operations. The
sweet air of France is poisoned by
their myriads. For miles about a very
miasma arises from the ground with
which they are slowly merging
Germans Burning the Dead.
So the Germans are ridding them
selves of these nuisances that once
were men-peaceful, honest men, like
the poor murdered Jacques who
thought only of his ducks. Great lug
gage vans are sent out over these
stricken fields Soldiers-the impressed
men of the untryside-hardened ana
debased by this constant contact with
the sickening residue of humanity
throw these poor bodies into the vans
as though they were logs of wood
Those great brick kilns of Charleroi
are roaring by day and night. Their
clay walls are heated to an incandes-
cent brightness
Mark the perfect efficiency of the
war machine:
These bodies are tied together in
fours. They are dumped Into these
Glowing kilns Sometimes thick
Hack. oily liquor trickles slowly from
them. through the piles of ash at the
mouth of the furnaces. A thick. slow
smoke rises from them. 1t leaves a
p-easv SCOT behind"
Revolving? Sickening? That is only
because we have not quite yet reached
that higher plane of practioality in
which the men of war move They
realize that a body-a mere dead body
lis of no further use in war There
fore it is to be got rid of. unless it is
possible to move on and forget it,
There is no more sentiment in the
riddance than if the useless remnant
were broken gun. 1t is with the
living that we should concern our
selves.
Scenes in Hospital Wards.
Then turn to the abdominal wards OF