The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-03-22
DEEDS OF DASTARDS
DETAILED BY nurse
Mrs. McMurray Relates Her
Terrible Experience
CARRIES SCAR ON NECK
Brutal Acts of German Soldiers
Described BY One Who Was
Witness
From Saturdays Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
More startling and heartrending
evidence of the brutality OF German
soldiers is given publicity in The
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. This
story says:
Not only witness, but an actual
victim of German brutality in war,
addressed the Trinity Boosters club
last evening. The speaker was Mrs.
Dorothy McMurray, young English
woman, who saw service in Red Cross
work in France and who is now the
wife of the rector of the Episcopal
church at Green Bay. Mrs. Murray
showed to the audience a scar on her
face where she was struck by heavy
whip in the hands of a German OIL
Ger while performing an act of mer-
cy. She exhibited a scar on her neck
where she was previously wounded
by a piece of shrapnel, received dur,
ing the bombardment of the Cathed-
raj of Rheims which was then used
as a hospital and in which she was
on duty.
With such visible evidences of the
| truth of her assertions, the startling
accounts of atrocities she related
could not be doubted and a profound
| impression was made upon all who
heard her. The address was merely
an informal talk of things she had
seen, given in conversational way
which was far more effective than
set speech could have been.
| Fighters Become Brutes.
| She declared that while the Ger
mans are kindly disposed as citizens
and treat their families and neigh
bors with consideration, they are
transformed into inhuman brutes
when they don the military caps and
come under the domination of the
Junker officers. She said atrocities
were committed which seem almost
| incredible to those who have not &C
tually witnessed them.
| The first instance of brutality witnessed
| by Mrs. McMurray was one in which
| she herself, became one of the victims.
In this case the Germans attempted TO
take a man-an Alsatian-into service.
His wife, half French and half German,
endeavored to prevent the seizure Al
the command of the officer, the woman
was seized, stripped and cruc1hed-head
| down-the awful spectacle occurring in
the village street the husband agonized
and begging for his wife, being held by
two brawny German soldiers. The Idea
| was to impress the people with the peril
of resistance to the DEGREES of the Teu-
ton officers. AS the naked woman hung
fastened to the rude cross, the German
soldiers cut of her breasts, first one and
then the other.
The incident so impressed Mrs. Nc
Murray that in each case of five opera
lions performed to retrieve bits OF Ger
man shrapnel from her body, she went
under the aneSthetic repeating the agon-
lied appeals of the poor Alsatian husband
begging for mercy for his wife, who. Mrs.
McMurray said was beautiful woman
with head of hair that was crownlng
glory.
Mrs McMurray rescued the baby of
!, the martyred mother. but in so doing
she was slashed across the face with a
whip in the hands of German ofricer,
the scar of which will always remain
!, with her. The child, she said, has been
placed in a home at London.
Children Are Manned.
She told of thousands of Belgian chill
dren. all of whom have been MANNED, who
are being cared for in various homes in
England. Some of them have lost their
hands, others their eyes, and some their
noses all victims of brutality of German
soldiers. She cited an instance of where
a number of Belgian children were
marched along the cobbestones under
: command of German soldiers. One little
| girl fell to her knees. She was slashed
, by an officer. Again she fell to her
!, knees. German soldier impaled her upon
his bayonet, carried her along and threw
r her body into burning house on the side
! of the road. Mrs. McMurray states that
she personally observed that atrocity.
"Oysters," as they are called, are very
( common in Europe Those are soldiers
l who have been wounded and mutilated by
German soldiers. by having both arms
and legs severed and their eyes gouged
out. She said the bombs and poisonous
gasses used by the German army are the
very incarnation OF brutality. Forty
years were devoted to the development
of deadly gases and disease-laden
bombs. They are used more than the
. heavy artillery because of their deadly
effect and to save on the wear and tear
e of the cannon.
q Germ Laden Bombs.
AS an example of the terrible effect OF
poisonous gas she related an instance
q of a French soldier, mere lad whom
n she had picked up on the field at night
G and placed in the ambulance to which
. she was attached. The boy begged that
she write a letter to his mother Mrs
V McMurray, not realizing his condition, put
, him off with the promise that she would
!, be in the base hospital in few minutes
u and that then a letter would be written
n She then continued her search for
v wounded. When she returned to the
= ambulance, what had been a soldier was
. nothing but a jelly-like mass of decayed
{, humanity.
!. Six out of ten German bombs are lad
/, | en- with germs of the most loath-some
:. | type of disease. The grenadeS, she ex-
r planned are so constructed that the
II wounds are of a ragged character ex-
n tremely difficult to heal while the pow.
: der spreads under the skin and makes
h healing the more difficult. In her owr
!. instance it required nearly two years tt
extract all the foreign substance and per-
nit the wound to heal, and her neck was
paralyzed for many months. 1t is only
about eight months since she was able
6 to have the bandages removed.
: Mrs. McMurray is a beautiful woman o.
pleasing and convincing mein. Truth ap'
peared to radiate from manner and enun'
: citation. She is typically English. although
0 her girlhood was spent in France, ant
her vocabulary is almost Shakespearear
in its purity and simplicity. She displayed
: no bitterness or rancor, and her plain
r homely statement, 1T is true" 1T Il
. true" in making assertions of incidents
: was more effective and convincing thar
L long periods of rhetoric or argument. Also
n there was an utter and marked absence
of any disposition to emphasize or mag
nifty her work. She always eliminated
herself and her part in the incident a.
much as possible.
I Mrs. AIdrich Died at San Diego.
S H. P. Jensen today received ;
| y,,accooo froy, Archie A1drich Go,