Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-12-07

reason for his increased feroeity and
almost measureless inhumanity, was not
far to seek. The kaiser had placed
him on his mettle. He had warned him.
first, that any further attempt to in
trigue against himself would be visited
with dire consequences. Secondly, the
kaiser had insisted that come what may
no matter by what means, the subjuga-
tion of Belgium must be completed.
Starved Into Submission.
Rupprecht bent himself to the task
with a dreadful, hideous devotion
that reminded me of the remorseless,
because self.highteous, rigidity of the
Inquisition. "My God, Schroeder, "
he said one day, eff nothing else will
suffice to subjugate these people, | will
make their land into a desert. The rook
who flies above it, will have to carry
his food upon his back, for not bite
of anything will he find below him (;
not u scrap, not bite of anything will
we leave to this cursed land-except, "
he added grimly, ''the bodies Of the
men and women, who, if necessary, must
be starved into submission. 1t is our
duty to be thorough in this matter, and
thorough / intend to be"
Alas, there can be no doubt but that
he made good his words. Thorough. he
was in the work of sowing desolation,
misery, ruin, among people whose on
ly crime was their helplessness, and
whose rights and liberties we had sworn
solemnly to protect.
When we failed, as often we did,
against the Regulars of the Belgian and
French armies we visited our wrath
on the heads of the unoffending civil
ians. Innumerable instances of this oc-
Cured while | was on the staff of
Prince Rupprecht, and casual refer
ence to my diary recalls one with terri
BILE vividness to my mind.
At Gerberville, on the banks of the
Montague, the population fell victim
to the fury of the "beautiful blonde
beasts, avid for blood and slaughter, -
that our Nietezsche hailed as the super
man of the future.
Sweeping forward with the frenzy
the frantic frenzy that always marked
our advances, Ruppreeht's vanguard
had sought to rush che village at dawn.
Ordinarily the enterprise would not
have proved very dangerous, but it hap
pened that some sixty chausseurs-a-
pied, skilfully posted on woody up
land that commanded the road offered
a desperate and most effective resis-
tence, with the result that they convert
ed bloodless operotion into prolonged
and costly struggle, while even more
CALLING to our pride was the fact that
the chausseurs made good their escape,
suffering themselves only trifling
loss.
Tragic and CHASTITY Results.
Rupprecht was furious when he heard
the news. "By God,' he said, "seme-
body must pay for this. 1t is time that
we taught these people the folly, the
criminal folly of resistance. They have
no regular officers, their franctireurs
change from uniform into peasants clo-
thes, and vice versa day by day. We
cannot operate under such conditions.
If there is no other means open to us,
we must exterminate the vermin, and
we will begin with Garbeville," and he
issued some orders by telephone, orders
which were swiftly followed by tragic
and ghastly results.
For, banked Of the chasseurs, Rup-
precht s Bavarians took a drastic ven
geance on the civil population. From
the moment of their entrance to the
town they gave. themselves up to a
fiendish orgy of brutal excesses. En-
tering the houses with savage yells,
they burnt the buildings, killed the
covering men and women in them, and
tortured the little children. Some they
dragged into the fields to be shot, 9TH
$ they murdered in their houses, or
struck down in the street, as they fled
terror stricken at the approach of the
horde.
Of the houses they left-so the Ba
varian officer in charge of these opera
tions reported-but 20 standing out of
nearly 300. Many of their wretched in
mates went mad, others tried in vain to
hang themselves, and this, strange to
relate, reused the Bavarians to further
frenzy, and to the most furious excess
es.
Rupprecht' 3 orders had been specific.
Thorough = was the word, and thoro-
ugh was the execution of the policy he
had planned-a policy designed deli
berately to reduce the Belgians to a
expedition of abject, craven, supine sub
mission policy designed to leave
them, as Rupprecht himself had said,
''with nothing but their eyes to weep
with"
No, it was not the fault of our ar.
mics if their policy failed. Fiends from
the lowest depths of hell could have
done no more than they. The scenes I
saw enacted that day haunt me still and
cry out to Heaven for punishment. Pas
sing down the winding high street of
the little village that, but half an hour
ago, had seemed so peaceful rnd con-
tent, the soldiers had knocked at the
door of house, occupied by one M.
D.. With him there lived, Il
subsequently aseertained, his wife and
his mother-in-law, poor old widow
close on eighty years of age. Tt was she
who answered the door, and she it was
whom the miserable brutes shot point
blank with no word even of warning;
shot her SO that she fell back into the
arms of the son-in-law, who ran up just
in time to catch her as she fell back
wounded.