Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-19

blown away And according TO a Boche in
| scription upon tho only uninjured house, it
was spared because in September, 1916, the
| Kaiser 'honoreTl". it by lodging there for
night
At tho nearby village Of Cuts, attached
u the country seat, a circular garden ex-
listed, defined in n wall twelve feet high,
! against which grew en- espalier 167 peach
pear and apricot trees, with here and there
an ancient vino Of the grape None was
less than thirty years old. from its diameter
Every one had been cut off a few inches
from the ground The sap had risen as If
IN protest and trace of budding green was
visible at the tips, the last breath of life
before the death to come. over the well
IN this garden, painted in black upon rough
board, the sign "Kein Trnkwasser" stil
remained. An old man who was not of the
dcported told me that when the Boche de-
MED well he put up such sign in warning
10 the troops coming through and that the
last battalion removed it. This one had
been missed. / detached il and have II ba
fore me as l write.
Worse Than Beasts
] heard narrowing tales OF suffering from
the old and feeble They have been driven
toBelher TO indicated points and left ex-
poseu 10 lhe weather as their houses were
blown up. lndignities Unbelievable were
perpetrated. In one case an aged woman
VINO called the Boche a "Prusco," the name
given them in 1870, told me with a flash in
her aged eyes how she and her daupb-
yer, Soh-lh-Iaw and eldest granddaughter
i'u peeh ued TO chairs, ranged against the
wall OF n room in her house and comneIIed
To witness the maltreatment of her vounp-
est granddaughter, girl Of seventeen bv
n BOChe officer -
IN another case an equally aged woman
told me one Of the BOChe soldiers ,,bo
spoke little French had come ia her
ana saying he was under orders was
ashamed to take everything from her house
70 destroy or pack for sending to Germany
lie had therefore put a mattress in The
ceuar so she might have a bed to lie upon
But Msieur as he told me this the
Prusco reached over and took NV watch
ana chaIn from my neck, saying he wanted
II as souvenir"
! could tell twenty tales eouaIlv ,s sir
hllc'nt OF what the Boche is These two
suffice, plus one individual case tbat =
verified. I had heard in two towns Lii
meters apart that little children had nicLed
up IN the street that which seemed ill.,
fountain pens, Upon opening, they expIodad
ana tore away childish fingers | saw ner-
a""aHy one chlId so mutilated Her grand
mother gave me the address OF tho bos,,i,ai
III CoInplegne where the incredible storv
was verified S'oIy
| saw a number Of Boche can,a,ario-
nearly every case near an old VILLAGE -, ~
t"ry In 20 per cent OF the cases the ano,m,,,
stones over the ancient dead had been tal,a,
theIr inscriptions defaced and tba staHa,'
erected with new inscriptions upon tho 49,
over The grave of a Boche who had GieS
lot the Fatherland." l saw the ola 60
man front line trenches that a few veeLs
back l had looked upon from the INro,,nI
front line. They were now both Ns,ao+'
klIometers from the firing line. Tn 60
cases they were being reflled nv Ponto
prisoners. From their demeanoy ,l DoCl'e
would not have melted in their montbs
ANA these were Of the men who had LIS '.a,
the things | had seen, which in bn+ tIn',
part here attempt TO describe ''''
The lamentable thing in humane ,s
particularly Latins is that thew are ,a,' ,s,'u
TO forget in decade. / prav the I,.a'Il, paole
Government may decide to retain In a,'la,!i v,.Im
their present condition series Of viIIssas
such as Juissy and Guiscard, and tou7ns
like Chauny, encircle them with snit"LIs i"ns
walls ana put them in charge of r,utiIat,s
soldiers after the war, that the yyorIJ ~
II comes to France may see with its "a. as
eyes the sort OF evil that has baar ,oa ~"
tlced by Germany's army. The ru,p, az
Nahdalistic barbarity, Of which tba S,o,I'ess S,s
ana olse and Aisne country is an il,l''ie e,iJa.
should IN some part be kept as a contil'.;
obJect-lesson of the crime OF the go uaI
thls stupendous series Of crimes ,Sto' OF
1 9loou, lhe land, the prosperity Of nortbene e
france france, as perpetrated under the guIss ~