Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-12-12
GERMANS burn DEAD IN GREAT BRICK
]; klNS TO CLEAR Up BATnEFHDS
Victims are Tied Together in Bunches of Fours and Dump
ed Into Raging Furnaces Formerly Used in Making
- Brick at STRAIGHTFORWARD Lie Hours on the Field
Before Surgeons Arrive.

written the Germans hold Charleroi.
At Charleroi and the nearby towns
are great brick kilns. We have all
seen them. A brick kiln in m country
looks like any other brick kiln. At
one time the fighting was described by
the press bureau as particularly spir-
tied" about Charleroi.
There are things left behind upon
the ground a mementos of that fight
them. Thoy are u~nbearable to the eye.
They offend-good God, nov they Of
fend! They imperil health. They are
a hindrance to military operations.
The sweet air of France is poisoned
by their nlyriads. For miles about a
very miasn1a arises from the ground
with which they are slowly merging.
Germans Burning the Dead.
So the Germans are Kidding them
selves of tnese nuisances that once
were men-peaceful. honest men. like
thought only Of his ducks. Great lug
age vans are sent over these stricken
fields. Soldiers-the impressed men of
the cduntryside-hardencd. and de-
based 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 n night. Their
clay walls are heated to. an incandes-
cent brightness.
Mark the perfect efficiency of the
wal machine:
These bodies are tied together
i'll fours. They are, dumped into
these glowing kilns. Sometimes a
thick. black, oily liquor tricklcs
clnvrvH froya L4x~ A.
piles of ash at the mouth Of the
furnaces. A thick. slow smoke
rises from them. It leaves a
greasy 500 behind.
Revolving? Sickening? That is only
because We have not quite yet reached
that higher plane Of practiacilty in
which the men Of war move. They
realize that a body-a mere dead body
is OF no further use in war. There
fore 1t is to be got rid Of, unless it is
possible to move on and forget it.
There is no more sentiment in the rid
dance than II h useless remnant
were a broken gun. It is with the liv-
Ing that We should concern ourselves.
Then turn to the abdominal wards
OF any hospital near the field. They
are filled with men whose bodies have
been torn until all that is left is an
infinite capacity for agony. They are
kept mercifully stupefled where it is
possible. 1t Is not always possible.
ASK those who have walked past the
door OF. such a ward if it is Away.
possible: Sometimes putrefaction has
set In before they have been taken
from the field. This is the ward of
the dying. Onetis never admitted. The
surgeons are quite frank about it.
we cannot permit you to see these
things" they say. They are too hor-
'rtble. We only hope to lessen the pain
until these men die"
Wounded Lying on Battlefield.
Yesterday I heard of a young Cam
bridge man, 90 years old, who had
aken honors in his class. His parents
had pinched and striven to put him
tnrough school, He went out with one
tali' stalWart. handsome. the finest
type OF young Englishman. Two days
later he was hot through the body.
1t was fifty hours-ffty hours-be-
lore the surgeons could get around
ia HIM The srist Of wounded had
SIMPLY swamped them. In the fftieth
hour he died.
There was a Tommy-a nameless
Tommy. The nan who tells the story
dld not think even to take the num-
Der OF his regiment. But that Tommy
was shot through the body, and laid
for W full days in the rain. He'll
holds no tortures like that nameless
Tommy suffered. He is only remem.
5ered because of the mournful com
ment he made to- the who
tried to cas- him.
ITS h lucky man in this war"
said this Tommy, who gets killed
quick"
There are other things. There are
the .~"dysentery trains OF which I
heard in Germany-heard upon the
authority OF a great medical man, Be.
cause there are too few Of the hos
pital trains. with their swinging cots
and their white enamelled operating
rooms and their private rooms for
doctors n nurses-and because
there are too infinitely many wound.
ed men-freight trains are used for
the injured. These freight trains
bring provisions and munitions to the
lighters. The hurt men are placed
upon their rough board floors. There
is nothing else that can be done. IL
Is a necessity Of war.
They travel. sometimes for four
and five days" said this doctor. Some
tllnes they have no to tend them
o days. Sometimes they do not even
get water. Most OF these wounded men
are suffering from dysentery."
There were weeks in which Ger
many's loss in wuunded-afone touched
$4,000. No one knows how MANY the
allies have lost. No n knows how
many fortunates died without pain.
Do you begin to realize the meaning
of war?