The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-09-28
rs THIS CREDIBLE?
Minister sewsIi Makes Public n Horri-
bic story OF German Atrocities.

you not Tree 10 use inc hulnOT Ndlle
and mine also in any way you choose
to attest his credibility. To those who
know him there is no need OF this, and
few Americans In Europe are better
known than he. A graduate of Yale.
he Is a lfnguist, a traveller and Co.'S
mopolite and from the vantage ground
Of his Swiss home has been for years
an UMPIRE JUDGED student of lnterna-
tionol politics. VIVA, he recites fell at
first on lncredulous ears. what ne be-
lieves he has been forced unwi.lingl,' to
believe, just as the American people
sincerely DESTROYS as they are that our
neutrality be n real neutrality, are daily
and irresistibly. from such testimony
as this finding that II Is fast becoming
one of form and not OF the heart
HAROLD NJ. SEwALL.
BARN, Me, September 26.
My DEAR sEwALL: l suppose you and
your wife have wondered wha; became OF
us and our Swiss home in this big war.
When II broke out our French. German
and Austrian frontiers were rendered i'm
passable by the actual hostiliies, and
Italy was almost as hard to enter or to
traverse owing TO her immediate mubil-
zation. II was Just the moment of nigh
season" for American tourists None
could get away. none could get money
Letters OF credit ava!lcd not at all. Ere
quently the millionaire vas caught with
less and the little schoomistress win
more. merely depending on who had been
to the bank most recently
After about three weeks OF this the
American Ambassador In Paris secured
permission from the French Government
20 run few special trains Of Americans
through France. The second one Of these
rains was put under my charge to con-
duct to Paris. one single passport, care
fully guarded In my nnermost pocket,
serving for US all. and this at a time
when every other stranger In France was
having his individual passport examined
and vised about every time he turned
round | was selected by the embassy
doubtless owing To my happening to speak
French and English with about equal
proficiency.
II took US twenty-elght hours 10 get 10
Paris. instead Of the customary eight or
ten. The delay was caused mostly to al
low passage OF the long freight trains
filled with wounded French soldiers They
lay On the floor IN the cars merely on n
layer Of straw that WAS red and matted
With human blood our train would ad-
vance couple OF hours and then lie by
for couple OF hours. and always these
terrible trains were our ncighbors In the
railway yards. Owing TO my official post
ton was permitted by the military nu-
thorltes 10 visit them as freely as I de-
sired. and 10 Is OF the long Intimate talks
with those wounded French soldiers tha'
/ want especially to writ.
The reports IN the newspapers about
German atrocities ! had previously set
down TO hystc lcol eNaggeraticns such
as characterize the beginnings Of SO many
wars and il was with sort OF amused
tolerance that first listened TO II all In
my talks with these soldiers. But. by
heavens, neither YOU nor anybody else
would have talked with them long with
out realizing that all that we have been
reading IN the papers about these inhu-
man barbarities does not even give a
faint idea Of the actual horrible truth.
one soldier after another I questioned,
always asking for exactly what he had
seen VITA his own eyes. and no. picked
Up ~ mere hcars2y. tell you the
Things I learned all that long day and
night IN regard to mutiiatious OF women
and young Girls were beyond description
IN their inconcelvahlc horror. No such
mass OF circumstantiii details related 20
me by actual witnesses lying so near 20
death IN those bare cars, and next day
In the long rows Of cots N the hospitals
that visited in Dieppo could have been
collaborated nor invented Each simple
straightforward narration stood clear as
but another facet OF the great central
mass that could not but be the truth
II the Germans had acted but half 50
mldly they would row stand worse con
dcmued In the eyes ~ tire world II Is
m" very erormi.y ~ the acts that Do
teats their gaining credence That WON,
and young girls should have been raw
lshed. mutilated and dlshEurea for lie,
not In rare Instances but literally In hun
dreds OF cases, appears too improbable 20
the average person 20 be auEht but eXag-
! 2 ration.
As is the case with yourself, 7 have rad
many acuuaintaNces and friends In Ger
many, ara thev would all be incapable
OF any lack ~ Ielicncy or Of honor They
are good fathers. husbands. sons. They
would not ualtreat animals. Explain It
how you may t-ese things 7 heard from
those Just fresh from the scene could not
be else than true. All these wounded
soldiers came from the campaign In Bel
cium and on the Neuse frequently en-
tor'ng towns and villages that the Ger
mans had just left In ruins and the
corpses OF ravshed women and children
we're a constant feature They thought
at first ,hfy were casualties from bullets.
but the wounds were too frequently those
OF bayonet ard Of sword. After the final
conquest ~ L'eCe the German soldiers so
long haf,cd and starved and m9dderci
then fen upon Belgium In a frenzy fam
shed rs they were and mad with IN rst
! for alcohol The Germans that you and
knew twcnty-f'vc years ago had for
thIr motto: Fear God and do right
under the cold mathematical Eodlossness
Of present PrusEiau m!iitarlsm n seems
, 20 hr changed to per the Kaiser and
do--otherWist as YOU wish"
Victims Of mutilation cannot hope TO
/ hush their stories. You have but TO put
Yourself in the position OF victims Of mere
/ rape, NY Of the father or brother or hus-
band ~ such victims, 10 rea.ige how the
irst thou nj would be FOR concealment.
Tho horrible cases OF mutilation cannot
be concealed. But these latter cases Give
n method OF roughly calculating the total.
IN the science Of uorhid and abnormal
psychology there IL n certain perversi'y
known MS sadlsm from the Marquis
de Sade, who first described 10. II * the
desire 70 mutilats the body Of the victim
of ones lust II Is very rare. In the an
mails OF crime Of London Of recent yeais
there has been hut one Jack the Rip
per" Let us suppose that one in thou.
sand libertines Is possessed by this hor-
rib,e cravirC Then the number OF mutt
lations of victims should be multiplied by
thousand to establish the number Of
victims Of mere rape. A Belgian refugee
here in London has told me OF girls
boarding school, all the inmates made
victims OF drunken soldiers lust. Yet
there were no cases OF mutllation
As YOU read this letter Of mine sup
pose YOU will already have ceased giving
cr"hence to any such enormous scale n
orgy in this twentieth century as | out
! line. | should have certainly done The
same had | not talked with all these