New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-22
PART /

This is the story of Sister Julie.
When the Germans came to her village
Of Gerbeviler, where she was head of
the poorhouse and hospital, they burned
all the houses up to her door, 475
| houses. In her little street they had
burned numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and II.
But they did not burn number IA, where
she lived, nor the twenty remaining
houses, because she stopped them.
| They killed men, women and children
throughout the village, but they did not
kill the thirteen French wounded SOL
Giers whom she was nursing, nor the
/ five Roman Catholic sisters whom she
directed as Mother Superior.
Because she remained through the
days Of fire and blood and succored his
troops, General Castelnau cited her in
an Order of the Day. The Legion of
Honor has placed its scarlet ribbon on
the black of her religious dress. The
great of France-the President and the
/ Premier, Senators and poets-hsve
come to see her where she still lives
on in the ruins of the little village.
The Heroine of GerbevilIer
Amele Rigard, whose religious name
/ is Sister Julie, is a peasant woman,
/ sxty-two years old, belonging 10 the
Order of Saint Charles of Nancy. She
/ is Of the solid peasant type, with square
chin and wide brown eyes. Everything
about her is compact, deep-centred,
| close growing: the fingers are stubby,
] bnlI o1ncaltr n tho hahu and
when the gesture comes it is a strong
pushing out from the frame, as if push
ing away weight. Whenever she puts
out power she seems to be delivering
straight blow with the full weight of
/ the body. With Sister. Julie it is not
only a genius of simple goodness. She
carries native shrewdness, with a
salient tang. She knows life. This is
10 meek person, easily deceived by peo-
pie, thinking every one good and harm
! less. She reads motives. Power is
what feel in her-direct, sheer power.
| The wonder is not that she rose to one
of the supreme crises of history and
did a work which has passed into the
consciousness of France. The wonder
is that she remained hidden in coun-
try village for sixty years. Her gift Of
| language, her strength of nature had
vitality enough to burn through OBJ
security. The person she made me
think OF was that great man whom |
once knew, Dwight Moody. Here was
the same breadth Of beam, the SIM
plicity, the knowledge of human nature,
the same native instinct for the fitting
word that comes from being fed on the
greatest literature in the world. and
! from using the speech of powerful, I'M
educated persons. When she entered
the room the room was filled. When
she left there was vacancy.
Here follows the account in her own
words OF the last days Of Gerbeviller.
The phrase that speaks through all her
recital is "feu ct sang" ''iire and
blood" The Germans said on entering
that they would give fire and blood"
to the village. The reason was this:
A handful of French chasseurs, about
sixty in number, had held up the Ger
man army for several hours in order to
give the French army time to retreat.
This battle had taken place at the
bridge outside the village. When at
last the Germans broke through they
were irritated by the firm resistance
which had delayed their plans. So they
vented their ill-will by burning the
houses and numbering the peasants. In
that small village they murdered fifty
old men, women and children. Fifty
more peasants living there, have never
been seen since.
Sister jules Story.
The Germans reached the Luneville
road at the entrance of Gerbeviller at
ten minutes after seven in the morning.
They saw the barricades, for our troops
had built barrricade, and they said TO
u woman, Madame Barthelemy:
Madame, remove the barbados" AS
she waited, undecided, for few sec
onds. they said:
"You refuse. Then fire and blood"
They then began TO set fire TO all the
houses, and they shot at once six men.
They threw a man into an oven, h
baker, Joseph Jacques, fine fellow of
fifty years of age. married, with chill
dren.
For long time did not believe ii,
but | have had confirmation since.
You will see how by what follows.
When there was an attack in Cham
payne. a youth Of Gerbeviller, Floren-
tin, whose father was the gardener at
the chateau, found himself in front OF
certain Germans who wished to give
the Iselves up as prisoners. He looked
at them and said:
you are not Comrades ckama-
rade' is the word the German calls out
when he surrenders). You know what
you did at Gerbeviller."
A German said to him, at was ! who
flung the man into the oven. l was
ordered to do it, or else | should have
been 'kaput'." This is slang for
dead oneO
A search wa. then made and in the
oven was found the thigh bone OF the
unfortunate baker.
Here Is what they have done: IL was
half past six in the evening. heard
their ffes. Our little chasseurs had
irctreated. The Germans had made IRE