Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-12

n the morning after oondem-
uatiCR? Why, il justice even rude
military justice. were being done,
all condemned to death? Why this
signal distinction, this marked ana
tragic Discrimination
Because Edith Cavell was Engllshi
that was her offense. And so they
slew her, slew the nurse who had
cared for their own wounded SOL
diers-those generals with stars on
their breasts and iron CROSSES, be-
slowed for bravery and gallantry,
They could not even await the un-
folding OF their own legal proeesses'
they could not wait even the lew
days they had allotted to the Coun-
tess de Bellevllie, to- Madame
Thuliez or to SEVERN the Belgian,
although the countess ard Madame
Thuliez if all that is now known
of the complot and the trial is true,
were as deeply involved as Miss
Cavell. They had been associated
in a conspiracy. il the word may be
employed, TO aid British soldiers TO
escape; the only fact that saved the
Princess de Croy was her deel3ra-
ton that after the men reached
Brussels she did not know what be-
came OF them. But 'Messieures
les MilitairesH must hide their in
tentions, perhaps even from their
own colleagues in the government
of occupation, and shuffie their frail
victim out by stealth in the night,
like midnight garroters and gun
men, because she was English. The
armies of Great Britain were just
then making a great offensive and
II was nartly i'm petty spite for this.
partly an expression OF the violent
hatred the Germans bore everything
English, the savage feeling that
had been fostered and kent alive
and famed into furious flame by
historians and herr professors and
herr dolStors and herr pastors and
editors with their editorials and
harangues and hymns of hate, that
they did what they did. It was in
their Judgment secretly in her
prison cell and hurried her out and
slew her before dawn and another
day should come in which the. voice
of pity and of humanity could get
itself heard, They could not wait
for that, and they would not disturb
Won Kissing. there at his game of
bridge in the chateau at Trois Fon-
taines. 49,
According to German Law"
We were told that, according TO
the German law. whatever that may
mean, 1t was only the military gov
erROr in the jurisdiction in which
the so-called crime had been com
mitted who had the power TO receive
or to grant a plea for mercy / do
not know as TO that; German mill
itary law seems 70 be whatever
''Messisurs les Militaires" are moved
at the moment 10 call it. Won
Sauberzweig said that he alone had
the power to receive our plea for
mercy or even to grant a few hours
delay; he accepted the responsible
~. And long afterward when he
had been removed from his post az
BRUSSELS l heard of hiF haunted. IL
not BY remorse at least by the menu
ory OF the deed and necessarily
explaining to all who would lister
why he had done what he did. He
spoke of the Victim always as die
Cavell" whose murderer as he
did not shrink from Dhrasing it he
was said 10 be. He had son. aR
officer in the array, who had been
horribly wounded; bullet had pass
ed through the head before the eyes.
binding him for life. Perhaps, said
the enraged and sorTowing father,
one of the very men whom Die
Cavell' had helped to escape. had
fred that shot that thus mutilated
Baucq, the Brussels architect. was
shot that morning because IL would
have been too bald, too patent even
from the Prussian viewpoint, to hur-
~ out a woman all alone and Kill
her. And so Il was Baucq's i'll luck
to be chosen for a fate that might
have been no worse than that OF Sc
verin or the others whose lives were
saved. Poor Bauca has net been
often mentioned in connection with
the tragedy. He was no less ille-
done to death. but his fate was
swallowed up in the greater horror
Of the assassination of his eompan-
ion. Of that tragic dawn at Etters
beck. He left q wife and two chill
dren. One OF them was a little
girl OF twelve who several-days aft.
~ went to a neighbours and asked
= she might come In and be alone
for a while.
II want to weep for my father"
she said. but / do not like to do it
before mamma; | must be brave for
her."
There were heFoisms even among
the Belgian children.
Miss Cayell. as l have said. did
not deny having aided British sol
diers and Belgian lads by giving
them food and clothing and lodging
and money. The thirty-four who
were tried were said to be concern
ed in a conspiracy. If the word is
exact, conspiracy of wide extent
to help men over the frontier into
Holland, what our grandfathers In
America, in our old ante-belium
days. would have called an under
ground railway. In all seventy per-
sons were said to be Included in the
vast plot
There is, of course. no doubt that
the military camarilla, and Won
Sauberzweig as just then the official
head of it, were determined to break
up If possible the system By which
land were facilitated. More thar
seven thousand young men, it was
said, had gone out during the
months Of June, July and August.
These were for the most part young
Belgians Just come of age, and they
gian army. Mothers in Belgium
trembled to see their boys grow up,
Cor that meant not only the danger
of war that was common TO all, but
the far greater danger of crossing
the frontier. There Is not in history
those lads. some of them only seven-
teen. who braved the many dangers
that lay between their comfortable
homes and the taut, shining spread
OF electrified wires at the Dutch
frontier. Thousands of boys were
there among the braokeR and the
heather in that drear land of the
Campine. Others were those Eng
iiEh soldiers cut OF from the main
body of their troops after the bat.
tie of Mons, hiding in the woods and
fields and farms for mnnths until
they found their Belgian friends.
There were French soldiers in this
plight as well. and even Belgians.
There was a captaiH OF artillery, =
Belgian. who had been wounded and
taken prisoner at Liege; he escaped
from the hospital, got to Brussels.
hid for months in an attic. and then.
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