Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-20
Continued from Last Issue)

But to tell 4 story with details,
to reproduce a scene in all its poign-
ancy, requires a rare art that was
wholly beyond the powers of these
who related these tales; they told
them in quite a matter of tact,
prosaic way, without the embelliSh-
ment or ornament that conscious art
might lend them. And 1 myself, in
those dark and terrible days, had
heard too many tales of suffering to
have any more the courage TO intenSl-
fy their poignancy by drawing the
narrators out by questions.
To confess the fact, L used 70
try to harden my own heart, to keep
down my emotions, TO say "chom-
instead of slavery, and ottentlmeS, l
fear, TO seek to have done with II
as quickly as possible, else ! should
not have been able to get through
the days that were made so much
harder by the appeals and by the inn
piled belief that L could stop it all II
1 would.
But as the dread thing drew near
er the tales were more circumStan-
tial, l had them in more abundant
detail, and sometimes from several
sources, so that it was possible 10
have a more vivid picture OF the
events that were still, in the early
DAYS OF December, almost beyond
beIief. For instance, the levy made
at Marche on the 18th OF December
Marche is n Nalloon village down
In the province of Luxembourg, east
of Dinant. On the Sth of December
little red placards posted about the
town informed the population thai
on the 18th all men between the
ages of seventeen and 1lITy-flEt
| were to assemble in the market place
! having with them food for two days
and a bag of warm clothing. Tnf
same little red placardS were posted
| in all the villages around Marche:
During the days intervening before
| the thirteenth the district admins
traitor allowed it to become known
| that he would exempt certain classes
| such as lawyers, doctors, clerSym en-
| etc, from appearing personally
Many men belonging TO the welI-to-
| DO classes and some of those who aad
| helped the officers or the non-com-
| miSSioned officers of the occupying
! force to comforts in the way OF ZOOS
also contrived to have their cards
stamped with the enVied seal OF eX'
/ emption without appearing on the
| day appointed. And, too, there were
/ rumors in the town to the effect thai
certain feminine influences were ac-
/ tive and in several cases success
] full.
On the morning of the thirteenth
/ then, four thousand men appeared III
the market,place; Many had tc
| tramp all through the night to get
/ there, and they all had heavy bags
| on their backs. At 8 o'clock the
| officers who were to conduct me
work arrived on the scene. They
were not officers who had been quar-
tered around Marche during the two
previous years; they Were indeed
strangers to the place and it was
| understood that they had or were to
perform the same duty for the whole
of the province of Luxembourg. TAs
district administrator and the local
| KOmmandant, however, were present
as OnlookerS.
The men were ordered to group
themselves by communes and each OF
these groups was called up in turn
and, in single file, each man holdlns
his cap in one hand and his identiit'
cation card in the other, was made
to march past an officer by the side 81
whom stood the burgomaster of the
commune under inspection Then be-
gan that fateful links, rechts; those
who went to the left were free, those
who went to the right were slaves.
If a man appeared to be over forty
or unit for physical work he was
ordered to the left. Mach Hause'
ChomeD the officer would say, with
out looking at the identification cara
But in the case of younger men the
officer took the card and glanced at
the occupation: a railway man., lot
instance, was promptly ordered 10
the right, the officer simply saying
"Eisenbahnerw (railroad). and he
was turned toward the little cars. A
farmer or agricultural laborer was
generally asked how much land ne
cultivated; if it proved to be nuch
the man was generally rele9Seu'
otherwise he was then "rechts, Eisen-
bahner!"
When there were doubts the Of