New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-25
An American Who Saw.
Ne have received the following;

We have received the lollO"lHS'
10 the Editor of The Tribune
Sir. Certain Germans in this country are
Worrying about the Bryce Report, which teils
the method OF frightfulness employed in Bel
e-iuu and France in the early weeks of last
fall bv the German army. They fear II Is
inaccurate. They lament that no American
has been a witness of atrocities can reheve
their worry. have witnessed German 1rlgh'-
fulness. The report of what | saw, copied
under my direction, is in the Bryce Report
am an American.
On September 7, 1914, with two companions,
7 was present at the skirmish between Ger
mans and Belgians at Nellie, couple Of miles
west of Client We walked to the German
line. where a blue-eyed young Hussar OIL
ficer, Rhinebeck, of Stramm, HolSteln' leo
us into trap by permitting US 10 walk
along after him and his men as they rooe
back TO camp beyond NELLIE. We walked
for quarter mile. At our right barn
was burning brightly On our left the homes
of the peasants Of nellie were burning
twenty six little yellow brick houses, each with
3 sepsrate fire. 1t was not conhagrauon' oy
one house burning and gradually lighting the
next The fires were well started and at equal
,ntensitv in each house. The walls between
tina houses were still intact. The twenty-six
fires burned slowly and thoroughly through
the night.
These three thousand German soldiers and
their officers were neither drunk nor riotous.
The discipline was excellent. The burning
WAS a clean-cut, cold -blooded piece of work
II was a piece of punishment Belgian soldiers
had resisted the German army. If Belgian
soldiers resist, peasant non-combatants must
be killed That inspires terror. That teaches
the lesson: do not oppose Germany. II IS
death TO oppose her-death 10 your wife anC
child"
We were surrounded by soldiers and foul
sentries put over u.s. Peasants who walked TOT
close to the camp we're brought in and adde'
TO our group of prisoners, TILL all told, w
numbered thirty. A peasant lying next TO M
watched his own house burn to pieces.
Another of the peasants was an old man, O.
weak mind. He kept babbling TO himself. l
would have been obvious to child that NJ
was foolish. The German sentry ordered 81
Ience. The old fellow muttered on in uncon
sciousness of his surroundings. The sentr!
drew back his bayonet to run him through
couple Of the peasants pulled the old maj
fat TO the ground and stiAed his talking
Ats o'clock in the morning German stretch
or bearers marched behind the burned houses
Out of the house of the peasant lying next u
me three bodies were carried. He broke int
a long slow sobbing.
At 6 o'clock a monoplane sailed overhead
bringing orders 70 our detachment. The troops
headed for Client were turned toward Brus
,els. The field artillery, which had beer
rolled toward the west, was swung about tC
the east. An officer headed US toward Ghen'
end let US 60 IL the Germans had marched
into Client we would have been OF value az
q cover for the troops. But for the return "a
Brussels we were only nuisance. We hurried
away toward Client As we walked through g
farmysrd we saw a young farmer lying at full
length in his dooryard. We passed the con-
vent school of Melle, where Catholic sisters
1--we. The front yard was strewed with furni-
ture, with bedding, with the contents Of the
rooms The yard was abou. four hundred feet
long and two hundred feet deep. II was dottec
With this intimate household stuff for the full
ter had been violated or bayonetted. Pm,
soldiers had merely rsnsaeked the place.
One Of my companions in this Nellie expert
onee was A. Radcliffe Dugmore. Of the Play
ers Club New York, a well-known naturalis,
author Of books on big game in Africa. III
beaver and the caribou. For many years h
wss connected with Doubleday, Page & CO
His present address Is Crete Hill, South Nut
field, Surrey
On later Sunday in September visite
the Municipal Hospital Of Client, In Sail
(BsiD II met and talked with Martha Tas,
peasant girl of>st Giles (near 1ermonde)
A. she was escaping BY train from the dis
triet, and when she was between Alost an
kvdeghen, she told me that German soldier
aimed rife fire at the train Of peasants. Sh'