Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-09-28
Dr.. N. D. Hills Tells Of German
Cruelty
New York Times Sept. 10

/
pastor Of Plymouth church, Brooklyn,
quoting from offic al records and affida-
Wits he had collected on his recent tour
Of regions in France evacuated by the
Germans. asserted in the first of a
series of six sermons on the war in his
church yesterday that there could no
/ longer he any doubt of the fact that the
German armies had been guilty of the
blacklist crimes charged against them.
| DR.. Hills spent last July and August
sitting the areas in France ruined by
the German armies in their retreat. He
brought back with him much evidence
oc German brutalities, and he placed
affldavits and copies of official records
or the pulpit from which he preached.
\ For three years German Americans
have protested that the stories of Ger
man atrocities were to be disbeleved as
English Inventions Belgian lies, and
! French hypocrises but that day has
gone forever" he said when the
representatives. OF the nations assemble
for the final settlement there will be
laid before the representatives. of Ger
many affidavits. photographs. and other
legal proofs that make German atroci-
ties 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 lnquisiton. On a battle
line three hundred miles long, in every
village the retreating Germans 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 hes. Two forms of testimony are
esteemed by jurists-the testimony of
mature men. who have seen and heard
and the testimony Of children too limo
cent to invent their statements but old
enough to tell what they saw. For the
first time in history the German has
reduced savagry to a science. therefore
this great war for peace must 60 on
until the German cancer is cut clean
out of the body"
DE- Hills asserted that more than
10000 separate atrocities committed nv
the German armies had been doom
mented and We're 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 lorraine
was defeated by one half its nunher"
ne went on. sit fell northward. pass,np
u rough French towns and VILLAGES
where there were no rre1chmen no
guns and where no shots were fred
During July and August we went SLOWLY
rom one ruined town to another. talk
iflg win the women and the children
comparing the photograp hs and the full
orncial records made at the time. with
'he statements OF the poor wretched
SorV vors, who lived in cellars. where
once there had been beautif,I houses
OF chards. and vineyards.
In Gerbevllier. standing beside thar
graves. studied the photosra nh of tha
bodies Of fifteen old men whom tho ~
mans had lined up and shot heoo,,..
there were no young soldiers tn kill.
heard the detailed story of vora,
whose boy Of IA, being nearest tho ava
" so!dier was first hanged to a pear
oee III the garden, and when the Of
i'cer ana soldier had left him and were
onsy setting fire to the next house. she
CUT the rope. revived the strangled how
only to find the soldiers had returned
anu "hiie the oh1cer held her hands
behind her back. his assistant noured
petrol on the boy g head and clothes
set f1re to him. and while he sta gpered
about, flaming torch, they shrieked
with laughter
When they burned all the bousa.
and retreated the next morning tbs
Perfect of Larraine photographed the
bodies of thirty aged men lying as thew
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-27o 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 women
slipped a little boy through the church
window and bade their husbands fire
upon the Germans in the belfry, saying
trey preferred death 10 the indignities
they were suffering. And so these
Frenchmen turned their guns, and in
blowing those machine guns out Of the