Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1914-09-12

| = lAS to"n IN the evening
herman fugttives were fred upou in
error by their own troops.
Rage at this misfortune and chagrin
at their defeat seem to have infamed
the invaders, who set SYSTEMATICALLY
70 work to massacre the population
ana destroy the city. whose monu-
ments belonged as much to civilization
as to Belgium.
IL is not possible to put upon paper
the accounts OF the fugitives. They
were given in gestures and broken
exciamations rather than in sentences
me purport was always the same:
mat the civil population had done
nothing, but that at night when the
retreating German soldiers began to
! arrive, suddenly tae invaders became
angry and began to slaughter, pillage
| and destroy.
| City Is in Ruins.
Nothing remains of Louvain but
ruins, nor Of its population but fugi-
tiVes. 1t is possible when the full
| story comes to be told it will be found
that the horror was not quite so great.
For all the accounts are from people
neelng for their lives. Among these
| people, however, were four civic dig
| nitaries who were in the city during
the night and who were actually In
the hands OF Germans, but escaped
| Their relation of facts is what is fol-
lowed In this dispatch, for 1t is more
| likely to be accurate and sober.
On the road from Louvain to Ant
werp crowds of pitiful refugees could
be seen; nuns fleeing from their
cloisters, priests from their churches,
sick carried on their beds, aged totter-
Ing along with the help of their chill
dren, and all who could, carrying some
poor article Of household furniture. In
one cart were collected II children, ev-
identity several families.
One handcart held an old palsied
woman being pushed by her grand
child. All were fleeing to Antwerp as
the city Of refuge, the city which shud-
ders in darkness throughout nights, at
fear of midnight bombs. Among the
train of fugitives we're ambulances OF
the Belgian army. in which are carried
solicttously German wounded to hos
| pitfalls"
War Bureaus Account.
The British war information bureau
announces the following:
The Belgian minister of foreign af-
fairs reports that on Tuesday a Ger
man army corps, after receiving a
check withdrew in disorder to the
city of Louvain.
THE Germans on guard at the en-
trance of the city, mistaking the ma
ture of this incursion, fired upon their
/ cOuntrymen, whom they mistook for
| Belgians
in spite of all the denials from the
authorities the Germans, in order to
cover their mistake, pretended that it
was the inhabitants who had fired on
/ them, whereas the inhabitants, includ-
! ing the police, all had been disarmed
| more than a week before.
Orders City's Destruction.
/ without inquiry and without listen
/ ing to any protests, the German com
mander announced that the town
would be destroyed Immediately. The
Inhabitants were ordered to leave
| their dwellings and some were made
prisoners. The women and children
were placed on trains the destinations
of which are not known and soldiers
1 furnished with bombs set fire to ali
| parts of the city. The splendid church
| Of st. Pierre, the university buildings,
| the library and scientific establish
ments we're delivered to the flames
Several notable citizens were shot.
! The city, which had a population of
J $4,000 and was the intellectual metrop-
/ oils OF the low countries, is now moth
/ ing more than heap Of ashes"
Orgy Precedes Sack.
Chicago.-The Tribune prints the
following dispatch from f. Alexander
/ Powell, dated at Antwerp:
4 am sorry to say that the stories
of the sack of Louvain slowly coming
in ameliorate the original tale of hor.
J ror in no way The few refugees who
q nave arrived mere are luCOu6ItHl llOuI
their frightful experiences. 1t was
| night of almost indescrbable horrors.
! Germans broke into the wine shops
early in the evening and drunken
! orgy ensued, participated in by both
officers and men.
Il am informed by high govern
ment official that in the city where So
600 persons resided only ten houses re
main standing The Hotel De vile,
one of the finest examples of Gothic
architecture in Europe; the noble
church Of st. Pierre, built in 1926; the
! university. founded by Pope Martin V,
and its world famous library, are today
| heaps Of smoking ruins.
The Germans seem to have vented
their greatest fury on priests, Of whom
there was a large number attending
/ the university The government IN
derstands that most Of them were
/ butchered under the most revolving
| circumstances"