The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-09-18


I lis. pastor of Plymouth Church,
BROOKLYN. quoting from official rec
/ ords and atfidavits he had collected
on his recent tour Of regions i'll
/ France evacuated by the Germans,
asserted in the first OF series OF
! six sermons on the war in his
! church Sunday that there could no
/ longer be any doubt OF the fact that
/ the German armies had been guilty
of the blackest crimes charged up
against them.
Dr.. Hills spent last July and Au-
gust visiting the areas in France
ruined by the German armies in
their retreat. He brought back
/ With him much evidence of Ger
/ man brutalities. and he placed atii-
( davits and copies of official records
on the pulpit from which he
preached.
For three years German-Ameri-
cans have protested that the stories
/ OF German atrocities were to be dis
( believed as English inventions, Bel
gian lies, and French hypocrisies, but
that day has gone forever" he said.
/ When the representatives of the
nations assemble for the final settle
ment there will be laid before the
representatives of Germany aiiida-
{ Wits. photographs, and other legal
I proofs that make German atrocities
/ far better established than the scalp
! ingS OF the Sioux Indians on the
! Western frontiers, the murders of
/ the Black Hole of Calcutta, or the
/ crimes of the Spanish lnquiSitlon.
On a battle line three hundred miles
I long, in every village the retreating
Germans passed. the following
monring accredited men hurried to
| the scene to make the record against
the day of judgment.
The photographs of dead and
mutilated girls, children, and old
men tell no lies. Two forms of tes-
| timOny are esteemed by jurists-the
| testimony of mature men, who have
! seen and heard. and the testimony of
children too innocent to invent their
! statements, but old enough to tell
what they saw. For the first time in
, history the German has reduced saw
agery to a science, therefore this
| great war for peace must go on until
! the German cancer is cut clean out
of the body
Dr. Hills asserted that more than
/ 10000 separate atrocities commit
/ ted by the German armies had been
! documented and were on file in the
/ chancellories of the allied nations,
! for uuse when the terms OF peace are
! 10 be discussed.
When the German army in Lor-
raine was defeated by one-half its
number" he went on, 1T fell north
ward, passing through French towns
and villages where there were no
Frenchmen, no guns, and where no
shots were fired. During July and
| August we went slowly from One
ruined town to another, talking
with the women and the children,
comparing the photographs and the
full official records made at the
time, with the statements of the
poor, wretched survivors, who lived
in cellars, where once there had
been beautiful houses, orchards and
Vineyards
In Gerbevillier, standing beside
their graves, L studied the photo
graph of the bodies of fifteen old
men whom the Germans had lined
up and shot because there were no
young soldiers to kill; heard the de-
tailed story of woman whose boy
of IA being nearest the age of
soldier, was first hanged to a pear
tree in the garden, and when the Of
ficer 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 sol
diers had returned. 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 he staggered
about, flaming torch, they shrek
ed with laughter.
When they burned all the houses
and retreated the next morning. the
Perfect of Larraine 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 helfry into which the Ger
mans had lifted machine guns, then
| forced every woman 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 several days hunger and
thirst, at midnight these brave Wo-
men slipped little boy through the
| church window and bade their huS-
! bands fire upon the Germans in the
| beIfry, saying they preferred death
! to the indignitieS they We're suffer
! ing And so these Frenchmen turn
ed their guns, and in blowing those
machine guns out of the belfry kill
ed twenty of their own wives and
| children
! DR.. Hills asserted that further in
disputable proof of the heartlessness
of the Germans was found in the
| letters and diaries taken from the
! bodies of dead German soldiers. He
| continued:
Here is the diary on Aug. 22 OF
Private Max Thomas: Our soldiers
are so excited we are ike wild
beasts. Destroyed eight houses, with
their inmates. Bayonetted two men
with their wives and a girl of Is.
Th elittIe girl almost unneryed me,
so innocent was her expression.
Dr.. Hills read what had been
copied from the diary of Eitel An
ders. another German soldier. II
read: In Nendre all the inhabl-
tants without exception were brou-
ght out and shot This shooting
was heartbreaking, as they all knelt
down and prayed. 1t was real sport,
vet it was terrible 10 watch. Al
Hecht | saw the dead body of Il
young girl nailed TO the outside door
of Il cottage by her hands. She was
about ii or 16 years old Dr.. Hill
lis quoted from one Of the atiidavlts.
.'Afidavit D-S9 - After passing
Weerde we met woman covered
with blood. with her breasts cut off.
She was deliriOuS
Germany's philosophy. the pastor
concluded. had dehumanized her
officers and men He said the kaf-
: ser, and not the rest of the world
, had coined the word Hun" and
had applied il TO his own people.
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