New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-20
Children Pour Forth From Caves
AS French Reconquer Homes
Some Bind Others Crazed Nearly All Diseased by Enforced
imprisonment Observation-Disclosures Nurses
Find Unspeakable Conditions
Bv Joseph PERSON

tain. I'VE will merely sprea5 the
word OF your purpose here and IN
struct the children 20 90 as you wish.
We will gather them south OF the
town.
but | beg you 20 hurry. Many a.
the little children have lost their lives
IN the gas attacks We made masks
for them first but the new gas the Ger
msnsuse gags the children and they re-
move the masks In tbs excitement, de-
spite our warnings. Their they die IN
convuls!ors."
Tn. children halted the party and
hal poilu light his lantern. An agel
woman was lying on cot, startled, VITA
eyes like flaming Goals IN the darkness
Of the retreat. Two children lay at
her feet, not yet asleep.
Women Suffer Horrors
"Tho Germans took her two dsugh-
ter.," said the captain. "Ore was nine
teen and the ether twenty-five. They
kept them prisoners IL cave In tn
other side OF tn. town. The girls en-
dured living torture until their chill
dren were about &c be born, when thew
died, whether By disease, this dirty
vretchedness. or by their own hand, Do
not know. But don: wonder az this,
madame. More than a hundred girls
had Ike experiences. Others were
killed By bayonets. the women say, be-
cause thew refused the advances OF the
German soldiers.
you'll not see any baby boys. Tho
Germans sent the baby boys 70 Ger
MANY. though some have French faith
ers The girl babies alone they were
allowed to keep
Had Never Seen Light
Tn. party found some babies two
years old and less who had never been
out OF these subterrarean birthplaces.
Tn. nurses feared 70 take them sud.
denly into the sunlight for fear o.
blindness.
Emerging from the caves IN another
part Of the town, the party found itself
in ruin. where about three hundred
children were scattered about, so the
shells would not wipe them all out At
once. One would expect these children.
who had lived so long In the subter-
r.nesn caves. 70 be filed with fear and
restraint. Indeed, they frlsked about
lik. lambs amid the debris OF their
paternsl homes.
In rns DUSK Ine C0liuIen Nh4hVN
some marched in fle-picking their
way through piles Of stones, not audi
bly, or visibly talking 70 one another,
but all half humming or grooming, their
monotonous. wordless, pitiful, pene-
trating sounds like winds from the
caves. There was no pitch % the tune
but overwhelming, depressing volume.
Non. of the children smiled.
Some Had Lost Minds
Some had lost their minds through
she'll shock and wandered about in
isolated spots. Others, manned by ex-
plosions and splinters or weakened BY
inhaled gases, limped about or lay on
the banks. Some were startled By the
strangers. others seemed dumb.
When the order for evacuation came
there was no joy. The children helped
the grandmothers bring from the pits
choice articles from their broken
homes which they had dragged from
the hiding places beyond reach OF the
German invaders. Soon all the chill
dren were placed in groups under the
supervision Of the Red Cross nurses or
native women. over the bills away
from the muttering cannon, out
through the night, the struggling line
Of the children made its way 70 the
base, from where they were 70 De dis
tributed throughout France.