The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-10-01
PATHETIC SCENES
IN WAKE OF WAR
Peasants Aid Wounded In
Fields. McCutcheon Writes
Villages Deserted and
Houses Wrecked.
BY JOHN e. M,cuTcHEoN.

BY JOHN T. M'cuTcHEoN.
Copyright, 1914. by John T. McCutcheon.)
Aix-la-Chapelle, Sept. 29.-It was
3 o'clock in the evening of Aug. 26 that
we left the little town of Soere-sur-
Sambre to go to Beaumont, where the
main colunn of the Germany army vas
said to be.
The distance vas eight miles, a splen-
did road running along the French
frontier, n at one place passing
through h little Belgian frontier GUS
tom u town. 1t was necessary to
reach Beaumont before dark, for 1t
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
a distant chateau in the forest there
was a French uniform n 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 it's look Of devastation. The
houses %fringing the side of the square
We're battered and desterted.
The VILLAGE Deserted.
h street was Uttered with wreck
G The peaceful villagers We're gone,
driven away by the shells that had
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 n 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 war. A
peasant appeared from some place and
we stopped him.
Peasant Tells of Battle.
He said there had been about 5000
or 6,000 French, and he didn't know
how many Germans, many more, he
thought. 1t had been a terrible fight.
The 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 h peaceful evidences Of house
hold industry, left just as they were
when the women fled in terror. Pots
were still IN the stoves, tables were
still set. Even the doors had not beer
closed,
Find Bodies in a Cart.
AT the edge of town stood a covered
cart, within which were the bodies O.
Two French soldiers, their heads on the
floor of the cart n their feet resting
on he seat. An overcoat had beer
thrown over their faces. Two villagers
were preparing to bury them. Off in q
Held some more villagers were digging
a hole into which the bodies were to be
thrown. 1t was unspeakably pathetic.
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, nut whether dead or prisoners will
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. It was terrible the
silence n the tragedy of it..
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 back
home to the relatives. All rank is lost
when officers and ~privates together &c
into the trench which is to be their
last resting place. The soninlaw of the
president of the ppe 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. l saw the widow when
she returned from his sad errand. Her
eyes 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 oninlaw and was bringing home
the body in a lead casket.
The send their wounded
back, but no dead.
A thousand yards or from Montinges,
down at the bottom of a long slope in
road. we came to a barricade of tree
branches n barbed wire. We carried
our wheels across it. 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 roa stood a French
gun carriage. and at the top of this
hill and on the slopes of the fields at
each side of the road We're French
trenches. Articles of French soldier
equipment Uttered the sides of the
road. 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 and deserted. Ii
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 gone.
"
WILSON UPHOLDS BILL.
WASHINGTON n O. Cont % pror;