Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1914-11-12
BEST STORIES OF
ITS HORRORS
One Mans Thoughts and Feel
ings on Eve of Expected
Execution.


A MONG the nos thrilling stories
IA of the war is one told by Lau-
IA. renee s.. Stevens, formerly Of
Grand Rapids, Mich, but tenn
porarily residing in Brussels, who,
While riding within the German lines
in an automobile engaged by a CORE
%spondent of the Chicago News, was
arrested as a British spy and condemn
ed to death and who suffered a night
of horrors at Manage, Belgium.
Stevens has described how he felt
while awaiting his fate. which he be-
lieved would be death. His story is
told in the Chicago News.
II asked for strength to hold out be-
fore the German guns like q man and
show them that l was not frightened"
he said.
"When the guard looked at me l said
in broken German, 'Morgen schiessen?
CShoot tomorrow?) He shrugged his
shoulders and picked up an old cur
tain, rolled it into a bundle and placed
it under my head. l fell asleep. At
4:3O a. IN. I awoke when two sappers
entered the room. One had a spade
and a lantern and the other carried an
a%cetylene searchlight. They played the
light over the room and left the door
aiar as they left.
II saw them go across the courtyard
to the wall. where one Of them took
the pick and started taking up stones,
the second man using the spade in
turning the earth. l could not keep
my eyes off them. They fascinated
me, for | was sure they were digging
my own grave.
Planned How He'd Die.
ITO make my death less ignom1nous
| decided to keep my hands loosely in
the rope until 1 faced the firing squad,
when l would throw my hands out I'm.
fettered.
"Just before 6 o'clock a bugle sound
ed and everybody rose. The guards
put on their cartridge belts and then
waited five minutes, which seemed to
me like half al hour. Then the order
came to fall in. l wondered if my
knees treinbled, but they were as firm
as ever. | wondered how the news of
my death could reach my friend, Lew
is Richards, in Brussels. formerly pi-
anist in Il Detroit music school,"
Stevens r%ecountS his further harrow
ing experiences until finally after four
days of agonizing suspense he realized
his life was safe.
"Greatest Of Follies."
There has been given out officially in
formation concerning incidents of the
fighting and personal experiences,
which had been furnished by German
prisoners or obtained from documents
seized by French troops. 1t relates
particularly to the fighting around
Of September.
a German artillery officer wrote:
Modern war is the greatest of fol
lies. Companies of $50 men in the
Tenth army corps have been reduced
to seventy men. and there are compa-
MES of the guard commanded by vol
unteers of a year. all the officers hay
ing disappeared"
A Frenchman who comes from Mont
martre found a Luxembourgeois lying
within a yard Of him whom he had
known as chasseur in a hotel in Paris.
The young German wept to see his old
acquaintance.
1T is stupid" he said. this war.
You and | were happy when we were
good friends in Paris. Why should we
have been made to fight with each 9th
err" He died with his arms round the
neck of the French soldier, who told
ihe story, unashamed of his tears.
A Semisubterranean Town.
y correspondent describes the Ger
man trenches on the AiSne as q whole
Semisubterranean town, with main
thOroughfareS. side streets and tele-
phone wires running all along. Here
hundreds of thousands Of men ate.
lived, slept, yet were so we'll conceal
ed that from a little way down the hill
in front one would see nothing to tell
Of its existence, unless it were the
hardly noticeable little bank of earth
raised slightly above the surface Of the
ground.
Acts of Dauntless Courage.
M. Verlin, a French lieutenant, with
fifty men, held at bay from a clump of
woods 5000 Germans, who were afraid
it was a trap and fought from a dis
lance. The little French detachment
fired volley after volley until only thir-
teen remained alive.
Corporal Massell, awarded a medal
by France, occupied an outlook post in
a tree for three days, not coming down
until he was wounded.
This feat was described by a British
cavalry officer in a letter home: "a
young lancer, not more than twenty,
stripped of tunic and shirt, charged q
German. pierced him to the heart seiz-
ed his horse as he fell and exchanged
it for his own, which was hurt. Then,