The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-09-27

Newell Dwight Hills, pastor of Ply
'"'nth 'nu1ch, .}r .h'vr, quoting from
CGcial records aid aftidavits he had
collected on his r,teit tour of regions
IL France evacuated Ly the Germans,
as.:,lu q in the 'ir3' OF series of six
*e,mchS ~ tn" war i'll his chur ID yes
terdGy that thela could no longer be
any )ubt of the tact that the German
armies lad been guilty Of .he blacklist
r':n' charged agaIn.:t tltm
DR. Hills spent last Ju ana August
visiting the areas in Frarte ruined by
the German armies i" Il cir retreat.
He h. ought back with h,'l much evil
dcncc of German br, Il ::ties. and he
:l"''d affidavits and copies of official
records on the pulpit fro which he
preached
For three years German-Americans
have protested that the stories of Ger
man atrocities were to be disbelieved
as English inventions, Belgian lies and
French hypocrisies, but that day has
gone forever" he said. when the
representatives of the nations assem-.
BILE for the final settlement there will
be laid before the representatives Of
Germany aflidavits, photographs, and
other legal proofs that make German
atrocities far better established than
the scalpings of the Sioux Indians on
the western frontiers, the murders of
the Black Hole of Calcutta, or the
crimes of the Spanish inquisition. On
a battle line three hundred miles long,
in every village the retreating Ger
mans passed, the following morning
accredited men hurried to the scene
to make the record against the day of
judgment.
"The photographs of dead and mutt
lated girls, children, and old men tell
no lies. Two forms of testimony are
esteemed by jurists-the testimony of
mature men, who have seen and
heard, and the testimony of children
too innocent to invent their state
ments but old enough to tell what they
saw. For the first time in history the
German has reduced savagery to
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 committed
by the German armies had been docu-
mented and were on file in the chan
cellories of the allied nations for use
when the terms of peace are to be dis
cussed.
when the German army in Lor-
raine was defeated by one-half it's
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, compar-
ing the photographs and the full Off
cial 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, studied the photograph
of the bodies of Is old men whom the
Germans had lined up and shot be-
cause there were no young soldiers to
kill: heard the detailed story of
woman whose boy of IA, being near
est the age of soldier, was first
hanged to pear tree in the garden.
and when the officer and soldiers had
left him and were busy setting fire to
the next house, she cut the rope, re-
vived the strangled boy, only to find
the soldiers 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, a
flaming torch, they shrieked with
laughter.
When they burned all the houses
and retreated the next morning, the
perfect of Larraine photographed the
bodies of 80 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 woman and
child-275 in number-into the little
church, and notified the French SOL
diers that if they fired upon the ma
chine guns they would kill their own
women and children.
after several days hunger and
thirst, at midnight these brave women
slipped little boy through the church
window and babe their husbands fire
upon the Germans in the belfry, say