Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1918-09-26
DARKEST GERMANY

more clearly or puts them before his
readers more torclDiy. tnan Joseph II.
Odell who writes for The Outlook. In
the issue of September IL he deals
with the idea that most of us had at
one time and which few still enter
tain that we should differentiate be-
tween the German people and the Ger
man military caste. He does not say
whether he ever made such discrimin-
alton himself or not but from the fol.
lowing passage we know what he
thinks now. He went into Chateau
Thierry on the heels of the American
troops when the German rearguard
guns were still dropping shells in the
town and this is what he says of the
recent German occupants:
Why do Americans persist in differ.
entiating between the German military
caste and the German people? They
were ordinary Boche regiments which
held Chateau Thierry and when theil
evacuation of the place became obvi~
ously necessary they sat about to de-
stroy and pollute everything within
reach. Remember this is not hear.
say; / went into Chateau Thierry or
the heels of the American advance
and saw things with my own eyes
Every vandalistic Hunnish fiendish
thing that men could do these Huns
did in Chateau Thierry just before
they left. The streets were Uttered
with the private possessions of the cit
liens thrown through the windows;
every bureau and chiffonier drawer
was rified and it's contents destroyed;
in batter-class houses the paintings
were ripped and the china and porce.
lain smashed; furniture was broken
or hacked mirrors were shivered into
a thousand fragments; mattresses and
upholstery were slashed; richly bound
books were ripped; in fact there was
hardly a thing in the city left intact.
The houses of the poor in which the
German privates had been billeted
were just as badly pillaged and de-
vastated as the homes of the well-to.
do. The church grand enough for /.
cathedral had not been spared. IT.,
paintings and affairs and crucifixes
and stations of the cross had been
ruthlessly battered and defilsd. Yet
even this does not tell the story-s
story which cannot be told to peopl:
who respect decency-for the Ger
mans left tokens of physical and men,
tai obscenity in every house visitet
nd entered scores. If all hell had
been let loose in a choice suburba
town for half day it could not have
put its obscene and diabolical mark OF
a place more Enthusiastically than the
Germans put theirs on Chateau Thier.
ry. l stood amazed that there coul
be 30 much unrelieved vileness such
organized beastliness in the world.
Frightfulness is German war pol
icy. The highest military authorities
proclaim it. The Lusitania the LONG
range gun the outrages in Belgium
and France the frightful orgy of crime
and devastation every where in the
path of the German army confirm it
Vandalism is part of the game
But must men of all ranks also prove
themselves unspeakably vile to carr,
this policy to its full effect? Is the
infection Of filth and obscenity upor
the refined and tho helpless neces.
sary part of the program? It is tor
ture of course of the most excrutiat,
ing character and yet there must b,
something unfathomed as yet about
this boosted German kultur and il
the debasing servility which militar
ism has produced in the minds and
hearts Of the German people to in.
duce men to leave behind them such
proof of the mental and moral defile.
ment. Deutschland ueber Allies" is
their boast and their ambition. By
such british means they seek to pro.
mote it.. This is Deutschland under
the spell of the Hohenzollern.
The beast who could SO degrade his
own people must be destroyed togethe,
with those who have aided and en-.
Outraged him. Then will coma the
formidable task of lifting up that
people from the moral depths to which
they have descended and leading them
back too state Of mind and condi-
ton of refinement that win make
them fit again to live among decent
MANILA