The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-17

Among the freshmen who appear to have good chance to make the eleven | are Price. Bradford and Roach for the back field: Strickland and Gibson for the line. and Bryan for the end. l German army mistaking one of their 1 own retiring divisions for. the enemy. opened ire upon them. whereupon, delud- ed into thinking this an assault by Bel | gian civilians the Germans razed the whole city,
 No Direct Evidence
 q have not been able to acquire any direct evidence in regard to these last | two instances. but the explanation gen. | erally credited Is the Belgians who had | laid their arms down according to the
 burgomaster demand on the entrance into ! the city took them up again when it | looked as if Germans were retreating from | the town, and opened fire from their windows upon a retiring German train. 'rhe most authoritative general detail of l German offenses comes from Maj. Thad- l deus von Jarotzsky military governor of Brussels who informed me that in nu-
 merous cases he had been received with pretense of friendliness by Belgian ci- | vilians who later fired upon the German
 soldiers from windows and from between 1 the roof tiles This was done, he said,
 
 burgomaster and a warning to the citi- | gems against any ravages.
 |. ''The rules of war. the general said, punished the offender by burning the houses from which the shots were fired. This explanation of the burning of vil- lages is given with such perfect validity that they say to go into specific cases is not necessary.
 ''There is a sort of blanket extenuator for all German severities l can only say that in every case of reported outrage which is susceptible of investigation have found that either there was fig ment of Belgian mind or that it was more than half excused by communications. Shipping Practiced
 q have actual evidence of the sniping by the Belgian citizens at Mauge and other towns, and even the Belgans admit that in few instances they have been generally of this sort. This furnishes a provocation for the only German severity which l have had an opportunity to obs serve-the burning of the houses. E "A Belgian fugitive from the suburbs of Charloto brought me story of Ger mans marching the priest and several of the inhabitants before the army as q pro- lection against the fire from the houses. This has received ample verification, out hardly comes under the head of atroci- ties.
 The prevalence of the Belgian practice of sniping from the houses was indicated by the warning of the German officer who acted as guard for five correspond ents, including myself, were being taken as prisoners from Beaumont to Aaehen in an army train. We were advised to lie down on the floor of the car, as the Eel gian snipers would shoot at us from the houses. But there was no firing. This, of course. Is not a brief for the German army it is an announcement of German conduct as it appeared to an im- partial observer who had the rather cx- traordinary opportunity of travelling with the German columns. over a distance of | more than 100 miles through dozen im- portant cities and towns
 See Artillery Smoke
 Sometimes I was near enough to shs | front to see the white artillery smoke 1 spurt into clouds along the horizon snd
 hear the double detonatlons which came
 from artillery at short range. At othei I times l traiIed behind through the ,eso l late waste which victorious army leaves I behind 1t. marking the most utter desnla. l ton. On the contrary. I witnessed ru | merous cases of the most careful cour- tesy on the part of German soldiers. In pBrussels the Germans paid their cafe bills
 
 man officer or soldier entered Belgian house for food or shelter it was not witt
 demand, but a request. In spite of .h, confusion and errors which arose from a strange tongue. there was almost no lric ton of any sort
 l The German soldiers were punctiliousl,
 considerate and polite to women and clil
 dren. apoiegizing for the discomfort tie,
 were causing. Upon leaving lous, . I1o 2
 seen them shake hands with the pea asan
 woman, or in some cases with the gsntI,
 women Of Belgian villa, as pleasantl, es IT they were bidding adieu to .heil
 nostess at weekend house party.
 so many Instances of this sort are
 ~ nand that recital of them would
 ps teoious, I have seen German sol
 oiers helping Belgian women with
 their homework and playing with inc
 children. Naturally inclined to be grufl With their soldiers. the German off cers always turned to their French
 prisoners withNa pleasant word and
 treated them with every consideration
 Not single exception to this civility toward prisoners has come to my at
 "A French lieutenant and two Eng lfsh officers travelled with us in the prison train from Beaumont to Aachen, halting Journey which took over 36 hours. The train was crowded with German wounded and French and Eng ltsh prisoners and there was nothing to eat or drink except a few fragments lof rye bread. hard as a stone, and a liquid compound of chicory. which in Belgium masquerades under the name of coffee Since there was not enough even of this disleartening fare to 20 around. German officers went without food go that the prisoners might be 0s
 Even Fed Canary
 Between Chateau de Casteau and L0bbes. particularly desolated neigh pornood, whence inhabitants had fled one and al1. the Germans found . hun gry canary In an abandoned farmhouse Without having experienced tue gen. uines almost WQmanly, tenderness of the German soldiers, one would have called their feedinG of the canary an