Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1914-09-24
STORIES OF GERMAN ATROCITIES NOT
PROVED, SAYS AMERICAN WRITER

oDonnen Bennett, staff correspondent,
dated ct Aix-la-Chapelle. Germany,
which in specific detail disputes aud
denies the charges of cruelties and
atrocities lodged against the Germans
In Belgium. Mr.. Bennett, In company
with John T. McCutcheon of the Chica-
go Tribune, Irwin 8. Cobb of the Sat
urday Evening Post, Roger Lewis OF
the Associated Press and Harry Han.
sen of the Chicago Daily News, trav-
eled 100 miles through 20 towns and
their observations lead him to the firm
conviction that the reports of bar
harities alleged to have been perpe-
trated by German troops are false
hoods.
The following dispatch to the Asso-
ciated Press, evidently forwarded by
Roger Lewis, is In substantial agree
ment with Mr. Benefits story In tbs
Chicago Tribune:
BY the Associated Press.
New York.-An Associated Press
stan correspondent of American birth
and antecedents, who was sent from
the New York Office and was caught
in Brussels at the time of the Ger
man invasion, held as a prisoner for
several days, and who finally escaped
to Holland, has sent by mail the fol-
lowing story OF his experiences:
THE night before the Germans en-
tered Brussels, when the Belgian civil
guards and refugees began pouring
into the city from the direction of
LouVain, they brought stories of I'M
speakable German atrocities, maltreat-
ment of old men and children, and the
violation of women.
THE Belgian capital reeled with ap-
prehension. Within an hour the gay
ETY., the yiyacity, and brilliancy of the
city went out like a broken arc light.
The radiance of the cafes was ex-
changed for darkness; whispering
groups of residents broke UP hurried
ly and locked themselves into this
homes, where they put up the shut
tiers and drew In their tri-colored Bel"
gian flags.
Fears of Brussels ouieted.
THE historic Belgian city went
through a state Of morbid eonsterna-
ton, remarkably like that from which
1t suffered on June IS, 1916. when it
trembled with the fear OF French vic
tory at Waterloo.
In less than "a hours the Belgian
citizens were chatting comfortably
with the German invaders and the al
legations of German brutality and de-
moniacal torture dissolved into one Of
the myths which have accompanied all
wars.
Neither In Brussels nor in its en-.
virons was a single offensive act, so
far as know, committed by German
soldier. In a city of over half mil
lion people, invaded by hostile army
of perhaps a quarter Of a million sol
diers, no act sufficiently fragrant to
demand punishment or to awaken pro-
test came to my attention.
None Knows of outrages.
"The frightful reports that had pre-
ceded the German army into Brussels
included the disemboweling of old men
and the impaling of children on lances
Just outside Louvain. Investigation
not only failed to substantiate these
rumors, but could not even discover
any one in the immediate vicinity who
credited them.
An eye witness of unimpeachable
yeracity told me that the worst be
bayior he had observed during the first
German entry into Louvain august
1917 was that of a German soldier who
leaned from his horse and kissed q
pretty Flemish girl who brought hin
a glass of beer.
~ marched for days with the Ger
man columns, often only one day be
hind the fighting, with the houses thai
had been burned still smoldering, tht
ground freshly broken by shell ant
trampled by horses and men, and the
memory of the German advance vivit
In the minds OF the inhabitants.
No Proofs of Murder.
"I interviewed an average OF twenty
carsons in each Of a dozen towns and
found only one instance of noncom
hatant who had been killed without
unsuitable provocation. In this case
the evidence did not clearly prove thai
the man had been wantonly murdered
He lived in one of the typical small
Belgian countryside houses which com
htne the comforts of home with thu
hire of a small public bar. This house
was at the north of Merbes-le- Chateau
a town through which large part o.
The German army passed on the road
to Maubeuge.
"A son of the murdered man, whose
name was Arthur Nicodem. showed m'
hlood cIots on the floor marking thu
tsacs where Nicodem fell. his throa
rut nv a edged German saber.
english Fired From House.
eft was said by some inhabitanti
that the murdered man showed PAL
n binoculars: but q more probable
exclamation is that English outpost
had concealed themselves in the house
from which they poured rain OF mr.