Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-09-24

copyrighted dispatch from James
O'Donnell Bennett. staff correspondent,
dated at Aix-la-ChapeIle, Germany,
which in specific detail disputes and
denies the charges OF cruelties and
atrocities lodged against the Germans
in Belgium. Mr.. Bennett, in company
with John T. McCutcheon of the Chica-
go Tribune, Irwin S. Cobb of the Sat
urday Evening Post, Roger Lewis CT
the Associated Press and Harry Han
sen of the Chicago Daily News, trav-
eled 100 miles through 20 towns and
their observations lead him to the firm
conviction that the reports of bar
barities alleged to have been perpe-
trated by German, troops are false
hoods. =
The following dispatch to the Asso-
ciated Press, evidently forwarded by
Roger Lewis, is in substantial agree
ment with Mr.. Benefits story in the
Chicago Tribune:
BY the Associated Press.
New York.-An Associated Press
staff correspondent of American birth
and antecedents, who was sent from
the New York Office and was caught
in Brussels at the time of the Ger
man invasion, held as prisoner for
several days. and who finally escaped,
to Holland, has sent by mail the fol
lowing story of his experiences:
THE night before the Germans en-
tered RruCco1c whom tho Ra1OioD civil
guards and refugees began pouring
into the city from the direction Of
Louvain, they brought stories of IN
speakable German atrocities, maltreat-
ment of old men and children, and the
violation Of women.
THE Belgian capital reeled with ap-
prehension. Within an hour the gay
ETY., the vivacity, and brilliancy of the
city went out like a broken arc light.
The radiance of the cafes was ex-
changed for darkness; whispering
groups of residents broke up hurried
ly and locked themselves into this
homes, where they put up the shut
tiers and drew in their tri-colored Bel
gian flags.
Fears of Brussels Quieted.
THE historic Belgian city went
through a state of morbid consterna-
it suffered on June IS, 1915, when it
trembled with the fear of French vic
tory at Waterloo.
In less than "a hours the Belgian
citizens were chatting comfortably
with the German invaders and the al
legations of German brutality and de-
moniacal torture dissolved into one of
the myths which have accompanied all
wars
Neither in Brussels nor in it's en-
virons was a single offensive act, so
far as l know, committed by German
soldier. In a city of over half mil
lion people, invaded by hostile army
of perhaps a quarter of million sol
diers, no act sufficiently fragrant to
demand punishment or to awaken pro-
test came to my attention.
None Knows of Outraqes.
"The frightful reports that had pre-
ceded the German army into Brussels
included the disemboweling of old men
and the impaling of children on lances
just outside Louyain. Investigation
not only failed to substantiate these
rumors, but could not even discover
any one in the immediate vicinity who
credited them.
AN eye witness of unimpeachable
veracity told me that the worst be-
havior he had observed during the first
German entry into Louvain august
49, was that of a German soldier who
leaned from his horse and kissed a
pretty Flemish girl who brought him
a glass of beer.
Il marched for days with the Ger
man columns, often only one day be
hind the fighting, with the houses that
had been burned still smoldering, the
ground freshly broken by she'll and
trampIed by horses and men, and the
memory of the German advance vivid
in the minds of the inhabitants.
No Proofs of Murder.
'I interviewed an average of twenty
persons in each of a dozen towns and
found only one instance of a noncom-
Blatant who had been killed without
a justifiable provocation. In this case
the evidence did not clearly prove that
the man had been wantonly murdered.
"He lived in one of the typical small
Belgian countryside houses which COM
bine the comforts of home with the
lure of a small public bar. This house
was at the north of Merbes-le-Chateau
a town through which a large part of
the German army passed on the road
to Maubeuge.
"A son of the murdered man, whose
name was Arthur Nicodem, showed me
blood clots on the floor marking the
place where Nicodem fell, his throat
cut by a saw-edged German saber.
English Fired From House.
at was said by some inhabitants
that the murdered man showed pair
of binoculars; but a more probable
explanation is that English outposts
had concealed themselves in the house,
rom which they poured rain Of fire