The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-10-22
German Pays for Treason---
French HOOt Doomed Spy

fairs and the markets are held.
IL Is a pleasant little place. fer
the Disc divides just here TO en-
die on which the ruined walls OF
an old castle stand.
On the other side, beyond the
town, there IL a pleasant green
hill crowned with a thick wood.
and over this hill the sun of an
Indian summer day was flooding
the playground.
But the people had their backs
turned on the green hill and the
golden sunshine and were look
ing. all of them. at an old wall
of lichen-covered stones, along
the foot of which stood a row OF
tall old elms.
There must have been well
over a thousand there. men most
Of them-for. in spite of the last
reserve having been called out
and the young men who were not
due to join the colors until next
year as well, there still remains
quite a large number of male
civilians I'm France, the men over
10, and the employees of the rail
ways and the posts and tele-
graphs, and all the unsound peo-
pie who have been rejected al
unfit for service.
But there are many women a
we'll, In print dresses, with BLACK
shawls thrown over their shoui
ders-the type of woman that you
see i'm these little French pfOyi
sional towns, with faded, rattle,
hard faces out of which most OF
the natural gaiety of the French
| temperament has been driven b.
narrowness of surroundings and
the characteristics habit of parsi
mOny.
hat the fact about this crowd
that astonishes and shocks one
too, Is that every little urchin oi
the town Is there. Little boy
playing .'tick" I'm and out of the
throng which they wait 20 see
the "Boch" die; little girls whs
do not know what they are walt.
ing for but have followed their
parents to the playground
happily, most of them will see
nothing through the wall OF backs
that will surround the spot where
the mans life is to be taken.
And then suddenly down the
street from the station comes a
motor car. In IL sits a middle
aged man, handcuffed, between
two gendarmes with their car
bines on their knees. Another
gendarme is on the drivers seat.
II comes slowly, for IL is escort
49, ha oh
and after Il, marching from the
station, comes half a company of
Infantry in their red trousers and
blue great coats.
And then from the crowd
ON the riverside there rises
deep gutteral noise that
sweils from a low rumble to
an angry roar. "A mort"
("Put him TO death!"D
There is no cry I'm English
that renders exactly the som-
bre savsgery of that French
exclamation.
The infantry march into the
crowd, cleaving way. They
form a square round the row of
elms, which suddenly in this set
ting take on a new and grim
prominence like a scaffold. The
man with the handcuffed wrists
walking awkwardly with his mo-
tionless arms, is led by the gen
darmes to the tree. His face is
expressionless.
You would have said" as
someone who was there described
Il, that he was dead already.
Then an official must read q
document. 1t is the decree OF
execution. And after that the
unresisting figure is bound with
cords to the old elm, for il he
moved the bullets might miss
him. There is a bandage on his
eyes, now, and the crowd, awe
struck into silence, looks at moth
ing but a rigid body, supported by
the cords, with white mask
above IL.
Already the firing party, twelve
men, are in line at eight PAGES.
The lieutenant raises his sword.
"Feu!" (FireD.
A suffering crack-and sud