The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-10-01
SCENES
IN WAKE OF WAR
Peasants Aid Wounded In
Fields. MeCutCheon Writes
Villages Deserted and
Houses Wrecked.
eY JoHN r. M%,curcHEoN.

A'AHt ~ "cAAAA Il . HANSAN@AA@NAFf
Aix-la- Chapelle, Sept. 29.-It vas
D o'clock in the evening of Aug. rs that
we left the little town of Soere-sur-
Sambre to go TO Beaumont. where the
main column of the Germany army was
said to be.
The distance was eight miles, a splen-
liz road running along the French
frontier, and at one place passing
through the little Belgian frontier GUS
tom house town. II was necessary to
reach Beaumont before dark, for it
would be dangerous to approach the
German outposts after dark.
At a great gateway on a long drive
way that led between somber trees to
q distant chateau in the forest there
was a French uniform and a scattered
heap of French equipment.
A few hundred. feet beyond lay the
broad, silent square of the little town
of Montignies st. Christophe. 1t was
woeful in its look of devastation. The
houses fringing the side of the square
were battered and desterted.
The VILLAGE Deserted.
The street was, Uttered with wreck
age. The peaceful villagers were gone.
driven away by the shells that had
beaten down their homes and trans
formed their quiet village into a mass
OF ruin. The gashes made by shells APP
peared on every house-huge, ragged
holes through solid walls, shattered
windows and wrecked roofs.
Across this sleepy town. directly be-
tween the opposing ridges occupied by
the French and German cannons, had
shrieked the shells which had made an
inferno OF little Montignies st. Christie
phe for a few hours. Then the French
were beaten back, the Germans
marched through, and the little town
was left alone with its dead.
We stopped for some time to study
the town and the ravages Of A
peasant appeared from some place and
we stopped him.
Peasant Tells Of Battle.
He said there had been about 5000
or 5000 French, and he didn't know
how many Germans, many more, he
thought. 1t had been a terrible fight.
HI French. were beaten back with
many killed. Along the wayside we saw
many pieces of French uniforms and
equipment dropped by the French in
their frantic retreat.
A short distance farther on, in a lit
tie house, we saw some villagers clust-
cred together. talking In subdued tones.
They kept within doors. Through the
open doors of many of the houses we
saw the peaceful evidences Of house,
hold industry, left just as they were
when the women fled in terror. Pots
were still on the stoves, tables were
still set. Ever the doors had not been
closed.
Find Bodies in a Cart.
At the edge of town stood a covered
cart, within which were the bodies of
two French soldiers, their heads on the
floor of the cart and their feet resting
on the seat. An overcoat had been
thrown over their faces. Two villagers
were preparing to bury them. Off in a
ftn11 ,.NH na~- rr-.. s-Hw
a hole into which the bodies were to be
thrown. 1t was u~nspeakably pathetic. h,
Somewhere there will be French
mothers and wives and sisters who will
wonder what has become Of those two
men. Weeks will go by with no word
from them. They will be reported miss
ing. but whether dead or prisoners will
not be stated. They will lie in their
shallow grave in the field near a little
Belgian town, with grave unmarked
and name perhaps unknown.
Such a scene seems TO bring home
the horror of war more wildly than
anything else. 1t was terrible, the
silence and the tragedy of 1t.
Germans Bury on Field.
The German army buries all it's dead
on the battlefield. No bodies, either
high or low in rank, are sent ack
to the relatives. All rank is lost
when officers and privates together go
into the trench which is to be their
last resting place. The soninlaw of the
president of the upper Rhine provinces
was killed at Liege. A notice. of his
death was sent to his relatives, and
they went at once in an effort to re-
cover the body. which had been buried
in a trench. 1 saw the widow when
h returned from this sad errand. Her
yes were red and swollen from weep
ing and her father and mother were
trying to console her.
They had found the body in a grave,
lying at the bottom of a pile of six
other soldiers, officers and priVates,
and the father had identified the face
Of his soninlaw and was bringing home
the body in a lead casket.
The Germans send their wounded
back, but no dead. p
A thousand yards on from Montinges,
down at the bottom OF a long slope in
road. we came to a barricade of tree
branches and barbed wire. We carried
our wheels across II. Some calves, de-
serted by their owners came to us as
though in distress for attention and
human Companionship. Over in a field
to the right of the road stood a French
gun carriage, and at the top of this
hill and on the slopes Of the fields at
each side of the rOa were French
trenches. Articles Of French soldier
equipment Uttered the sides of the
o. A mill and a large farmhouse at
the top Of the hill were deserted.
The next village, a thousand yards
further along on the Beaumont road,
was absolutely silent n deserted. 1t
was the Belgian frontier customs house
town. A French officers jacket and a
lot of scattered equipment marked the
course Of a haSty fight. There was
something grim in the silence and des-
Olation OF the ~town-doors Open and the
people all gore.
WILSON UPHoLDs BILL.