The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1914-12-24
GERMANY'S HEROES
DO NOT LOOK PART.
SOME or THOSE DECORATED FOR
BRAVERY ARE HARDLY
AOONiSES.
"let's Die Fighting 10 the Spirit
Which is Accorded High
Military Honor.
BY COREY

LONDON. Dec. 23.-War heroes do
not look up TO the frontispiece. They
are quite as apt to be scrubby little
runts as to be tall. thin-hanked Adon-
ises wearing SIS suits. Herolsm foes
not seem TO comport with an aquiline
peak n more certainly than with a
nose marked by depression and uncer-
tainty. Men with the fighting jaws OF
nction are very often heroes. So are
men with little round chins like butter
bowls.
There is the ease OF Friedrich. for
example.
Friedrich Is at this momen sitting
IN ? bed In the Templehof hospital in
Berlin. wearing a tight little white
nighteown. On the breast of that
nightgown Is an Iron Cross. Friedrich
keeps feeling il. as IL he feared Il was
not real He grins In the most shame-
less way when he catches your Eve.
Friedrich is difident. all right. but he
isn't modest. He shutters when he
talks to you because he Is a grocer's
boy and you are a Herr OF some sort.
But he talks. all right. II he could
get out of his little white bed he'd hold
you by the coat until he told you ali
about II.
Friedrich's Encounter.
SO would you. by the way. IL you
were In Friedrich's place. Because he
killed three men with the bayonet in
a dark cellar-he being all alone.
And he knows hat the Iron Cross only
goes to men who deserve Il. A good
deal of mud has beer thrown at the
Iron Cross since this war began. But
that sort OF mud will not stick. The
plan is TO scatter about one cross to
every 20 men. II the cross is deserved.
Dead men 10 not cunt. So the pro-
portion Is not indecently high.
The Germans were in a little village
on the Aisne. Every time they got into
II they were shelled right out of il. The
streets were positi. ely heaped with
dead Germans. II became apparent
that the spies were informing the
French batteries OF the precise dis
position OF the German troops. So
that the next time they got in all .ha
men who could be spared were told
off to hunt for spies. Friedrich hap
pened TO be one of them. He thinks
he was lucky.
Il got into a cellar said Friedrich.
and there were three Franchises US
ing the telephone. SO | killed them.
Then ! got the Iron Cross"
Hero Round Little Man.
The point Is that Friedrich is \
round little of the little men
who could never be starved into lans-
ness-and has the most good-natursd.
kindly. Unable face you ever saw. He
Is perhaps twenty years old and WORKS
IN a grocery. II you had to pick A
hero out Of the whole German army
Friedrich Is the last man you wolIf
select. He looks mostly like a sutler.
But he has the Iron Cross. Also. he
has a bullet through his innocent
bowels.
Top-Sergeant Clemens of the 35tn
B~randenburg Fusiliers is another dis
appointment on physical form. He
even lacks a stolidity which passes
for calm in Friedrich, Top-Sergeant
Clemens is nervous. truth compels the
admission that Clemens is distinctly
gabby. There is too much altitude oe-
tween his eyebrows and the peak of
his head 10 make for beauty. His eyes
are very pale blue. and his eyelasn-s
are s~traw-colored. When one shakes
hands his palms are sticky.
Nevertheless. Sergeant Clemens mas
the Iron Cross. He has the added dis
unction Of having been mentioned in
general orders. so hat one may a.
his story Is considered something
out of the common run. Clemens is the
only man left alive OF ninety-thras
who marched out OF the village OF
Orchis. lear Lille. on September p
Iwenty-three made up the first squad.
They were Red Cross m-en-sanltary so.
diers the practical Germans call them.
Mind you" says the nervous Glenn
ems RISING in bod auI -~~.g-- A.
arms. they vent out to give aid 10
the French wounded as we'll as to tho
German wounded"
Attacked by Peasants.
That view Of the case happens not
10 have appealed TO the French peas
ants about Orchis. Their town had
been destroyed and their houses burn.
ed and their goods taken. They are
a grim lot about Orchis. Clemens
says. He says the old peasants NUT
tered at the German army. .-ey
cast black looks.
They attacked our sanitary sol
diers." says Clemens. "Our men were
unarmed. They mad not been allowed
10 carry rides. These peasants at
tackled them with axes and scythes
and stones"
There H. nothing inherently nm
probable in that Peasants have done
such things. They have n way OF
eluding the phrase military neces-
sity' In their talk and using such
words a. murder and arson. They
killed the twenty-three sanitary soE
diers.
The women" shouts Clemens.
waving his arms. ~"sunocated the men
who were only wounded. They piled
sods and ashes VI their faces. 40 that
they died"
50 seventy soldiers were old OF a.
n punitive force They went out 20
make these rebeilious peasants OF
Ofchis remember forever the day on
which they raised their hands against
the kaiser's soldiers one gathers
That they went rather happily. what
they did not know was that n force
~ three hundred French soldiers tad
come up Somehow. the French were
quite desperately engaged against
the Germans
We thought the peasants we're un.
armed. confessed C1omena "unt1