New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-19
GERMAN TRAITS
By ARTHUR GLEASON

evil trait has been played upon. to the be-
trayal of the simple rather primitive per-
sonality which in other hands would have
gone gently all its days. But the homely
goodness has been stutifed. And we have a
race of our own stock behaving like savages
under the cool guidance of it's masters.
Our people at home are sometimes puzzled
by the nsstence Of the Allies on the acts of
the Germans. We have insisted on the
frightfulness, and shall continue to pile up
case on case. The acts committed by the
German army reveal a people who have been
poisoned-a people who in their corporate
acts are the enemy of the human race. be
cause they refuse to exercise their individual
conscience when the state orders them to
perform infamy. The rest of the world has
permitted Germans 20 develop habits OF
thought, TO work out abstract ideas which
easily lend themselves to collective insanity.
Theirs is the guilt of signing away their con-
science TO the state, of substituting obedience
to an impersonsl machine for moral freedom.
"If YOU burn peasants home you are not
individually guilty because you were told to
do it, Il is the will Of the military power"
But that military power derives all its power
from the consent of the governed. The hand
full of men composing the General Staff re-
leased murder, pillage and arson because
they knew they could count on the German
people to murder, rob and burn il ordered.
It is not enough to hold the Kaiser RESPONSE
ble the General staff, the military system.
The people who did the crimes are also re-
sponsible. The German soldiers, artists,
clerks, petty officials. professors, peasants.
who threw incendiary pastilles into little
country homes and who shot down women
are responsible. The German people back
home in the Fatherand, who applauded the
hideous activities of their friends at the
front. are responsible.
Systematic Pilage
The Viscountess of Florian has sent ME the
deposition which her daughter has
drawn up and signed for The Tribune, and
of which hold the original:
"2nd July. 1916.
"Clovis Forest, my head servant, stayed TO
take of Bulguevause, my home az st.
Mihiel, after the declaration Of war. When
the Germans came into the village they left
him a month before sending him into cap
tivity with great number of the civil popu-
lation Of the village. composed exclusively of
v omen, children and old people. All suffered
from bad treatment. from lack Of food and
drink. Forest was released on account of
NedllH lut IOiu 1910, anu tOlO NE
the following:
"'Snce mobilization, the 4th August, 1914,
BulgueyaUse was requisitoned 10 be trans
formed into hospital Some officers were
brought here; no hurt was done. The goth
September, the enemy approaching, Bulgue-
vause was evacuated Forest thought it was
his duty 10 hide the vauables-the silver. a
sword and various other things were taken
down into the cellar The trappings for the
horses. the bicycle and some silver pieces
were carried up into his room, the hunting
gun carried TO the town hall and various
pictures into my room. The Gath September
the Germans came TO St. Mihel. A little
later they came TO Bulgu6vause, demanded Of
Forest the keys and accused him OF foul play
because of the telephone, rummaging the
house from cellar TO garnet, looking for
French officers and soldiers.
-Four wagons for moving were brought
up. Armchairs, pictures, tapestries, looking
glasses, clocks, folding screens, long chairs,
etc.-all the furniture, of which many pieces
were objects of art - disappeared rapidly.
The buffet in the dining room was burned in
the garden, the piano smashed to little bits,
as well as the lustre Of the dining room and
the table service. The linen was fastened 70
the feet Of the horsemen. The uniforms
were soiled tramped upon, destroyed. Clothes
were taken by the soldiers and cut into little
pieces. The garden and the cellar were en-
tirely dismantled the things which had been
hidden there were taken out like the rest
Holes of two metres in depth were dug in
the space OF five minutes
Forest was sent into captivity to the
camp of Darmstsdt, where he stayed thirteen
months. Signed
"FL0RlAN BONN G. DE BARANTE."
Cool Hatred
The same care which Germans lavish in
tracking new chemical 10 its own almost
home they use in destroying a
human life and beautiful or a sacred thing.
They do nothing in hasty anger Through
the work that their hands have done there
shines the mind OF the race. As the old
builders used TO dent their mark into the
great stones of the cathedral, so the Germans
have left their signature on the wreckage !
they have made. These things are not done