The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-17
Stories of German Atrocities Without Foundation Says an American Writer in the War Zone
HELD AS PRISONER
 BY GERMANS AND FOLLOWED CAMPAIGN
Germans Severe When Pr0- v0ked, But Most Reported
 Cruelties Prove to Be Myths-Actual Incidents

New York, September 16.--An As sociated Press staff correspondent of American birth and antecedents who was sent by the New York offices to the war zone and who was caught in Brussels at the time of the German in- vasipn, held as a prisoner several days and who finally escaped to Holland, has sent by mail the following story of his experiences:
 'The night before the Germans en- tered Brussels, when the Belgian civil guards and refugees began pouring into the city from the direction of Louvain, they brought news of un- speakable German atrocities, mal- treatment of old men and children and the abuse of women.
 Within an hour tue saiety and bril- liancy of the city went out like a broken src light. The radiance of the cafes was turned to darkness; whispering groups of residents broke up hurriedly and locked themselves in their homes, where they put up the shutters and drew
 in their tri-color Belgian flags The his- toric Belgian city went through Il state of morbid consternatiolt remarkably like that from which 1t suffered on June IS. 1915. when 1t trembied with the fear of a French victory at Wate.loo
 "In less than 2i hours the Belgian citi- zens were chatting comfortably with the German invaders and the allegation oe German brutality and Eemonicnl tor ture dissolved into ons of tho myths which have accompanied II wars
 Germans Not Offensive
 Neither in Brussels TOT in it's en- yirors was single offensive act. so far as l know. commlttea by German sol- dier. In city Of noss than 500.oO0 peo- pie invaded by n sf'la a1rA of perhaps 25O.ccc soldiers no aet suffiolently fiasrant t, dsmand punishment es to awaken pros test came to my ttsrtion.
 The frightful .epoits that had pre- ceedeG the Germans army i;ito BrusselA
 included the disem 55weing of old men and the impaling of chIldrer on lances just outside Louvaia Investigation not only failed to suDaiantiats these reports, but could not even discover anyone in the immediate vicinity wno credited them. An eyewitness of unnlpeachalla verac- ity told me tha. ile worst behavior he had observed during the first Ger man entry into Lvusstui August ls, was that of a German soidicr who leaned from hts horse and kissed a pretty Flemish girl vino brought hin glass of beer.
 T marched for days with the German cclufrhs, often oniy one day behind the fighting, with the houses that had been Surned still .smou'dering, tiit ground fl efiy broken by shell and tra,nplod by horses and men. anAl tho memory If the German advance s19id in the minds of
 inhabitants. l in'ei viewed ar average of 20 persons in each of dozen towns and to .rd only one instance of noncom- tatant who had been killed without a iustfable provocation. In this case it did not clearly prove that the man had only been murdered. l lived in one of the typical small Belgian coantfyside houses which combine the comforts nf a home with the lure of small public bar. This house was at the north end of Merbes le Chateau, town through which a large part of the Gerrian army passed on the road to Mauberge. A son of the murdered man, whose name was Arthur Carcodon, showed me bl nod clots nn the | floor, marking the place where Mar dodo fell. killed by saw-edged German | snber.
 Houses Burning
 | The inference that the shooting was l done by Belgian civilians may have in- | famed the Germans to reprisals. In that l reghborhood four houses had been burned and one was ablaze as I passed | August 26.
 l "This town of Microbes le Chateau. which had been the scene uf an unimpor- 1 tant slxirnish between the Germans and l the English on the previous Sunday was | riddled with rifle shots. The small nun,- her of windows intact enuNea that tiiu | Germans had made deliberate assault | upon the residents of the town. Sut tho | inhabitants themselves admitted that all | of the shooting had been done ly conn paratively small number O. Germans, and I that the firing had not been begun until English soldiers who had concealed thenn- l selves in the houses, had fred first upon | the Germans. 1 T have emphasized one fatality of thA l non-colnbatant because the news of ft l travelled up and down the Sambre and | across to Hantes- Wiberle and Solre- e,lr- | Sambre. multiplying as 1t went and de@ 1 veloping ghastly ana inhuman details un>} | til 1t seemed au unanswerable reproach | to the whole German empire. With thin l one possible exception. did not encouns