St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-07-06

pioneers are not drilled with the bayo-
net because this sidearm should be
used @lly for the special duties which
the pioneers perform-but the law OF
nations is not the law Of Prussian mill
tarfsm.
We were obliged to use the saw from
the beginning of the war. It was in
opposition to all the laws of humanity.
When an enemy had this saw in his
breast and the victim had long since
stopped every effort of resistance and
an effort was made to try and remove
the deadly steel from the wound an In
slant and horrible death resulted.
Oftentimes this horrible weapon be-
came embedded in the breast Of a vic
tim so firmly that the attacker, who
had to have back his sldearm again
would be obliged to place his foot upon
the breast of his victim and use all his
force to recover the murderous instru-
ment.
The dead and wounded in horrible
condition lay all around us. The o
of the wounded men would have soft
ened a stone but not the heart Of q
Prussian soldier.
Not all the soldiers approved this
senseless, wanfOn murder. Some of
those officers who had ordered US 10
kill the French were themselves killed
by mistake In the darkness of the night
by their w men. Such mistakes are
still being repeated almost daily and
could cite many names and places to
bear out this testimony.
On this particular night a captain
and a first lieutenant met their fate. A
s~econd-year i~nfantryman stabbed the
captain in the abdomen and the first
lieutenant received a stab in the back.
Both died in a few minutes. Neither
of their slayers felt any remorse and
none of US felt inclined to reproach
them. We all knew that two murder
ers had received their just deserts.
Another instance requires me to run
somewhat ahead of the sequence of
events. AS ] talked to a comrade of
my company the next day asked him
for a pocketknife and in reaching into
his pocket he pulled out three car
trfdges. / was surprised that he should
carry cartridges in his trousers pocket
and asked him if he had no DON In
his belt.
II have" he said, "but these three
have a special mission. There are
names of the intended victims on these
bullets"
Some time later after we had be-
come good friends | asked him again
about. the three cartridges. He had
only one left. | thought about 1t a
great deal and in my mind went over
the noncommissionea officers. who, be-
fore war was declared had treated us
like animals and whom we had hated
as only human fiends can be hated.
Two of these had found their grave, in
France.
The murder of Frenchmen who had
surrendered continued as long as an
enemy was alive. Then WI received
orders TO determine If the enemies
lying on the ground were all dead and
unable to fight. If anyone was found
Stimulating death it was ordered that
he be killed. But the soldiers had lost
some of the fever which had seized
them during the battle and refused to
obey this order. How they felt about
it was illustrated by the remark OF a
member of my company:
"We had better look once more and
- a. Ey,o x If ~ NC - rna1Iy dead
and If not they ought to be killed with
out mercy for a command is a com
mand."
We now advanced quickly but u
part in the battle was over as the en-
tire French line had retired TO make
a fresh stand, two kilometers west OF
Sommepy. The city was mostly in
flames. The enemy artillery lombard
ed the town without intermission and
shells burst all around,
Several hundred prisoners were cor
rallied in the market place. Several
French shells struck the prisoners but
they were obliged TO remain where
they were. An officer of my company.
Lieut.. A. r. Neesen. remarked that no
harm was done as the prisoners knew
at least how their own ammunition
tasted.
Toward one O'Clock the battle south
of Sommepy reached its climax. When
the Germans advanced to make storm
ing attacks on all points the French
gave up their positions and retired IN
the direction of Stlippes. Whether our
company was no longer considered fit
to fight or whether we were not needed
any longer | do not know. We received
orders TO go into quarters. But neither
barn nor a stahle could be found so
that nothing remained but to camp IN
the open. The houses were all filled
with wounded. Citizens of the town.
who had no. fed were all gathered in
q large barn. Their houses were most
" destroyed so that they had to make
use of what shelter was offered them.
There was one exception to this ar
rangement and that was a very old lit
tie motherly woman sitting, bitterly
CRYING, by the debris of her late home
and nobody could induce her to leave.
In the barn. which served as a shell
ter to the civilians. were thrown to-
gether men and women, youths. chill
dren and old men. Many were wound
ed by shell spIInters and cartridges
and others had suffered burns. Every
where was the most terrible misery /:
sick mothers and half-staryed infants
for whom there was no milk were
obliged to perish here; old people died