Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1917-10-04
SHIPPING BELGIANS LIKE
CATTLE

gan hellSl AOllllulSSlOu WOL NCA WIZ
Sc activities were hampered by the
German deportations, John A. Gade,
one of Hoover's picked men, tells in
the October Hearst's Magazine the
story of the deportation of Belgians.
He says:
Of all the outrages committed In
Belgium, none can compare In IL
legality and criminal cruelty with
the dcportations. They are as num-
erous today as they were last fall
and this spring. They have desc
lated morally and materially every
family on which their pitiless de-
cree has fallen, and the terror Of
them haunts the homes of rich and
poor alike. Throughout the winter
of 1916-1917 | was kept rushing
back and forth to whatever place
in my province a deportation was
to take place, in order to protect and
intercede as far as possible for my
own men namely, the Belgian en-
ployees and office-force of the Re-
lief Commission.
1t struck home when the turn fin
ally came to Mons, the capital of the
province, where | lived and had my
office. A week previous to the fate
full day, placards had been posted
in the squares and principal places
Of the city, and ever-swelling, anx-
ious groups were sullenly reading
The order for all men of the city be-
tween the ages of eighteen and fifty.
i've, excepting priests, doctors and
magistrates, to present themselves
upon the eighteenth of November in
the Grande Place of the Fauboure
IF Nimy. This being without the
,ity proper, the mob could essiiy be.
kept away and there would be nc
LANCER of a riot. Men read the
French and German Versions on the
huge placards as if they were read
ing their own death-warrant. They
matched the Jacobin lists on the
wallis of the Conciergerie in the
| Reign Of Terror.
Then the city waited in dull, leth-
lrgic suspense. 1t was the longest
week it had ever lived through. Ev.
n the Children of Israel led into
.'abylonian captivity were allowed
o take with them their wives ant
attle!
In the gray dawn of the morning
he men marched out. They came
rom howell and workship and man.
sion. They were as alike before the
Nreischef, Won Quasi, as they will.
DE on the Day of Judgment before
Almighty God. Strong and weak
The hardest workers of the province
as we'll as the idle-prince and paup'
.r-this was the day Of reckoning
or having picked up the gauntlet
-hrown down by Prussian autocracy.
Down the many cobbled lanes Oh
he city built upon the hill flowed
endless arteries of nlen-the students
Under their professors, clerks behino
,heir chiefs, and workmen behina
heir superintendent.
Endless rows of gray, with glist-
,ning bayonets, lined the roads and
barred all approaches. Here and
there mitrailleuse had been set up
Distracted, desperate women, follow
ID by bowling children, ran up and
Town the fields beyond, pleading
aye, praying on their knees-to be
permitted to give their men the bun.
lies of clothing just purchased by
The sale of the last household artic-
les. But they might as well have
prayed to images of stone.
In the market-place of Nimy, the
Seventh Solingen" guarded the pens
newly elected for the human cattle.
in front stood the German civil and
military authorities, laughing, swear
ing and cursing Defines when the
attle were slow to comprehend
which way they were to be driven;
what undying hatred was kindled
hat day!
ITO the right" rang out the COM
mands, Ito the left" ''to the right"
and every man strong of limb, broad
of chest and clear of eye was hustled
off to the trains, standing ready with
their steam I'D, A hasty embrace.
and father was torn from the arms
of his son, or brother from brother.
A last appeal for mercy would only
result in kick and a curse. What
cared the Herr Rittmeister fora wife
and five children who would starve
to death when the wage-earner was
taken from them and sent into slav-
cry? What were the shouts in the
distance that seemed to amuSe these