Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-09-10

Malines on the previous day, fell back
upon Louvain in some disorder.
Reaching the town IN the evening,
German fugitives were fired upon in
error by their own troops.
Rage at this misfortune and chagrin
at their defeat seem to have inf1amed
the invaders, who set Systematically
to work to massacre the population
and destroy the city, whose monu-
ments belonged as much to civilization
as to Belgium.
II is not possible to put upon paper
the accounts Of the fugitives. They
were given in gestures and broken
EXPLANATIONS rather than in sentences.
The purport was always the same:
That the civil population had done
nothing, but that at night when the
retreating German soldiers BEGAN to.
arrive, suddenly the invaders became
angry and began to slaughter. pilIage
and destroy
City Is in Ruins.
Nothing remains of Louvain but
ruins, nor of its population but fugi-
tives. 1t is possible when the full
story comes to be told it viii be found
that the horror was not quite so great.
For all the accounts are from people
fleeing for their lives. Among these
people, however, were four civic dig
nitaries who were in the city during
the night and who were actually in
the hands of Germans, but escaped
Their relation of facts is what is fol
lowed in this dispatch, for it is more
likely to be accurate and sober.
'On the road from Louvain to Ant
werp crowds of pitiful refugees could
be seen; nuns fleeing from their
cloisters, priests from their churches,
sick carried on their beds. aged totter-
ing along with the help of their chill
dren, and all who could, carrying some
poor article of household furniture In
one cart were collected IL children, ev-
identity several families.
One handcart held an old palsied
woman being pushed by her grand
child. All were fleeing to Antwerp as
the city of refuge, the city which shud-
ders in darkness throughout nights, at
fear of midnight bombs. Among the
train of fugitives were ambulances of
the Belgian army, in which are carried
solicitously German wounded to hos
pitals"
War Bureaus Account.
The British war information bureau
announces the following:
The Belgian minister Of foreign af-
fairs reports that on Tuesday a Ger
man army corps, after receiving a
check, withdrew in disord r to the
city of Louvain.
THE Germans on guard at the en-
trance of the city, mistaking the ma
ture of this incursion, fired upon their
countrymen, whom they mistook for
Belgians
I'm spite of all the denials from the
authorities the Germans, in order to
cover their mistake, pretended that it
was the inhabitants who had fired on
them, whereas the inhabitants, includ-
ing the police, all had been disarmed
more than a week before
Orders City's Destruction.
Without inquiry and without listen
ing to any protests, the German com
mander anpounced that the town
would be destroyed Immediately. The
inhabitants were ordered to leave
their dwellings and some were made
prisoners. The women and children
were placed on trains the destinations
OF which are not known and soldiers
furnished with bombs set fire to all
parts of the city. The splendid church
of st. Pierre, the university buildings,
the library and scientific establish
ments were delivered to the flames
Several notable citizens were shot.
The city, which had a population of
$4,000 ard was the intellectual metrop-
oils of the low countries, is now moth
ing more than heap of ashes"
Orgy Precedes Sack.
Chicago.-The Tribune prints the
following dispatch from E. Alexander
Powell, dated at Antwerp:
II am sorry to say that the stories
Of the sack of Louvain slowly coming
in ameliorate the original tale Of hor-
ror in no way. The few refugees who
have arrived here are incoherent from
their frightful experiences. 1t was a
night of almost indescribable horrors.
Germans broke into the wine shops
early in the evening and drunken
orgy ensued, participated in by both
officers and men.
Il am informed by a high govern
ment official that in the city where 5O,-
900 persons resided only ten houses re-
main standing The Hotel De Vile,
one of the finest examples of Gothic
in Europe; the noble
church Of st. Pierre, built in 1926; the
founded by Pope Martin V,
and it's world famous library, are today
heaps Of smoking ruins.
THE Germans seem to have vented
their greatest fury on priests, of whom
there was a large number attending
the university. The government I'M
derstands that most of them were
butchered under the most revolving
~~~~~-o~-o~~-~-~~~~~~~o ~~~oo~~-~-~-o~-~
port" he says. England has a vast
number Of millionaireg and II is their