The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-29

lite AIHeTlCdn war zone. From the start the horror of the New
 fork society writer knew no bounds! What" she exclaimed, mo pillows for our nenl And you say, cap, ain, they have no bathtuhS, but have to bathe in tie rivers and creeks? And see there are no tablecloths or napkirss Captain, leave it to me! I'm going to fell the people of America all about tle terrible living conditions of our soldiers over here Something must be done, and some thing will be done by an aroused public opinion back homen'
 The captain indulged an inward chuckle that raclsed his soul. Then his face be- came solemn.
 "Please don't stir up any scandal in America over this," he entreated tho young woman writer. "I'll tell you con- fidentially that feather beds are on the way from America for every soldier and there are whole boatloads of hathtubs coming, too. But what's sweetest of all is this-promise you'll keep it a secret until it happens-our government is go-
 ing to present every soldier in France w.th beautiful manicure seti"
 That s more like it. said the lady, much modified.
 BRANDS YOUNG MOTHER
 The Stars and Stripes tells this story, on che authority of an American. for merly in the British army:
 The rapid British advance at Cainbrai i1 November when towns which the Ger mans had occupied for three years were captured before the latter could deport the civilian population into Germany, az is their custom, disclosed the latest effort of the German army-Ffonch wom- en ard girls had been made the victims.
 "Amont the refugees who p1Sscl along tfe roads making their way southward fal ,her into France after we made OFT first big advance were scores of women and girls, each marked on her breast hy a cross in red palnt," said the officer
 These were disclosed when the refu- gees passed in front of our medtcll off cers wto were inspecting. them All of them were about to become mothers. and the Trench interpreter who was assisting the medIcos, explained that the cross ind-catee the German soldiec5 were the ia a-heys. The crosses had heen painted on them, .he women explained, to show that thei. children would belong to the Ger man government.
 THIS IRON CROSS RED HOT.
 "One of these unfortunates, appar- ently not more thsn 17 years of age had not only been painted but branded with a hot iron that she would be marked for life : th the sign of the cross. She said nat a German officer would be the r5-l fer of her child. This officer, the girl said. had been quar- tered in her parents home and she had been forced to accede to his de- sires.
 "After her health became such that he had no further use for her, she said, he ordered her to act as his per sonal servant, doing the menial work in his chamber. It was not long until she was unable to continue this, and then, angered at her weakness, he or dered soldiers to SCOUT the paint from her breast and burn the cross into her flesh. When this was done she was forced to leave her home and taken to maternity hospital which the army had esta ablished for other girls and women of the town in the same condi- tion.
 AN EYEWITNESS ON "KULTUR"
 "I myself was the girl who had been branded and the others who had been painted like sheep and heard their stories, as I had been detailed to su- pervise the return of the refugees. Thank God. America. by coming into the war, will help to stamp out this beastly 'kultur from the world and make it a safe, clean place to live in for your womenfolk and mine-our
 
 and our daughters I have daughter just IT years old" concluded the Amer ican, grimly.
 |DOUGHBOY'S LETTER TO KAISER An American doughboy." in an open letter to the Kaiser tells him why the Americans are in France and why they are going to stay there until the war is won. He sums up his in- dictment:
 You invaded with fire sword and iron heel country whose neutrality you were sworn to respect-Belgium. "In Belgium and northern France you visited upon the natives such crimes as would make the tortures practiced by savage tribesmen seem tame by comparison.
 By your orders fathers of families were lined up against walls and shot in the sight of their offsprings. Nursing mothers were hacked about the body and their children impaled on bayonets.
 Young girls were forced into a con- dition worse than slavery, worse than death-and then branded with the red cross of Prussan shame. Young men and old were deported from their native land to work for you as no better than slaves, at miserable wages. while fed on insufficient food Children in arms were left to per . ish without nourishment. and those of less tender age were left to shift for themselves, in a shell-wrecked, flame ridden country.
 "On land, you revived the horrible |. practice of crucifixion, and applied it to prisoners of war.
 You practiced other mutilation and disfigurement upon prisoners You melted your non-Christian all lies. the Turks to massacre thousands upon thousands of helpless Armenian and Syrian Christians.
 You lent yourself to delibe crate campaign of murder, rape. and pillage in Serbia. the better to handicap that invaded country in rehabilitating it. self.
 1. Tn diplomacy, you. through your foreign minister, openly urged Mexico and Japan, two countries with which our nation was at peace, to make war uuon us.
 ] ou tried to poison our press, our Congress. our public men, with your lies about our present allies. You set up a corruption fund of $50,000,00O for the subversion of the legislature de- partment of our government. You organized strikes, fomented plots, tried in every way to cripple peaceful industry in our own country You attempted. on large scale, to in- cite considerable proportion of our population to rise against the rest of us.
 You ordered us to keep off the high