The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-09-21

the time with the statements or :he
poor, wretched survivors who lived in
cellars where once there had been
beautiful houses, orchards, vineyards
but now was only desolation.
"In Gerbeviller, standing beside
their graves, l studied the photo
graphs of the bodies of fifteen old
men whom the Germans lined up and
shot because there were no youns
soldiers to kill; heard the detailed
story of woman whose boy of four
teen, being nearest the age of SOL
der, was first hanged to 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 soldiers had re-
turned, and while the officer held her
hands behind her back, his assistant
poured petrol on the boys head and
clothes, set fire to him and while
staggering about, flaming torch, they
shrieked with laughter.
when they had burned all the
houses and retreated the next morning
the project of Lorraine reached that
Gethsemane and photographed the
bodies of thirty aged men lying as
they fell, the bodies of women stripped
and at last slain.
DefenseIess as Shield.
"In the village stood the ruined square
belfry into which the Germans had lifted
machine guns, then forced every woman
and child, 274 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 several days hunger and
thirst, at midnight these brave women
slipped a little boy through the church
window and babe their husbands fire upon
the Germans in the belfry, saying they
preferred death to the indgnities they
were suffering. And SO these Frenchmen
turned their guns. and in blowing those
machine guns out of the belfry killed
twenty of their own wives and children
''In a hundred years of history where
shall you find record of any other race,
such sneaking towards that they could
not fght like men or play the game fairly,
but in their chattering terror put women
and little children before them as a
shield?" 81
10000 Photographs Proof.
"And here on this pulpit are. in brief.
the records Of more than 000 individual
atrocities, with the original photographs,
affidavits 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 bod
G Gs Of dead Acre. s soldiers With
yon! And organized by the devil him.
self.
Diaries of German soldiers. August %,
notebook of Private Max Thomas: 'Orr
beasts. Destroyed eight houses, with
their inmates. Bayonetted two men with
their wives and girl Of eighteen. The
little one almost unnerved me, so in
nOcpnt pXnrnSSiOn
DIARY Of Eitel Anders: In Vendre
all the inhabitants without exception
were brought out and shot. This shoot
ing was heartbreaking as they all knelt
down and prayed 1t is real snort, yet
it was really terrible TO watch. JsAt Haecht
I saw the dead body of a, young girl
nailed to the outside door Of a cottage
by her hands.q She was about "A or 16
years DID, Page u, affidavitfH-67. 49,
Affidavit Disc: After PASSING WeerdA
we met woman, covered with blood,
lirious.' ~
Records From Germans.
And here are the records of hundreds
and hundreds of similar cases with every
photography tell lies? Are the German
soldiers liars in writing to brothers at
home, or in keeping the record of events
in 1t, their diares. thus leaving on their
highest order Of truth? III
standing in the village of Herimenil
a boy of sixteen and his mother showed
me twelve bullet marks against the stone
wall: where young mother aged TWEEN
tv-three, with babe on her breast, with
her young sister and sister-in-law of six
t"rn and seventeen were shot by twelve
cnr"nan soldiers-four brave and heroic
Germans shooting at each girl.
ION a little board in one ruined viii
lage / read these words: Marie, aged
sixteen Died August "a. 1915. Vengeance
The hundreds 81 atrocities personally in
vestigated only serve to interpret Am
bassador Morgenthaus statement as to
Armenia, that the Turkish soldiers and
German officers massacred in Armenia
100000 people, that thew might move
into their farmhouses and little shops and
stores. .
Scholar Glory of Nation. ,>"''..
"The glory of every great city and
country is it's scholars, with their love
of truth and their stainless lives. We
have had our civilization at the hands Of
pursued the truth eternally, and cher
ished the truth above their fear of he'll
or hope of heaven. The world has it's
liberty, it's science. and it's law at the
hands OF the heroes who preferred the
truth above life. 8ssa
Concerning the patriots, the reform
ers and the statesmen. we can only say
they were stones thew We're sawn asun-
der, they were crucified in Jerusalem,
poisoned in Athens, tortured in Ephesus,
exiled in Florence. burned at the stake
in Oxford. assassinated in Washington,
crucified in Jerusalem. But the iron
autocracy and militarism of Germany
debauched her university men.
German Teachers Degraded.
Here in nv hand is an address to the
civilized world, signed by ninety three
German professors. They all received
their salaries from state endowments
Any hour the kaiser or the chancellor
can cut off their income.
when the Indignation of the civilized
world famed out against Germany in
the winter of 1915 the German govern
ment asked these professors to sign a
document, and these men had been so
degraded by the German philosophy of
militarism, and autocracy that they
obeyed, losing their souls to save their
salary And consider what they signed!
In the previous August Bethmann- Holl-
veg issued a statement to the world
saying that as to the violation of Bel
GUM neutrality The wrong-I speak
openly-that we are committing etc.
These ninety-three professors signed
a statement saving: 1T is not true that