Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-15
Save Hotel de Vile.


city We found the whole place was In
flames with the exception of the Hotel
de Vile. This beautiful old fifteenth
century structure was intact, and the
Germans had taken caution to preserve
it. not only saw this for myself-the
houses facing 1t had not been Aired
but ascertained it from several Ger
man officers that 1t was their intention
to save this grand old pile. That was
last Friday morning, and have moi
the least doubt that 1t remains in the
same condition today.
THE cathedral, however. had nor
been allowed to go scot free. All the
windows had been knocked In. and we
were told that people had taken refuge
in the cathedral and fired on the Ger
mans from the windows. The fabric
was still standing when we were mere
and on going inside we FOUND many
dead bodies.
I'm the burning streets German off-
GERS, looking well groomed and eiaeed
were going about in motor cars. AZ
last we were taken to the station any
Here we sat for three hours talking
to the German soldiers. They told us
that the English prisoners were there,
and they described some Scotchmen to
US. 400 Eng.
,ish prisoners from among those who had
attacked their troop tralns' ana oso "
them had been shot that morning Pc
cause they were found in possession Oh
dumdum bullets.
What truth there Is sucn . sea.e
ment I do not know, but We ceftalnly
saw the remaining seventy. for they we're
marched on board the same train. Iney
were wearing khaki trousers; nut, o.
course, their accouterments mad peeh
taken from them r, Amo aSs, sne KITS They
shook hands with their captors as they
went into the train. -
to be a yarn-was that the Germans
were within forty miles OF let's i1 IN I'll. III
town of Louvain we were told that al
belligerent civilians who were captured
were lined up and blindfOlded. German
soldiers then walked down the line and
shot every third one. The mayor OF Lou
vain, we were told, was also shot
Last Reserves Out.
I'VE took the train from Louvain to
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), and all along
the line We met trains coming In bring
ing the landsturm. the last line OF Ger
man reserves-men over forty. They were
dancing and singing like boys. presuma-
bly at the prospect of fighting for the
fatherIand. and their trains were covered
with eyergreens The Germans shouted
and pointed to our train: Die Engiander.
Die Englander" cThe Engiishmen! The
They little thought there were more
than seventy Englishmen in that IRAN
but we knew there were seventy-tWo.
The train crawled at snails pace from
Louyafn to Aachen, taking twenty hours
to cover a distance which ordinaHly IS
ACCOMPLISHED by an express IN one hour
Along the line on both sides we saw
hull Afvap0
was not RACED to the ground nad the
white nag flying.
"All along the line we saw trenches
and ruined railway stock, but Iiriemont
did not appear to De ,hsse nonsea de-
stroyed. Then we got to Liege. arriving
about midnight last Friday. We got out
and wanted to leave the station to walk
to Maasfricht on the Dutch frontier, but
they would not allow US to leave the sta
sinn- which had been turned into bar
racks and was filled with German omcers
and soldiers.
After considerable parley a German
cfiicer took US into a canteen and gave
deyoutly thankful. They told us all the
forts had fallen. We went slowly out OF
Iiege and by this time 1t was quite dark.
The smell of powder and decaying bodies
was truly awful; the spirit OF death
seemed to be everywhere.
"Horror-stricken at the sights which
met our gaze, We took our way silently
over the Mouse. In the gathering gloom
the bayonets of the German sentries
slinted here and there. and the German
soldiers on our train called out friendly
greetings to their comrades.
ABOUT o'clock next morning das'
Saturday, we got to Aachen. From
Aachen we took a train to Hans Linde
and thence walked over the German,
Dutch frontier to a place called Simple.
weld, then to Flushing through Mast
RIGHT"