Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-18

been destroyed and their houses burned
and their goods taken. They are a
grim lot about Orchis, Clemens says.
He says the old peasants muttered at
the German army. They cast black
looks
They attacked our sanitary SOL
d1ers. says Clemens. Our men were
unarmed. They had not been allowed
to carry rifles. These peasants at
tackled them with axes and scythes
and stones"
There is nothing inherently improb-
able IN that. Peasants have done such
things. They have a way of GLIDING
the phrase military necessity" in their
talk and using such words as murder
and arson. They killed the twenty
three sanitary soldiers.
The women" shouts Clemens. wav-
ing ms arms, "suffocated the men who
were only wounded They piled sods
and ashes on their faces, so that they
died.
So seventy soldiers were told off as a
these rebellious peasants of Orchis re-
member forever the day on which they
raised their hands against the kaiser's
so!dlers. one gathers that they went
rather happily. What they did not
know was that force of 800 French
soldiers had come up. Somehow. the
French were quite desperately enraged
against the Germans
vs. .ilouEht the peasants were un-
armed, confesseS Clemens, until these
regulars disclosed themselves"
French Stay Relentlessly.
Retreat had been cut off and the
French killed the Germans relentless
~. Some of them threw down their
arms. But Clemens says he heard a
french officer order his men to give no
quarter By that time there were but
eight Germans left alive. Clemens had
succeeded to the command.
Let US die fighting" he shouted to
his men. "Charge."
The eight charged-eight of them
against 300. Clemens had previously
been shot in the head, and shot in the
arm, and bayoneted in the stomach. In
this charge a bayonet was driven into
his right lung. That put him down.
He believes that at some time some
one hit him on the head with a gun
butt. However. he isn't sure. He only
when the sanitary soldiers picked him
up. The ninety-two other men were
dead. Clemens is getting along pretty
well. He is now on the beer and saus-
age diet in a Berlin hospital. That is a
sure sign of conva1escencc.
Does Not Look Like Hero.
His Iron Cross came not because he
was lucky enough to live through, but
because he had ordered his men to die
fighting. That's the spirit that both
Gides are encouraging in this war.
Sergt. Clemens case is rather well
known in the German army. Officers
point out the reward Clemens got for
his bravery. Surgeons like to visit him
and wonder how he managed to pull
through. The moral is that while he is
undoubtedly hero he doesn't look it.
He never did look it--not at his very
best
There were scores of Iron Cross men
on the streets Of Berlin, and [ saw but
one who looked the part. He was
tall. slim, dark-eyed boy who would
be prize for any magazine illustrator.
He had done as well as he looked, too.
The Germans were throwing q pontoon
bridge across the River Ligne and the
Belgians had mounted machine guns
on the other side. When the Germans
finally made good their footing they
could almost have walked across on
corpses. This young fellow was first
to reach the guns.
Later on I flew over the Ligne at
low tide" said an aviator. 1.-THE bridge
was gone, but there was a dixie of
corpses visible in the mud