Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-10-14
CARS FORCES
LEAVE A TRAIL
OF DESOLAT|ON
Cossacks Murdered and Pill
laged as They Were Driven
Back to Russian Soil.
MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
VICTIMS OF INVADERS
Aged Women Mistreated-Men
of Military Age Shot-vil-
lagos Are Devastated.
BY KARL HI. Won wIEGAND
United Press Correspondent.


KONIGSBURG Oct. IA, by telegraph
to Berlin and thence via Nauen by
wireless to the United Press through
Sayville, l.. 1.-The czar's Cossack
hordes left bruised, bleeding trail
of DISSOLUTION and woe across the fer
tile fields of East Prussia as they
swept backward into their own land,
smarting under defeat from German
arms.
I have reached this city after a
600-miIe automobile trip through this
area of desolation, following path
of blasted lives, of tortured men,
women and children and of devas-
tated homes almost unbelievable. l
carried special permit from the
German general staff.
The battlefields of Tannenbhrg and
Neidenburg were bad enough, with
their still present reminders of the
sacrifice of human life, but the coun-
tryside told stories of murder, rapine
and inhuman cruelty almost beyond
belief. Around Neidenburg the Rus
sian hordes satisfied their lust by vio-
lating scores of defenseless peasant
women-some of them sixty and sew
enty years of age.
The countryside around this place,
near the Russian frontier where the
czar's forces for a time reformed TO
fight against the Overwhelming pres
sure of the German lines forcing them
back, was ravaged terribly. RUSSIAN
soldiery took full revenge for their
defeat on the women. Catholic nuns
and young girls bore crueities Worss
than torture of the battlefield and
were left dying as the hordes passed
on.
Killed All Of Military Age.
The Russians killed every male
they encountered who was of mill
tarv age. The countryside has been
stripped of all of It's men between
fourteen and forty-five. Older men
who feebly protested were ruthiessiy
slaughtered.
Nor was this horror confirmed to
Niedenburg. The Russian investment
of Koenigsburg was accompanied py
the same riot Of lust. At Abschwanr
gen, tiny village ten miles, from
Koenigsburg, fifty-seven men apd
women were 1hots Including elgnt
boys between fourteen and nineteen
years. | heard the stories of tome
of those who witnessed the inferno
of blood and slaughter and piuage.
The father of fourteen-year- old boy,
his eyes bloodshot with days of weep
ing. told me how the Cossacks had
shot down the little group one by
one. ),
"They were not killed in one volley. !
he said. .The Russians shot them
one by one. My wife and myself got
ON our knees and prayed to God that
our boy might be spared. We saw
him. his hands outstretched to us IN
unavailing appeal that we aid him.
They bound my wife and myself to-
eether and forced us to see our own
babylon he was only mere child
fail before their bullets as he cried to
us to aid him."
Pastor Rocket at Griesdenen, told
me how his brother was gored to
Death by Cossack who prodded the
dead body with his lance and gouged
the eyes out.
At Ortelsburg those who Witnessed
the Russian retreat told me how the
Cossacks locked four defenseless per-
Sons. including deaf and dumb man
and a child of twelve, in house and
then set fire to the building. | saw
the blackened ruins of the home.
Villagers Lined Up and Shot.
From an eighty -two-year-old in
mate of the poorhouse at Santo san
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