Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-09-29
LOUVAIN'S DESTRUCTION
Continued from Page y

street corners Prussian sentinels, sor-
did, immovable and silent.
In the centre stand the wall of st.
Peter now a grinning silhouette, roof
and belfry gone, the walls blackened
and caved in. In front stands the 'Ho-
tel De Vile dominating everything
and almost intact. Further on, the
remains of Les Halles' entirely de-
stroyed, except for the Orcade of big
pillars of the Sale Des Pas Perdus.'
The library and its treasures are en-
tirely gone. The Rue De Diest' up to
st, Peters is heap of ruins, bricks,
scrap iron and charred beams. Rue
De La Station is entirely burnt; but
the fronts of the modern houses have
resisted the fire. l approach the
statue of Just Lipse." Everything
burnt. The house David Ffshbach'
has fallen 10 pieces. At the foot of
the statue. in a flower bed all tram
pied under foot, there is an irregular
hillock covered with few dead
leaves. An old woman recognizing
me. tells me Monsieur. this is the
grave of Monsieur David and his
son, the best people that ever lived.
They were killed by them as they
We're leaving their house. The Capu-
clan brothers buried the dead and
made temporary graves for them.
Graves were found nearly everywhere
In front of the statue, near a house,
| find traces of fire.
In this place, the old woman tells
me- the Prussians burnt a body after
soaking it in petroleum. Some men bur-
led the charred remains.
THE greater part of Rue Leopold is
burnt, In the Place Du Peuple' every
thing Is burnt except one house, which is
riddled with bullets.
In the Rue De Namur above Les
Halles" nothing is burned, but everything
is pil1aged The Avenues of Diest and
Tirlemont are destroyed.
In the center the sight Is extraordina-
rily picturesque gloomy, abominable,
and more SO in the evening when the
fun moon is shining over the mass OF
ruins it is really fantastic. diabolical. to
look at.
ttThese two observations I made in the
course of my exploration of this modern
Pompeii:
"First-The aspect of the ruins leaves
no doubt that the incendiary operations
were carried on systematically, in we'll
thought-out manner. and by someone's
order. Each house was set fire sepa-
rately. A villager told me that the SOL
diers had two ways of setting fire to the
house. One was to break the windows
of the first floor, TO throw petroleum on
the floor, and throw in torches of burn
ing straw, while others were engaged in
shooting at the upper story windows to
prevent the inhabitants from throwing
missiles on those setting fire to their
homes Sometimes they would fire special
cartridges into the windows of the upper
stories; it is believed that they were ex-
plosive cartridges, more perhaps illumi-
mating cartridges. Curtains. bedding and
other infammable matter Immediately
took fire.
"Second-In entered eonsecutively 10
houses which had not been set on fire.
but which had been pillaged. Among
others I visited the house OF Baron Des-
camps, and the impression which l gath
cred from my examination is the follow
ing: Pillave, as we'll as incendiarism,
has been methodically carried on. 1t was
not the work of delirious drunken
trooper, but a careful methodieal and mi
mute ransacking of houses from the cellar
to the attic"