New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-17
Hills Brings Back
Proofs of Frightful
Teuton Atrocities
German-American Protests
Refuted by Documents
From Battlefront
New Tales Of Horror
Pastor in Trip Through
France Got First-Hand
Evidence
New Tales of Horror

Documentary proofs make the Ger
man atrocities IN this war far better
Established than the outrage Of the
Black Hole Of Calcutta or the scalp
iucs hy American Indians in the carly
DAYS. declared the Rev. DR.. Newell
Dwight Hills yesterday in the first OF
a series Of six sermons at Plymouth
Church. Brooklyn, on impressions oil
England. Belgium and France at war
DR.. Hills asserted that the conduct
Of the Germans since August, l9lA'
proved the prophetic insight OF Hoc'he'
,,bo once said: The Prusslan Is
naturally cruel; civilization VIII IN
fcnsifv that cruelty and make him
savage
Atrocities Studied on Spot
For three wears German-Amcricans
nave protested that the stores o.
German atrocities were TO ne u'Sut
loved as English Inventions, helEl".
lies and French hypocr.sles, but 'n ma
dsy has gone by forever, Sald III
Hills. con a battle line three nun
dred miles IN length, IN Wha'SoeNeI
village the retreatlng Germans passed.
the following morning accredlteo me"
hurried 10 the scene 20 make the rec re-,
ord against the day Of judgment, ne
photographs of dead and muuia'eu
girls, children and old men tell no
les. For the first time in history the
German has reduced saVagery 70
science; therefore this great war LOT
peace must go on until the Ger'''""
cancer is cut clean out Of the oody.
Days spent upon the recordS pre-
s,-,ei in Southern Belgium, Northern
France or in and about Faris' Gays
snent in the ruined villages OF AIsace
ma Lorraine. leave one nauseated,
physically and mentally. These atrocI-
lies also were committed, not IN
mood Of drunkenness, nor an hour OF
anger. but were organized by a So
called German efficiency, and perpe-
rated on deliberate, cold, precise,
-ciertifc policy of German fughtiul-
ness.
The Germans slaughtered old men
and matrons. mutilated captlves, vio-
lated little girls; finding calf
sk;n nailed upon a barn door 10 be
dried. they nailed a babe beside II and
wrote beneath the word ZweT ttwo);
they thrust women and children be-
tween themselves and soldiers coming
I'D 10 defend their native land
bombed and looted hospitals, Red
Cross buildings; violated the white
Aac-vhile the worst atrocities can
not even be named in this mixed audi
crce.
when the German army in Lor-
ra.rc was defeated by one-haN It's
number IL fell rorthward, passing
through French towns and villages
whore there were no Frenchmen, no
guns, and where TO shots were fred.
During July and August we went slow
~ from one ruined town 10 another,
talking with the women and the chill
lren. comparing the photographs and
the full Official records made at the
.me with the statements Of the poor,
vrctchcd survivors.
Boy Burned Before Mother
In Gcrbevillier. standing beside
their graves ] studied the photograph
OF the bodies Of fifteen old men whom
the Germans lined up and shot because
there were no young soldiers 10 kill;
heard the detailed story Of woman
whose boy of fourteen, being nearest
The age of a soldier, was first hanged
on a pear tree IN the garden, and,
when the officer and soldier had left
him and were busy setting fire to the
next house, she cut the rope, revived
the strangled boy only TO find the so! J.
diers had returned, and, while the Of
fccr held her hands behind her back,
his assistant poured petrol on the
BOYS head and clothes, set fire 10 him,
and while he staggered about, a fam
.bay. y r1akpA with laughter
when they had burned all the
houses and retreatcd, the next morn
ing the prcfoct Of Lorraine reached
that Gcthsemane and photographed the
bodies Of thirty aged men lying as
they fell. the bodies Of women stripped
and at last slain, while in the next
village stood the ruined square belfry
into which the Germans had lifted
machine guns, then forced every WON.
an and child-275 in number into the
little church, and notified the French
soldiers that If they fired upon the
machine guns they would kill their
own women and children. After sew
cral days hunger and thirst at mid
night, these brave women slipped a
little boy through the church window
and bade their husbands fire upon the
Germans I'm the belfry. saying they
preferred death TO the indignities they
were suffering And so these French
men turned their guns, and in blow
ing that machine gun out Of the bel
fry killed twenty Of their own wives
and children.
And here on this pulpit are. in
brief, the records Of more than a
thousand individual atrocities. with
tho original photographs, afidavits and
documents resting in the archives of
France against the day Of reckoning.
What is more important still. here are
the letters taken from the bodies Of
dead German soldiers with their
1Tarice"