Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-04-28

specisl Correspondents Of The Star.
ZONE OF THE ARMIES, April II.
- ATE cable dispatches gave the fol-
lowing:
american troops in tho Lune-
IL vile sector have taken and re-
main in possession of enemy trenches
northeast of Badonviller. They forced the
Germans to abandon them, after their
aid by a concentrated artillery fire.
1bese trenches arc now linked up with
ours"
II Is noted at home as the first perma-
nent advance made by the American Army
in Franco, but in Europe the moral effect
q, II Is enormous. French hearts swell
with gratitude because our lads in their
first permanent advance. have avenged
pretty Badonviller, town Of vile German
atrocities par excellence. of baby stranng
and martyred women, and the child with
his little wooden gun. 1t seems SYM
bolicaL
According TO the poem Of the Gefreite
sanktus, circulated among Bavarian
troops in 1915-1916, and copies OF which
were found on the dead before Verdup.
thew explained their unspeakable cruelty
on the ground that the women were tiger
cats"
"As the dark sky lights up woe to thee,
pretty Badonviller! Bavarian anger mas
condemned you and changed you to sea
Of flames. Women tiger cats hide in your
houses. The Bavarian lion, with a'stroke
Of his >, paw has thrown them on inc
You can find the poem all around Lune-
vile, where most Of the inhabitants
understand German-with It's snades Oh
meaning: and every American soldier
here knows about the seven-year-old BOY
playing in the road with his little wooden
gun as the first German patrols reacneo
the outskirts of Badonyiiier IN me o htss
aimed his little wooden gun at the strange
soldiers Halt" cried the officer. Cover
the insulter! Fire.! And the victim
crumpled like q wilted flower.
All around in the villages our lads hear
the cruelties done to women. girls and
infants in the first irruptioq OF the oocne'
when he thought to terrorize his way tn
umphantly through France. Badonviller,
/ tell you, was as bad as Diest, in Bel
GUM.
was in the kitchen with her baby. Ba-
fury and blood. from fighting in the
outskirts. "Wine!" they demanded. Il
have no wine" she snapped (the war
was new and she had no experience OF
GermanS). So she stood packed up,
defending the cellar door. very fool
ishly. 1t happened in moment. Some
say that the baby was emptied out of
its cradle in the scuffle and killed acct
dentally. In any case, it appeared, the
next moment. held high at the end of
rifle, spitted on the bayonet. They
have no wine-heres the sign of it,"
The mother went crazy. She threw
boiling water on the Bavarians. and
this event started the systematical
burning Of the inner suburbs, Badon-
viller being at that moment a town of
1000 Inhabitants.
One more. 1t happened the next
morning on the other side of Badon-
viller. A woman who, in her own
kitchen, had cooked all night for the
Germans amid flames and horrors, was
thanked sardonically by the drunken
bunch as they hurried from the burning
quarter. Shake hands" hiccoughed
the feldwebel, and. grasping the I'M
suspecting woman's right hand, added:
Let me take it as a keepsake. Ma
dame, ! ask for your hand" With a
single chop of his razor-sharp saber he
severed it at the wrist!
did you write that poetry?' thun-
dered the Americans as they rushed tho