Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-01
First Victorious March of
Our TROOPS Into a Re-
gained C;ty-Work of
German F;ends IN a
French Toun Loot
Packed for Mailing.
Boche Letters Home
COMPLAIN of Feroc;ous
Americans.

BY GEORGE II. sELDEs.
Special Correspondence.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY,
Aisne to Marine Front,
August %, 1918.
ROM south of scissors to Chateau
X Thierry we went, over roads and
through fields, everywhere amid
German dead and German debris,
and always on the soil the Ger
mans had held only few hours ago.
And the one uppermost feeling was
that q great change had come into the
war.
In front Of us the Germans were re-
treating through our artillery bar
RACES, just behind us were some of our
guns. and back, 'kilometers back. were
the dead-fllled trenches which had been
the German front line. On the roads
moro American infantry and more
French infantry were swinging up and
the guns were moving onward, too.
We saw tanks in action for the first
mite movement for these intrepid mon
sters, but here their objective was to
break through. Cavalry none Of us
had ever seen before except at
maneuvers. This was real open war;
fare.
We had had some experience with
open warfare, 1t is trus. but open war;
fare waged against us, which we had
to barricade and bulwark with the
valiant bodies of our men from Chateau
Thierry through the Bots de, Belleau,
now named the Woods of the Marine
Brigade by the French, and we did 1t.
Now for the first time it was open war
fare by us against the foe.
1t al! had the appearance Of tragic
confusion. Just south of scissors the
hills. the woods, the valleys, the wheat
were full of men and things. Some
were moving. some were still, little
groups OF infantry, guns. tanks, horses,
supply wagons, ambulances, kitchens,
asmmunlt1on carts. machine gun units,
sort, Of thing on wheels and there a
roadside covered with boxes and pack
ages packs and outfits. And yet every
thing was being moved and halted, d.
Iec rec with aim and purpose by officers
and superior officers. on through the
grades until above the battle lowered
the genius of Foch who had planned II.
We entered Chateau Thierry with
the Franco-American detachments,
The enemy had thrown out smoke
screen, which he perforated with the
flashes Of his barrage, and withdrawn
across the river farther to the right,
but he had never crossed from the
city itself, as an American machine
gun battalion had defeated him there
IN the first drive on this front.
city regained. To our men 1t was the
first victorious march into a city, and
1t gave them taste of the real salts
1action which will come with the en-
trance into the first German city.
Chateau Thierry, Of course, had been
looted, but 1t was only after we had
entered many of the dwellings and
saw not only the looting, but other
signs of German occupation, that we
understood why the Germans have
been called swine. They had done
things patiently not under command
of fiendish officers, but under the
promptings of f1endish hearts.
In one house every oil painting had
been slit, probably because the notori-
GUS art collector, the crown prince,
had not had time to steal them. In
another house every large mirror had
bullet hole in the center. In every
house all things which could not be
the floors. clothes torn apart, bureau
drawers smashed, clocks hurled to
the ground and broken, all works Of
art damaged or destroyed.
Il
What impressed me most was a look
into a Doctors office. The usual piles
of goods lay on the floors and the
cabinets had been broken open. All
the boxes of hypodermlcs had been
opened and most of the contents de-
stroyed. The rooms were still reek-
ing with the stencil of mixed chemi-
calls. And scattered about the room
were about a hundred fine medical In
struments, every one of which had
been broken apart or twisted out of
shape. Such is the kultured Teuton's
regard for the sufferings of humanity.
These are some Of the things that
can be told. OF the foul inscriptions
on the walls and of the evidences Of
other indecencies 1t Is impossible to
write.
In several of the houses we found
packages of loot, silks and silverware
d ready for aiIinH to Germany. In ope