The Detroit times., 1914-09-22

n
they hope to save their homss. The
village II utterly destroyed. In the
midst of the ruiu 10 q crater dug BY
Q Siege gun-a siege gun brought up
to deal with hamlet Of 400 peoplei
We See Tive Old Men Hanging
to a Tree.
The villagers have disappeared
Only three dead peasants. bayoneted
In their doorways, and q few horses
killed In the small main street. re-
main. see men Of the eighteenth
German dragons. white crosses on
their gold-starred caps. loot at their
leisure.
We refugees speak In whispers
plodding on to poor little Bandersea
From far on we can see that the vii
lage has been shelled. its houses lev
eled by artillery. Near the road two
old men hang from a tree. hostages
whose lives were taken by the enemy
/ passed that tree, but never as lone
memory the dead faces of those two
old men.
A frightened child fetches and car
F4es for the sentry leunging near
culvert. rife cooked.
Soon she will be handy as wife.
he bawls In high good humor. Al
home this fellow would hardly be
trusted as swine herd. Here. rife
In hand. his word Is law for almost q
square mile.
Built WIswam For Day-oId Babe.
In the roadside ditch the father OF
a day-old babe has built wigwam OF
tent poles and straw. Last week he
had nice pretty Belgian house--a
prosperous farmer, the master OF
fiocks and kline.
"Louvendane Ii utterly destroyed
he says grimly. Germans fighting
west of Mechlin were repulsed by the
Belgians. A hundred Fifty-fifth Lane
ers of the Rhine fell back here. Some
Of them. mad with blood, insulted the
women of our village. In dozen
houses walls were burst which spread
strangling fumes. Then our houses
were fred. IL you want to see worse
90 to the chateau below"
The suggestion IL good but imprac-
ticable. A seemingly endless convoy
Of guns block the road--siege guns
moving toward the east. Fifty driv.
ers flourish haunting whips to chalked
Inscriptions. We read as they pass
Mach (to) BPussels-nach Lille
mach Paris"
Wayslde Shrine For Target.
While we wait perforce Uhlans OF
duty amuse themselves by firing at o
wayside shrine. Women who have
borne catastrophe bravely break down
as they watch the wanton shooting
OF the crucified.
In what was 30 lately the little
town OF Corbeek-Loo stands what was
chateau. Both are ruins. for Cor
beek-Loo suffered humiliation by ar
tillery. No one knows why, assailants
and people having disappeared. Only
the patient old Cure remains to tell
his story.
I'VE were merely a village, quite
harmless and peaceful" says the
Cure. "Our thoughts were of the
crops and of God. The war, OF which
we heard vaguely, seemed far away.
Not one of my people ever owned q
rife or ever fred rife. My church
and the chateau dominated Corbeek-
Loo Baron Ernst lived In the cha
teau. He is an elderly man, retiring
and scholarly. Both Of his sons are
in the diplomatic service. With him
lived his six daughters-ladies OF q
certain age-all unmarried, the good
angels OF our village.
Come, that show you what these
barbarians do to q Belgian home
Something Doing In This Chateau.
We enter the once stately gates.
now shatfered nv shella The acree-
wide formal garden Is strewn with
fragments of statuary. with broken
graphaphone disks, wine glasses, slip
pers, shattered fans--a hundred wom-
anly trifles.