The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-10-17
sLoTs OUT WHOLE TOWNS IN
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
CIVILIANS ARE LEFT TO STARVE
So Complete is the Huns Program Of
Devastation That Not a Single
Scrap Of Metal is Left in the
Big Factories,

Amidst all the fighting and beyond
il. there is another drama of the
most strange and pitiful kind. 1t is
the tragedy of the French civilians
whom our men are now meeting as
they capture village after village
where these old people and young
women and children are waiting in
their cellars for deliveranee, hearing
the approach of battle, the louder noise
of our guns, the crash of shells above
the deadly rattle of machine gun fire
down their streets.
At last the cheers or the tramp of
our men on the road
Yesterday many of them We're on
a far journey throu h those places
which our men have just captured.
sOn one road crowded with our guns
and transport. with the noise of loud
,bombardment through the early morn
ing mist, were group of women and
girls with their children standing. as
though waiting for some hand of fate
TO help them. II was cold and they had
shawls on their heads, but shivered.
From lie cateau.
Where are you FROM they were
asked, and they said: We have just
come out Of lie Cateau. The enemy was
stiu on the outskirts of lie Cateau
and there was little he'll up there"
A girl pulled the shawl from her
head and said:
GyN-arro baap IN ,zrrr. re1la -. Tor foIYr
days without food. The bombardment
began. and some of the women were
killed The Germans wanted us to get
away, but we said we VIII wait for the
English. though We die"
The girl thrust her arms. through her
shawl and the emotion of all that she
had seen and suffered made her white
face flame. o..
20, the dirty brutes' she said and
then laughed with a queer mirth and
continued.
They are getting punished now. II
was very funny a week ago. The
English will never get to lie Catcau,
they said, and / said wait bit
They wont get Cambria they
said, because We are killing them in
, heaps but said soon il will be your
turn 10 die Then a few days ago they
became scared. and had a big scare.
The high officers went away in a hurry
and waved my hands as they passed
and said. It's time tn go. nv fine
devils. eh?' Then the commlmdant
rushed off with their rapers, and
laughed to see them. Thcn = sergeant
major went and the sergeant and
signal men, and l knew the English
were after them. In our cellars when
the Smelling began we waited and lis
tened and said, The devils have gone
and we shall be free again"
Death Along Road.
TAe approach TO Bohain was SIMS
ter. There was a loud noise Of gun
fire close behind the thick curtain Of
mist, Many dead horses lay along the
road with broken guns and gun linn
bers. There we're new shell pits on
each side of the road and the Germans
had blown deep craters on the high
way.
II has been an immense German
junction for detraining troops and
stores and we passed over six broad
gauge lines and vast sidings. They
had had ordnance stores here and am
munition dumps. but had cleared away
most of their material and had blown
up what they could not save. so that
rrae mil g s-F TOD SnGr3
and wreckage Of sheds and trains A
long street struggled past the mean
houses into the center of the town.
where there were factories and big
warehouses and a tall red brick church.
1t was in this long street of factory
chimneys that We met the first group
of civilians, though / had seen the
women and children through eottageI
windows and standing in their door
ways and was startled by their stary-
ing look and the waxen pallor Of their
faces.
Three men spoke. One handsome
middle aged man with a spade beard
and a distinguished way of speech. a
second little ola gnomelike man OF 20
or so, with a rugged laborer's face,
and the third tall man with a short
beard and high cheek bones and a
queer light in his eyes. II was the man
with the spade beard who spoke first,
and he took my hand and said:
"Come and see what the Germans
have done in Bohain. Go round these
ctraafc aud cpaolr 4o n,tr xrayaey, on ~
our town hall which cost great sums
OF money. and see how before they left
they blew IL up and burnt it to theI
ground; go to our factories. which
were filed with machinery by which
our people earned their bread before
the war, and YOU will see that they
have left nothing. moi one bar OF iron.