The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-06
NO HUN MONOPOLY
Austrians Even-Up With Ger
mans on Barbarity Stuff.
Italians Forced Into CharleS'S
Army Spectaeles of Horror.
WOMEN ARE OUTRAGED At WILL
Officers Review Girls and Choose
Those Refusing Interned.
sit Is Our Conviction That We
Must Smash Austria"

Ron July 6.-Horror tales that
rival those which come from Belgium
are drifting ut of the district where
Austrians have been fighting. An
Italian soldier today related some of
the terrible spectacles OF his expert
ence after he had served in the Aus
trian army and later been taken pris-
oner by the Russians. He is now a
member of the Italian army, where
his sympathies always have been.
II was forced to take the oath of
/ yalty to Austria" he said, describ-
ing his induction into the Austrian
army when I took a medical ex-
animation the doctor said, All, Italian;
sick. are you? 1 know the cure, the
one cure for all you traitors, little
lead pills administered thru the back.
you Italian dogs
Large numbers were condemned for
political reasons. These were sent in
groups into Talicia and turnout the
Journey were subjected to insults and
constant brutalities. Sometimes they
were shut in cattle trucks, guarded by
soldiers, with fixed bayonets-
In this manner they joCrneyed for
w,eks with nothing to drink except a
mess tin Of dirty soup into which the
guards spat for amusement. Attach
ed to Hungarian and German COM
panies they were treated as traitors,
insulted and raltreated.
Soldiers Tortured.
In 1914, at the time of the Aus
trfan defeat in Galicia, two soldiers.
fatigued from the firing march, fell
out When they got to camp field
punishment was ordered. This is
barbarous torture much practiced in
the Austrian army. A post is fixed IN
the ground and has pulley fastened
to the top. The victims hands are
bound behind his back and a cord
passing over the pulley HOSTS him up
until he is standing on the tips of his
toes There he is left Only the
strongest endure it for long. I stood
it two hours my second time
"At Trent, the famous martyr Bat
tisti was tied to cart and dragged
thru the city Officers spat on him
pins and umbrellas. A Czech soldier.
moved by the sight. shouted, Long
live Battisti; long live liberty He
was at once arrested and shot Bat
tisti was hanged.
Men of Trentino Annihilated.
To-day the manhood of Trentino is
destroyed. Only two months after the
outbreak of the war, the Austrian gov
eminent fou- ID it necessary to assure
the people that only IA per cent of
Italian soldiers had been killed This
percentage has increased at high rate.
Even the women were modified Ind
sent to work in the trenches, where
many of them were killed. More than
100,0 900 of our people, q third of the
population, have been interned.
AT Aldena, a village in the LaGarina
valley. the major in command was in
the habit of making the women who
had remained pass in line across the
square. He chose the one that pleased
him best and if she did not submit she
was given twenty-five lashes and then
interned.
"Damiano Chiosa, an old schooInate
Of mine, sentenced to death. was
placed in front of a firing squad and
tortured for ten minutes while the
command to fire was withheld.
Wounded and discharged soldiers
are interned and the separation allow
ances are not paid their families.
1T is our conviction that unless we
smash Austria the strongest claim of a
dominent race to the right of tyranfz-
ing over the lworld will be made good"