Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-12-15

Members Of the Eleventh United
States Engineers regiment, VINO enlist
ed in this city and who have taken
prominent part in the recent action q.
Cambria. have found the atrocities
perpetrated by the Germans IN retreat
to be far worse than reported in the
newspaper dispatches, relates the Ne"
York Times. Letters received from
them since they have been at the front
were read yesterday at meeting OF
their parents, relatives, and frlends a.
the Engineers Society, 20 West
i Thirty-ninth street. In almost every
case the writer was a man VINO hau
not been inclined to place any faith IN
the reports of atrocities received In TINS
country before he left for France.
| On arriving on the scene of action
however. they found a state OF aftalrs'
which according to then letters, IN
spired them with the deepest resent
| ment against the Hun, and made them
regret that their country had waited SO
long before taking a hand IN the war
against Germany. Whole villages laio
waste: thousands Of women and cnil-
dren rendered desolate. inmates OF con-
vents subjected to outrageous Violence
graves pilfered, homes dynamited which
had not been touched by shell fire, were
some of the acts disclosed to their eyes.
| Without reason or sense, FOR no MILL
tary purpose whatever, the Germans
| according to the letters OF the Amerl-
can engineers, make a systematic prac-
tice of. devastating every bit OF fTench
soil that they leave in the course OF
retreat One Of the officers OF the
regiment. in letter to Robert Ridge
way, of the public service commits
sion wrote:
THE devastated country and villages
destroyed by shellfire, suppose. must
be expected. But the thing that makes
one boil IS the absolutely unnecessary
and wanton destruction wrought by tho
retiring Hun. His usual wonderful and
systematic methods have been applied
| TO this destruction Whole towns that
| have hardly been touched by shellfire
| have been completely destroyed by dy-
Mantle We find nitches cut in the Few
| standing walls and marked with the
size of the charge to be used. Evident
~ every building had been systematic
ally prepared in that way. long In ad-
| vance. for blowing up upon retirement.
Graves DespoIed For Jswelry.
$50 homes, beautiful chateaus, gar
den walls, little summer houses are all
| blown up. Shade trees, Towering
shrubs are cut down so the trees VIII
die. Cemeteries have been ransacked;
graves and vaults opened: bones
thrown about or in heaps on the
ground. I have seen the cemeteries
that are awful sights: one body dragged
halfway out Of the casket, conins
broken open and the bones from sew
eral dumped into one. Evidently the
boche was looking for jewelry-was
simply malicious or both.
"Those things could not be done
without the knowledge and permission
Of the officers. and the thing is SO COM
plete that it looks as tho It was all a
part Of an official program. I never
did believe the, stories we got IN
America OF the outraGes. have to be-
lieve them now. and they are many
times worse than the stories that
heard at home. Certain Canadian ana
Scottish battal!ons take no prisoners.
They give and ask no quarter. The
reason is that the boche has several
times cructhed the Canadian and
Scotch prisoners and held them above
the trenches in view Of their battalions.
In one such case a Canadian battalion
went right over the top after the
trenches without orders. Very few OF
them have come back. A British chap
lain told me that ne knows personally
OF a Belgian convent where they found
that fifty seven out OF eighty-two nuns
had been violated when the boche fell
back.
~ 11nv ufo n hot q n
tai operations or processes of the Hun
can be. I can not understand what his
object can be. 1t must be the wrathful
spite of disappointed, degenerate
mind. In fairness to our many, very
fine acquaintances of German birth IN
America i will say that the German
prisoners 1 have seen appear to be
largely a different type from the Ger
man in America, They look not Of
particularly high. type. Major ---
does not agree with me in this. He
says he can see among them the coun-
terpart Of every German he ever knew.
THE prisoners will not believe that
| we are American troops. They say.
| No, 1t ls impossible. Our submarines
have stopped off traffic between Amer
lea and Europe That is the way with
the German soldier, and I suppose ev-
cry one in Germany Is kept in ignor-
| ance of the true situation"
! Terrible Tales by Refugees.
| In conclusion, the writer states:
TT Is too bad that America did not
| come in sooner. Now that wesare in. !
trust that the country will continue
united in a strong determination to
properly deal with the Hun, not only
for the grievances we have against him,
but for the terrible campaign Of fright
fulness that he has waged against the
millions Of non com batants. Only a
few days ago I was talking to French
clergyman who had just got back from
Germany thru Switzerland He had
been driven with the whole civilian
population ahead Of the boche when
they fell back some months ago. II al
Of America could hear the horrible
tales that these refugees tell and SEQ
the country about us here, there would
be Ave million American soldiers train
ing for war and war loans would be
oversubscribed by billions.
1--WE frequently see or hear evidence
among the soldiers and officers Of the
| British and French of the wonder and
disappointment that they experienced
A e,,.1