Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-01
land, the aeroplanes and dirigibles
aloft, it bears remarkable testimony to
the influence Of the gas engine in mill
| tary strategy.-New York World.
THE SHAMELESS AT llEGE
Woman Writer Draws Horrible Picture
Of Terrible Scene.

Woman Writer Draws Horrible Picture
Of Terrible Scene.
Mary Boyle O'Reilly in Atlanta Jour-
nal.
Brussels Belgium-When first the
German army began its invasion l
hurried over from London to be as
near as possible to the scene of battle.
At Brussels halted, for could not
get nearer Liege, which the German
army was shelling.
Here l have talked to a man who
has been in and about Liege since the
city was first besieged. From him I
have first hand reports Of the fighting.
They all agree that there was terrible
carnage, horrible scenes Of war
boodshed, wailing wounded and-the
dead-thousands and thousands.
An Amsterdam merchant, one Of
the first non-combatants to visit the
battlehelds Of Wise and Liege, told me
what he himself had seen.
II never want to set my foot upon
another battlefield" he declared. land
1 hope to God that there will never be
another battlefield any place on the
globe again."
"Why?" l asked, though I more
than half suspected what his answer
would be.
well, here is just one reason-a
blue-eyed boy lies dying in agony.
alone, out on the country road be-
yond Wise; pierced by bullet and
mangled beneath the iron wheels Of
on-rushing artillery.
He had fired upon passing German
troops from his fathers cottage. The
soldiers had dragged him out together
with his father, and left the one un-
conscious, the other dead, in the path
Of the guns that followed.
Perhaps death has blessed the boy
by now. Pray God 1t be so! He was
moaning pitifully as we passed in our
motor only few hours ago. But We
did not stop. Horror to confess I
hardly noticed his suffering! l had
seen so much like it and worse! All
feeling was gone, after the time had
spent on a charnel field, where writh-
ing wounded lie compressed in the
bloody mass Of the dead.
"Yes, when 1 started out in the mo-
tor, for a run along the battle-ground
from Wise to Liege, rather expected
the trip would be exciting. 1t would
be glorious, to be one Of the first on
those fields, where the Belgians had
been so valiant fighting for hearth
and home, against the invaders.
Would that had been the last to
visit them-after the wounded had all
been taken up, and the dead burned
or buried! 1 might then have been
spared the fearful picture Of carnage
which Is now painted on my mind In
horror, forever.
There were flowers and smiling
faces in the neat cottage windows as
I sped through the peaceful frontier
village of Mesch. Yet only little
further on, as we rounded a turn, we
found the machine literally plowing
through a cluster of dead soldiers, the
wheels skidding with blood! There
had been a skirmish Of outposts there.
Beyond was the site of German
camp, marked by heaps Of the dead.
"Belgians and Germans lay strewn
in indescribable confusion, giving
mute evidence that the conflict had
been hand to hand-bayonet against
saber. Lying among the corpses, on
them, under them, were the bodies OF
h,rses and the wrecks Of automobiles
and bicycles. The Belgian cyclist In
fantry, | surmised, had caught body
of German infantry and cavalry there
in a flank movement.
1.-The silence was ghastly. The bat
tlefield was two days old, and the
wounded had all been picked up or
more likely, had found relief in death.
"All along the route villages were
in ruin, fields flattened, forests char
red by flame. A sheet Of fire and steel
seemed to have blaZed across the
country, and it left a dreary wilder
ness.
Much farther along 1 came to the
real carnage-the fresh battlefields
around Liege. The living, still uncar-
ed for, lay among the corpses. Have
you ever burned out huge nest OF
worms in tree and seen the mass OF
their bodies on the ground, seeming
to writhe as a whole because of the
still wiggling, agonozing forms scat
tered through it? Just enlarge that
picture to human proportions and add
to it's silence the horror Of groans and
cries! That is what / saw on the out
skirts of the great battlefelds at
Liege.
Here is a mans whole body turned
over. Another was jerked spasmodi-
cally in the death grip. There
bloody arm was raised, and further on
a hand beckoned in appeal. Bleeding
forms were painfully crawling over
as singed insects. Red Cross surgeons
and ambulances were working their
way methodically across the field,
which under the gloomy drizzle OF
rain had grown sodden. Its mire and
mud puddles were stained red.
LAS l moved along the slope fearful
details began to sink in. Here was
path of wheels in the mass OF flesh
where artillery, changing its position
in mad haste, had torn wheel ruts
right through the dead and dying
forms! | moved away in a panic of
But what more could l
do?
II pointed out the spot TO one of the
Red Cross surgeons. yet l knew he
would pass it by for the wounded Ger