Omaha daily bee., 1914-08-02
WALTZ GETS YEAR IN PRISON.
German Artist Sentenced for Gre
sting Glass Hatred.
NOT INIHCAL TO COUNTRY
Caricaturist Is Against the way
ReichsIRnd Il Conducted, Rather
Than Opposed 60 Water
land I'm General.


BERLIN. Aug. 1.-Johann Jakob Waltz.
an artist and caricaturist. has just been
sentenced TO one years imprisonment by
the imperial supreme court for melting
class hatred and llbeling public officials
particularly the gendarm and school
teachers Of Alsace-Lorraine. The offense
were contained in a book entitled MY
Village" which was published some
months ago in France. but has been sold
extensively in the Reichsland and other
PORTIONS of Germany.
The case throws some light upon the
existence among part of the population
of Alsace-Lorraine of hatred for Germany
and to their ardent hope some day to be
reunited to France. 81. 1t also aids one to
comprehend some OF the administrative
difficulties with which the government Of
the province has to contend for Waltz.
who writes under the pen name Of Hansi,
has been a mouthpiece OF the nationalist
of the Reichsland, and there are many
others Of his stamp Waltz had already
published one book whose sale I'M Alsace-
Lorraine was made penal offense be.
cause Of its anti-German tendency, and
he Is the author of hundreds of carica-
lures OF Germans German officials and
institutions. WithaI. he is, as the name
indicates, a born German. and he de-
cared upon trial that he was not inimical
to Germany. 1t was, he declared, merely
the manner in which the Reichsland is
administered that he was opposing.
Some Striking Passages.
Striking passages from the book my
Village" which is written in French,
were read before the. court Some OF
them follow:
Even. though we are humbled by the
brutal law of the conquerors, it seems
as If the acts of injustice against us are
too heavy, that our sorrows are TOO
great to make 1t possible that they
should endure forever. In our ears ring
ever the sacred charges of our fathers
to demand our rights as Alsatians and
Lorrainers and to remain members of
the French nation. The gendarme makes
an excursion with his family. The babe
in the .baby-wagon, wears a spiked Prus-
sian helmet. Wherever the gendarme
shows himself the children and the birds
stop, singing. The most beautiful festal
day for the Alsatians Is the national day
of the French. Then they all make a
trip to Nancy, and. at night. when the
gendarme sleeps, they return home
Their wagons bear French flags. The
Alsatian village lies peaceful in the
night. Far off one hears the cannons Of
German fortress. 1t is the cannons of
Bitsch. Our oppressors know that only
steel can hold what they have won with
steel But the Alsatian, fun of faith in
France, hears also the echo of a French
cannon, and says to himself: over the
border, too. they are keeping watch,
German Tourist Arrogant.
The German tourists go aTrogantly
through the village like parvenus, their
noses high in the air, in order to make
us forget WHENCE they came. They, com
plain INCREASINGLY and are satisfied with
nothing. They destroy the, harmony of
the landscape with their Lack. Of taste. -
Other passages praise the French tour.
lists and declare that the Alsatian chill
dren instinctively love them. The chill
dren pledge each other not to join in
u