The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-10-04
ARTIST IN THICK
OF HARD BATTLE
Jennie Dufau, Who viii Be Here
This Winter, Escapes Shells In
Native AIsatian
Village.
WAS ARREsED AS spy
Chicago Woman Tells Dramatic
Story Of Her Adventures in
Her Home Town During
eombardment.

Jennie Dufau, one OF the artists who
will appear this winter In Keokuk,
was in her Alsatian home during its
bombardment by the. Germans and
was accused Of being spy by the
enemy. A despatch in the Chicago
Herald from New York tells an inter
esting story of the experiences Of this
music artist:
On the steamship Tamoso di Savoia
or the Lloyd-Sabaudo line, which en-
tered this port today for the first
time. there arrived Miss Jennie Du-
fau, daughter Of Alfred Dufau, a linen
merchant OF Saulxures Alsace, who is
OF her way to Chicago after one of the
most thrilling experiences told by a
refugee from The war zones.
Miss Dnfau,. who makes her home
in Chicago, described her experiences
at Saulxures, telling how she and her
sister ana father were accused of be-
ing spies and how she went out on
the battlefield and gave succor to the
wounded in battle whose dead, she
had heard, numbered 100000.
Aug. 6 the German artillery occu-
pied the heights on one side of the
valley overlooking the, town Miss Du-
fau was visiting. Aug. 125 the {. r
mans occupied the town itself
First FIees 20 Cellar.
At that time there were only two
French regiments near Saulxures-the
One Hundred and Ninth Regiment of
foot and the Twelfth Cavalry The
French, however. opened fire on the
Germans, and Miss Dufau, with her
father and sister. at once retreated to
the cellar in an effort to escape fly
ing shells.
The French re-inforcements," she
said, were exceedingly slow in ar
irving, but they finally camei and :oc-
,cupied the heights on the French side
OF the valley. Then began a tremen-
dous artillery duel that lasted for
days. All this time we were living
in the cellar. where we were caring
for ten wounded French officers.
Il often went out over the battle
field when the fire slackened and did
what could for the wounded.
Many Die Holding Crosses.
Il received many mementos from
dying French soldiers and recorded
their dying words. saw dead sol
diers holding crucifixes in their hands
and even IN their teeth-for some of
them Had an arm shot off and appar-
emily had drawn their crucifixes from
their pockets, placed the crosses be-
tween their lips and then reverently
removed their caps.
gunny sacks stretched between poles
and carried away as many of the
as we could to shelter.
my brothers Paul and Daniel were
drafted into the German army. OF
course they had sworn an oath not
to fire a shot at Frenchman and
their greatest hope was that they
would be captured and permitted to
put on the French uniform. You
know the French soldiers in battle
often say:
"'They are firing In the air, they
must be Alsatians.'
Accused Of Being Spies.
Between Aug. IL and "a the artil-
lery duel ragged. and finally the op-
posing armies came to hand-to-hand
fight with the bayonet. First 1t was
the Germans who occupied the town.
then the French. The Germans finally
came to our house and accused my
sister, my father and myself Of being
spies because they found telephone
there. The soldiers lined us up against
the wall to shoot us, but we fell on
our knees and begged them to spare
the life of our father. They gave no
heed till German colonel came along
and after questioning US ordered that
we be set free.
soon after the Germans were
driven out, and then began terrific
battle, in which it was said not less
than 100000 were killed. The Ger,
mans seemed to be advancing, and
after some trouble we managed to
procure an ox-cart and got to Switzer-
land.
IT never will forget the scenes of
that battlefield, with its wounded and
dying under heaps of soldiers already
dead Many Of the wounded were
buried four deep under dead men and
could not be extricated.'