Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-18
BEGINNING OF THE
GREAT WAR DESCRIBED by
AN EYE WITNESS
Continued from first page)


watched through his glasses. Now
the order was given to fix bayonets.
Before the enemy arrived the artil-
lery fire had increased until 1t was
an inferno. German aviators were
directing their guns from air ships,
and at times we fired at them, but
our shots were ineffective. Our poor
gunners had an awful time, as the
German cavalry got around behind
us and charged right up to the guns.
Very few of the Germans escaped,
however, for whole platoons cushed
to the rescue, emptying their maya
zines as they ran. A moment later
the Germans were on us from the
front. We let them come until their
breasts rose above the neighboring
hillock, and then decimated them.
They fell back in confusion and
dropped to the ground. Another line
came. which we treated the same
way. Scores of machine guns were
turned on us, however, and we we're
ordered to charge. At the word of
command we sprang from the ground
as one man and with yell after yell
charged the advancing Prussians. AS
we neared their ranks we fired in
discriminatory and only a few re-
manned to cross bayonets with us.
The remainder rushed off and were
shot in the back as they went. They
left more than half their regiments
on the field in killed and wounded"
We are neutral; that is so far as
one who has four cousins and an
uncle in the French army can be
neutral, and it is not our purpose to
discuss the methods of warfare of
one country or another, but from
what | have personally seen and been
told by the victims, both men and
women, boys and girls, by American
government officials and Belgian
priests, the cruelty and savage acts
of the Germans can not be a question
of doubt
1t is a glorious time for those who
believe in war for wars sake, and an
especially glorious time for the
divine right of kings, for without
this doctrine there would not now be
the wholesale Strengthening of man.
kind. Perhaps, when the smoke OF
the guns has cleared away, it will
not seem so glorious to the rulers
upon whose heads rests the blood
guilt of the most devastating war
known in the history of the human
race.
or course experiences and hard
ships endured while iourneying and
being stranded in the war zone; of
travel in troop trains with the ever
present possibility of being blown to
atoms by dynamiting spies; of Ger
man airships over Paris dropping
bombs at US; of the landing of 50,-
900 British troops at Havre; of the |
exciting pastime of getting photo
graphs of troops when strictly for
hidden by the military authorities;
of being watched as a possible spy;
of being for weeks without money;
of the formation of a regiment of |
American volunteers in Paris; of
getting to the coast northwest of |
Paris as the Germans were advanc-
ing; of the run of refuge ship with
out lights, and with but third of a
crew and with little to eat, to an
American port-all this will have to
remain untold until some future time
but meanwhile the butchery goes on
and meanwhile the kaiser decorates.I
his sons and generals with medals
and iron crosses and gives God hon
orable mention.
OSCAR B. JACOBSON.