The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-11-07
THE MODERN ATTILA
New York Herald)


vases in the studio of Mr.. Leon Dabo,
one of New York's best known artists,
but when one seeks to express adj
miration for them Mr.. Dabo refuses
to be interested As member of the
! American Financial Mission the
painter has just returned TO this
country after several months passed
| in investigating many phases of the
war situation in France and England.
81 couldn't touch a picture now"
! he said to me few days after his ar
rival at home, mot after what I have
seen of the horrors of war. 1t is not
a time for oils and palette and easel.
Those horrors must be DINNER IN my
mind than they are now before l can
paint again"
| Mr.. Dabo acted as interpreter for
the commission. He had passed years
/ in France and is familiar not only
with French and other modern Ian
guages but with the dialects and with
the Flemish and Walloon patois. Ex-
traordinary opportunities were af-
forded to the mission to gather infor-
nation at first hand, and its members
were expressly instructed to free
htheir minds of all that they had read
or heard of conditions and to make
their observations on their own ac-
count.
"You ask me what / saw over there
that impressed me most sharply" he
said. 81 will tell you. 1t was the hos
pitals-the hospitals filled with the
refugees from the devastated dis
tricts.
81 speak of the devastated districts
of France-we did not go to Belgium.
Especially there were the girls in the
hospitals. French girls, nine years of
age and older, who had been the vic
tins of Prussian soldiers, dragged
through the most unspeakable hor-
rors and many of them driven insane
by the treatment they had received.
remember. one girl, fifteen years of
age, who was raving mad Her body
was in a horrible condition and she
was soon TO become mother. This
was in hospital at Nancy. There
were many girls in little better condi-
ton. Perhaps it is not generally
known that twenty-one per cent OF
the girls who have been subjected to
these tortures at the hands of the
Huns have been driven insane by it.
"At Gerbevilliers, about eleven
miles from Nancy, Prussian soldiers
took a girl sixteen years of age, car
ried her to the town square and after
they had attacked her trussed her uI
to the. limb of a tree, poured gasoline
on her and set her on fire. This was
done in the presence of the aged peo-
pie of the village. None of the mer
of the town remained, as they had al
been taken for the war; In the same
village the Huns took a blacksmith
4 nearly eighty years of age, white
haired man, and placing his hands or
his own anvil crushed them into pulp
These two persons were brought tt
the same hospital.
"The young girls of the devastated
districts they took to the trenches, but
no women escape them Even ageC
, women were attacked Perhaps yor
: don't know that the Lord Bryce re
! port, which created so much horror
was expurgated. Awful as were the
revelations of the expurgated edition
they were still more awful things sup
pressed. The unexpurgated edition
can be had by applying to Lore
= Bryce, who will send it to those wht
can justify their claims to possessing
!, it-that is, to those VINO can max,
valuable use of its contents.
: "They took pictures, hangings
o clothing -everythin which it wa
: possible to transport and which jus
J, titled the expense of transportation
to Germany. And what they coulc
not transport they destroyed with un
q speakable filth. Perhaps you hav,
! seen that phrase in the newspapers
1 It covers the most horrible things"
"How do you account for this ruth
lessness 2"
81 believe the whole nation has gon
Z mad-and the officers are the maddes
u of ALL Everything is done unde
{ direction. The Prussian soldier doe
nothing without orders. He does no
t even light cigarette or eat withou
5 permission. When it came to ruinin,
: the country every fifth man was sup
;, | pASu Will COTcn LOT SSCCln2 Qfe u
t buildings.
ut is this sort of madness: Thes,
). men really believe, according to tn
+ Prussian system of education, tea
!. there is only one God and he is Ger
}, man. They believe that all nation
but Germany have become so degen
crate that God has delegated the Ger
n man kaiser to wipe them out AM
0 seize their lands for the good Chris
d tian German people. Thus they be
0 lieve that the French and Englisl
a must be killed off and that all brutal
tiles to this end are justifiable.
Therefore without any qualm
S whatever they have done their bes
!. to ruin France. They have destroye,
: that lovely country. They have no
v left a tree standing, not one ston
J. upon another, nor piece of furniture
nor picture, nor a church, nor a bi
of farm land that they could get thei
= hands on They have roanCIed an.