The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-09-16

towards the center of the town we
met two German soldiers CARRYING a
canary which they had taken out of
a burning house. This they gave to
my friend, who offered Il to one of
three Belgian girls outside OF a pro
vision shop. The bird ESCAPED from
them and few through a burning
gateway. My friend ran after it and
rescued it but had his coat burned for
his pains. He then gave the canary
back to the girls.
''As we approached the center o.
the city we found the whole place was
in flames with the exception of the
Hotel de Vile This beautiful old
fifteenth century structure was in
tact, and the Germans had taken can-
ton to preserve it. | only saw this
for myself, the houses facing it had
not been fired, but / ascertainei it
from several German soldiers that it
was their intention to save this grand
old pile That was last Friday morn
ing, and / have not the least doubt
that it. remains in the same condition
today
THE cathedral, however, had not
been allowed to go scot free. All the
windows had been knocked out. and
we were told that people had taken
refuge in the cathedral and fired on
the Germans from the windows. The
fabric was still standing when we
were there and on going inside we
found many dead bodies.
I'm the burning streets German
officers looking well-groomed and
eiated were going about in motor
cars. AT least we were taken to the
station and told to wait there for the
train to Iiege. Here We sat fer three
hours talking to the German soldiers.
They told US that the English prison
ers were there, and they described
some Scotchmen to us.
They told us they had taken 400
English prisoners from among those
who had attacked their troop trains,
and $50 of them had been shot that
morning because they were found in
possession of dum-dwm bullets.
What truth there is in such a
statement do not know, but we GER
tainly saw the remaining seventy for
they were marched on board the same
train. They were wearing khaki
trousers, but their accountre-
ments had been taken from them.
Among them were two Highlanders
Iwearing their kits They shook
hands with their captors as they
went into the train.
Another yarn they told us, we
took to be a yarn, was that the Ger
mans were within forty miles OF
Paris. In the town OF Louvain we
were told that all belligerent civil
ans who were captured were lined uI
'blindfolded German soldiers then
waIke1 down the line and shot every
third one The mayor of Louya:n, we
were told, was also shot.
I'VE took train from Louvain fo1
Aachen (lA9x-Ja-ChappeE) and al
along the line we met trains coming
in bringing the Landstrum the las
line of German reserves, men over
forty They were dancing and sing
ing like school boys, presumably al
the prospect of fighting for the faith
er-land, and their trains were covere1
: with evergreens. The Germans shout
ed and pointed TO our train: Die En-
gander! Die Engander!" (The Eng
lishmen, The EnglishmenD
They little thought there Were
more than seventy Englishmen OF
that train, but we knew there were
seventyItwo. The train crawled at {
Is pace from Louvain to Aachen
taking twenlty-four hours to cover Z
distance (which ordinarily is accomp
lished by an express IN one hour
Along the line on beth sides we saw
ruined buildings and every HOUSE