Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-09-17

caught in Brussels at the time of Ger
man invasion, held as a prisoner fol
several days and finally escaped tc
Holland. has sent by mail the follow
ing stery of his experiences:
The night before the Germans en-
tered Brussels when the Belgian civil
guards and refugees began pouring in
TO the city from the direction of Lou
vain, they brought stories of unspeak-
able German atrocities.
THE Belgian capital reeled with APP
prehensien. In less than "A hours
the Belgian citizens were chatting
comfortably with the German invaders
and the allegation of German brutality
and derneniaeal torture dissolved into
one of the myths which have accom-
panied all wars.
Neither in Brussels, nor in its en-
virons was a single offensive act. so
far as 1 know, committed by a Ger
man soldier In city of over half a
million people, invaded by a hostile
army of perhaps a quarter of mil
lion soldiers, no act sufficiently fla
grant to demand punishment or to
awaken protest came to my attention.
THE frightful reports that had pre-
eeded the German army into Brussels.
included the disemboweling Of old men
and the impaling of children on lanees,
just outside Louyain. Investigation not
only failed to substantiate these ru-
mors, but could not even discover any
one In the immediate vicinity who
credited them. An eye witness of I'M
lmpeachabie veraeity told me that the
worst behavior he had observed dur
ing the first German entry into LOU
vain (Aug. 1sl, was that of a German
soldier who leaned from his horse and
kissed pretty Flemish girl, who
brought him glass of beer.
u marched for days with the German
columns, often only one day behind the
fighting. with the houses that had been
burned still smouldering, and the men,
cry of the German advance vivid in the
minds of the inhabitants. interviewed
an average OF 90 persons in each of a
dozen towns and found only one instance
Of non-eomhatant who had been killed
without a justifiable prevocation. In this
case the evidence did not clearly prove
that the man had been wantoniy murder
ed. He lived in one OF the typical small
Belgian countryside houses which COM
bine the comforts of home with the lure
of small public bar. This house was
at the north end of Merbes-Le-C Chateau.
A son of the murdered man. whose name
was Arthur Modem, showed me blood
clots on the floor marking the place
where Nicodem fell, his throat cut by a
saw-edged German sabre.
TT was said by some inhabitants that
the murdered man showed a pair of
binoculars. but more probable expla-
nation was that English outposts had
concealed themselves in the house. from
which they poured a rain of fire upon the
first German invaders. The inference
that the shooting was done by Belgian
civilians may have inflamed the Germans
to reprisals. In that neighborhood four
houses had been burned
This town of Merbes-Le-Chateau,
which had been the scene of an unimpor-
tant skirmish between the Germans and
English on the previous Sunday. was rid
died with rife shots. The small number
of windows intact showed that the Ger
mans had made a deliberate assault upon
the residents of the town. But the in
habitants themselves admitted that all of
the shooting had been done by a eompar-
atively small number of Germans, and
that the firing had not been begun until
English soldiers who had concealed them
selves in the houses had fired first upon
the Germans.
Il have emphasized the one fatality of
the non-combatant because the news of
it Travelled up and down the Sambre and
Sur-Sambre. multiplying as it went and
developing ghastE and inhuman details
until it seemed an unanswerable reproach
to the whole German empire.
"Buissiere had been virtually de-
stroycd by cross fire from French
and German artillery Tops of brew
cries had been hurled bodily to the
ground. The whole city lay in smoking
ruins, with only its drawbridge across
the Sambre and a few marble stations
and lighthouses towering above the
debris. But here, two days after the
battle, wemen and children were NOV
ing comfortably about the town, and
not single complaint was uttered
against German conduct.
Robert j. Thompson, American con-
sui at Aachen, visited Liege during
and after the capture of the forts. 1t
is the opinion of Mr.. Thompson that
no outrage was committed by Ger
mans during the several days fighting
there.
There are. Of course, reported out
RACES beyond investigation, either on
account of their vagueness or because
1t is impossible to weight the provo
cation. 1t is known for instance, that
liz natives were killed in Renouchamp
German soldiers say that they were
killed because they fired upon thin
from the roofs and windows of the
houses.
The history of the absolute destrue-
ton NJ the historic city of Louvain
with Its chatedrai and its university
is well known. The German version of
this is that the inhabitants under the
direction of the Burgomaster estab-
hshed themselves in the church, where
they also installed a machine gun.
They proceeded to greet the Germans
with deadly fire.
The Belgains say, on the other
hand, that part of the German army,
mistaking one of their own retiring
divisions for the enemy, opened fire
upon them. whereupon. deluded into
- LII h H. l.