Arizona republican., 1914-11-29
PRIEST GIVES LIFE ID
 SAVE PAR|SH|ONERS
Striking Story of Heroic Abnegation
 of Venerable Cure

PARIS, Nov. 2S.-One of the most striking stories of heroic abnegation yet heard is told by a Swiss gentle man living at ChauX- de- Ponds, on the Franco Helvetian frontier, who at the outbreak of the war offered his ser vices to the Belgian Red Cross. He was present at most of the important battles in Belgium and witnessed many of the atrocious acts committed by the Germans in that country Of all the episodes which he describes, the one related here will be handed down to posterity as a pathetic exam pie of Self-sacrifice.
 The Germans had occupied aban doned and reoccupied a big village in the neighborhood of f'rancorchamp, near Spa. When night came on and the terrified inhabitants had shut themselves up in their houses, seek ing as far as possible to avoid giving any trouble to the soldiery of the enemy which could possibly be used as a pretext for retaliation, shots sudden ly rang through the night. One of those mistakes had occurred which on so many occasions have been the cause of bloodshed during this war | and have led to so many acts of bar barism
 | The German troops who occupied the | place had seen figures stealthily ap- preaching the village and, taking
 these to be Belgian patrol, at once opened fire upon them. As matter of fact they were their own people. In order to extricate themselves from
 the dilemma into which their foolish
 ness had placed them, the German | soldiers explained to their officers that
 the shots had been fired by the civil I inhabitants A captain who was in command immediately ordered five of
 the villagers from their houses, choos- ing these at random, and without fur
 ther ado had them placed against q wall and shot.
 One would have thought that this
 would for the time, have ended the troubles of this ill-fated community but, unfortunately, the next night the
 same thing happened. This time 1t
 was impossible to verify whether the
 soldiers had again shifted the respon sibility for the shooting of their com rades upon the shoulders of the luck
 less civilians or whether some relation
 of those who had been so ruthlessiY
 executed the night before, being SOad-
 ed into fury, had sought to revenge himself upon his prosecutors The re-
 suit was the same. The captain made III .i, al of " E. sembe before him and announced tC
 them that. as the first example, he
 had given them had proved insufficieht
 he found himself obliged to take ever
 more severe measures.
 He selected from among them twenty men. who were immediately informed that their last hour had come and thai they must perish for the sake of the
 village It is possible that this sen tence might not have been carried ou in it's entirety, but in any case it was
 sufficient to terrorize the population At this moment, however, some of tho more courageous inhabitants ap- preached the captain and suggested that he should spare the twenty mel until he had held an inquiry into tho events which had taken place in ordel to try and discover who it was tna had fired upon the soldiery. Ih' German officer replied that he had n' time to waste upon such matters, bu added that if the offender would giv' l himself up he would be executed an' the twenty would be set at liberty A deathly silence followed this an nouncement, and for some seconds m one moved Then from among tn hostages .an old priest stepped pain fully forward; he was bent Wltl years, and his gray hair surrounde' a face as composed and tranquil a that of . saint. He advanced towar the captain and quietly said:
 'It was I who fired.
 The officer was not deceived by thi