Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-09-02
AMERICAN GIRL WHO WITNESSED
EARLY CONFLICT DESCRIBES
SCENES.
BODIES OF GERMANS
FILLED MANY TRENCHES
Piles Of Dead Men and Horses on Field
General Leman Only Surviving
Belgian Officer in Fort-Mrs. Ben
iamin Harrison Says Germans Were
Courteous to Americans.

New York, Sept. 2.-The battlefield
Of Liege, as seen thru the eyes of an
American girl. was described by Miss
Anna Laing. a graduate nurse of the
Bridgeport Comm hospital, pas
senger on the steamer Ryndam from
Rotterdam.
II was in Liege when the fight
started" Miss Laing said. Several
Belgian officers who were friends of
mine took me TO house where l was
practically out of the range of the
shells that were being hurled at the
city by the Germans. AS evening APP
preached the Germans withdrew for
some reason and during the lull in the
fighting two of the Belgian officers in
vited me to go out over the field, where
the heaviest of the lighting had taken
place.
Piles of Dead Men and Horses.
The ground was literally soaked
With blood and the bodies of horses and
men lay everywhere. There was many
place where blood had flowed down
he sides of little hills and earth
works; its course was plainly marked.
Some bushes We're spattered with red
as high up as eight feet above the
ground.
II saw trenches filed to the top with
dead German soldiers. Three trenches,
the Belgian officers explained 10 me-,
had been dug by the Belgians and oc-
cupied by them until the great army
of advancing Germans forced them 10
retreat.
Dead Germans Fill Trenches.
AS the German infantry mounted
the breastworks in front of the
trenches. retreating Belgians poured q
murderous fire into their ranks and
their bodies fell in the trenches.
Then. the Belgian officers said, their
men moved down more Germans with
q dearly cross fire. which not only filed
up the trenches with bodies but left
many piled on top Of another on the
breastw orks and the ground nearby
When Miss Laing returned to the
city she helped dress the wounds Of
many Belgian soldiers. She left the
city before 1t was captured by the
Germans, however, and managed TO
make her way to Rotterdam, where she
boarded the ship that brought her 10
New York.
len,an Blew Up Last Fort.
Paris, Sept. 2.-The Antwerp cor
respondent of the Petit Parisien gives
this explanation Of the presence Of
General Lamar. the Belgian com
mander at Liege. In Magdeburg as
prisoner of war.
ION Aug. II General Leman was
summoned by the Germans TO sur
render the Liege forts. He refused, but
as the situation was then desperate AMI
and it was impossible to hold out
against another bonlbardment he called
his officers together in Fort Loncin and
said:
You have valiantly Tough for Your
country, but the struggle has become
Impossible and II is foolish to try
further. Honor has been saved and the
hour Is come when we must separate.
I have decided to die here. Loncin
shall be my tomb
All But Lenoan Killed.
"All the officers declared they would
still fight and die with their general.
Again the cannon Numbered and then
those in the fort were silenred after
witch terrible explosion took place.
General Leman and his officers had
blown themselves up. Alone or all in
the fort General Leman survived and
from the debris he was taken a prison.
er 10 Magdeburg. It was or Emperor
Williams order that he was allowed 20
keep his sword"