The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-08-22
FROM AN ARMY CHAPLAIN

chaplain, F1fth u. >. artillery, IN a let
ter published in the Philadelphia Pub
lic-Ledger: My trips owe France and
chance to see things at first hand
and the evidences Of the war which
are so apparent everywhere. France
is 'triste," as they say; but France
can never be beaten, and | am sure Of
that now. The spirit that glorifies
France today is so absolutely over
whelming in its power and rests so
strongly on the things that do not die
that boche efficiency may seem to pre-
vail again and again, but boche eff
cheney is only boche vileness in ac-
ton. and in the end it must succumb.
We can learn so much from France
and her attitude toward the boche.
One hears almost nc outward express
sion of their hatred for the boche-I
fancy they think to talk about it is to
waste energy which would be better
employed elsewhere. But it is here,
and so deep seated that it is behind
everything that they do.
wonder if America will ever be con
verified to such a loathing of the boche
that it will make the sacrifice that
France and England are making? I
don't know whether they have chang
ed since | left America, but there GER
tainly We're a lot of 'pussyfooters'
then who would find some good point
in the boche or who made a distinc-
ton between the militarists and the
people. 1t is one of the joys of being
over here to be freed from dependence
upon the reports of commission con-
corning the vileness. of the boche and
get the facts first hand; and hen when
you get them. if you are a moral hui
man being, they seal your soul and
your religion is expanded to the inclu-
sion of a contempt and loathing for
them that is beyond anything else you
had before, or else you lose your re-
ligiOn. Fortunately mine has expand
ed and l am willing to add a clause
of belief in the extinction of the boche
and regard it as orthodox and as nee
essary for my souls salvation as 9TH
er great truths of our religion.
More than that, l feel that | express
the sentiment of those who have seer
opd hard oyor boro u,hap coy tbot
were l in America today, priest as l
am, l should do my best to have put
to death any boche in America or any
so-called American who would apollo
gize in any way for what the boche
has done. All that you have heard in
America about them does o approx
mate the truth. There are little chill
dren right here in France with their
little stumps of h~ands-there were
were some not far from my last camp
and young men with all the fingers
of their right hand cut off. The other
day a British officer and three Tom
mics told me that a short time ago
they went as an advance party into
a little village from which the boche
had been driven back, and in a large
room there were four young Canadians
cruciied-One OF each wall of the
room. Also, when l was with the
British, they told me they (the boche)
had been taking young Belgian and
French girls into their front line
trenches and tortured them until their
screams made the Scotch and the Ca
nadians so crazed they would go over
into the machine gun nests which the
boche had set up, using the women's
screams as a decoy. And l have it
on the word of a British officer that
they have stood-the oficers-with
guns leveled at their men to keep
them from going over when the wom-
en- screamed and being Immediately
slaughtered; and l cannot tell you
what the soldiers told me they found
when they drove the hell iends out
of one of these Positions; 1t is too
awful wen to think about it. l also
have 1t on the word of one of the
greatest French abbes that the boche
were especially instructed to destroy
converts and kill or outrage nuns, and
he says that all through France and
Belgium are ruined converts and that
the nuns were given to the soldiers to
be outraged in the camps.
These are not isolated cases nor alb
normal conditions which prevailed
here and there where troops were
drunk or without any moral restraint.
Go along the French and British front
and the only conclusion you arrive at
Is that they r just the ground prin-
ciple of boche efficiency in action.
I don't believe there is one Of US
here who would not be glad to be at
home: but there Is not one of US here.
believe. who does not want to see
IxA> h~~hnlauA AovaotoxoN from, ono