The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1917-12-28

Nhitlock has much to tell of the pol
icy Of frightfulness. The fullawin.
passages refer To the subject Of mas
S;creS:
Summary executions tool place Cat
Dinant) without the least selnb!auce
Of judgment. The names and number
Of the victims are NOT known, but they
must be numerous. l have been I'M
able to obtain precise details in this
respect and the number of persons
who have fled is unknown. Among the
persons who were shot are: Mr.. De
foin, mayor of Dinant: Sasserath,
first alderman; Nimmer, aged seven
ty: Consul for the Argentine Republic
Victor Poncclet, who was executed in
the presence Of his wife and seven
children; Wasseige and his two sons;
Messrs. Gustave and Leon Nicaise,
two very old men Jules Monin and
others all shot in the cellar Of their
brewery Mr.. Camille Pistte and son,
aged seventeen; Phillippart Iiodfort,
his wife and daughter; Miss Marsig-
ny. During the execution of about
forty inhabitants of Dinant the Ger
mans placed before the condemned
their wives and children. 1t is tlrus
that Madam Albin who had just given
birth to Il child, three days previously,
was brought on Il mattress by German
soldiers to witness the execution Of
her husband; her cries and suppIica-
tons We're SO pressing that her hus-
bands life was spared"
Forced to Witness Executions.
ION the Goth of August German sol
diers entered various streets (of Lou
vain) and ordered the inhabitants Of
the houses to proceed to the Place de
IL Station. where the bodies Of nearly
Il dozen assassinated persons were ~
Ing. Women and children were sepa-
rated from the men and forced to re-
main on the Place de Ia Station dur
ing the whole day. They had to wit
ness the execution Of many Of their
fellow citizens, who were FOR the most
part shot ut the side of the square.
nea the house of Mr.. IIemaidc. The
women and children, after having re-
manned on the square for more than
IS hours. were allowed to depart. The |
GardeS Civiques of Louvain were also
taken prisoners and sent to Germany,
to the camp of Munster, where they
We're held for several weeks.
"On Thursday, August 81, order was
given to the inhabitants to leave Lou
vain because the city was to be bonn
barded. Old men, children,
the sick, priests. nuns, We're driven on
the roads like cattle. More than TO-
GOO of the inhabitants were driven as
far as Tirlemont, nearly l. miles from !
Louvain.
Infants Shot in Mothers Arms.
Zone Of the most sorely tried COM
munities was that Of the little village
OF Tamines. down In what is known
as the Borinage, the coal fields near
Charleroi. Tamines is Il mining vii
lage in the Sambre it is Il collection
OF small cottages sheltering about 81
600 inhabitants, mostly all poor labor
erS.
'The little graveyard in which the
church stands bears its mute testi-
mony to the horror of the event. There
are hundreds Of new-made graves each
with its small wooden cross and its
bit of flowers; the crosses are SO close
ly liuddled that there is scarcely room
to walk between them. The crosses
are alike and all bear the same date.
the sinister date Of August -, 1914"
But whether their hands were cut
off or not, whether they We're impaled
on b~ayonets or not, children were shot
down, by military order, in cold blood.
In the awful crime of the Rock of Bay
ard, there overlooking the Mouse be-
low Dinant, infants in their mothers
arms were shot down without mercy.
The deed, never surpassed in cruelty
by any band of savages, is described
by the bishop of Namur himself:
Zone scene surpasses in horror all
others: it is the fuSillade of the
Rocher Bayard near Dinant. 1t ap-
pears to have been ordered by Colonel
Meister. This fusillade made many
especially those Of DIES Riyages and
Neffe. 1t caused the death Of nearly
so persons. without distinction Of age
or SEX. Among the victims We're ba-
bies in arms, boys and giti.. fathers
and mothers Of families, even old
men.
Dead Children in Pile Of Bodies.
1T was there that II children under
the age Of six persisted from tie fire
of the eXecutiOners, six Of them as
they lay In their mothers arms:
1.-The child Fieyet, three weeks old.
Maurice Bctems, eleven months
old.
"'Nelly Pollet, eleven months old.
zelda Genon, eighteen months old.
Zelda Marchot, two years ole.
"'Clara Struvay, two years and six
months.
1.-The pile of bodies comprised also
many children from six to fourteen
years. Eight large families have en-
tirely disappeared. Four have but one
survivor. Those men that escaped