Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-05-30
Archaic Ego of. the Hun.
C. JournelIe, in the Atlantic Monthly.

Life in the invaded provinces of France
turing the Years 1914 and 1915 remained
ander Il pail of mystery and sileIce: one
would have said that that strip of our ter
ritory had fallen into an abyss. SO rigor-
ously did the keep our compa-
lrlots in secret durance. IT was not until
after n year of this seclusion that some
-epatriated persons began to ~emerge-at
FIRST at rare intervals. then in frequent
patches: but in what a state of pallid cX-
haustion. Let this one physical fact suf-
flee: all of them, without exception, ven
n l3l6. had lost a fifth, Il fourth or Il third
Of their weight. They all looked as ii
they had escaped from IA torture chamber.
Morally. they are u~nconQuared, all uuiver-
Ing alike with Indignation, and contempt
for the barbarians: or. If there are some
who prefer to hold their peace. they do
1t only from excess of inward horror, and
In this way give voice, perhaps, to an
even more tragic protest.
Indeed. Az we shall see, the German tyr
amy does not consist simply in an exorbi-
tant application of the dogma of might.
1t has special notifications, peculiar to
the race. which make it even more pain
ful. If that is possible. 1t is not inspired
solely by the systematic despOtism and
immortality cynically adopted by Ger
many: it is not a pure. unadulterated APP
plication of any doctrine:s it springs from
IL genuine lack of morality, and from a
well spring of vicious animaiisn1. which
psychologists have so often detected in
the German blood.
One of the most amazing manifestations
of the spirit i'll a France
is the compulsory salutation which the
officers impose upon all males and. by a
refinement of tyranny. upon the women
and girls. Even in ancient Latiuln, at the
0audine Forks. only the men were made to
n q MI ttA r,Nln nal th0t INNf 0rOn
Blu the Teuton. in his insensibfity to
human dignity, 10 never weary OF
trampling upon other mems souls and OF
treating man like u beast Of the field.
Horrid Symbol Enforced.
This enforced tragi-comic salute to the
invaders and intrlders naturally wounded
to the quick the high sense OF their own
dignity and of the truth characteristic
of F'renchmen. Resistance appeared on
all sides. Force was necessary to crafty
"A caprice that Gessler might have de-
lighted In. At Noyon, at Vergnier, in
hundreds of places. those who i%nfringed
the regulation were thrown into jail.
Sexagenarian priests who bnd neglected
to bare their heads before sulaieute.lants
were dragged way to prison beyond the
Rhine. Officers did not blush to horse
whip passersby who did not salute them.
or who did not DOW low enough. At
Etreux a blind mar Was struck by a
colonel whom he could not see.
r Above all, the salute extorted from
Women displays to the fun an innate u
garih' peculiar to the German. We recall
our xvi .ouis XIV. always the first TO
salute the women IN his service. absolute
master as he was. Our secular French
tradition Of courtesy and chivalry rises In
revolt. But nothing Is more German than
to lay the heavy hand of oppression ON
women. Why, at Saint Quentin, in 1915.
an elderly wOman in her terrified haste
to salute III officer and make way for
him on the sidewalk. fell and broke her
leg. Sometimes this female salute ia
elaborated: wolnen are compelled to smile
when boWing. These anxious and grief
and children and brothers. these women
who are robbed and whose homes are con-
stAntly searched md tossed and turned
over like the bedding OF cattle. are COM
manded to smile upon the invaders!
1t Is not the salute alone which shows
us the sLiernlans engaged in actively per-
scouting women. In Septemhse. ME. the
troopa constantly pointed their gun at
French women to force them to walt upon
revolvers Ia their hands. n the districts
where game ID abundant. girls. whatever
| their station In life. act a. heaters when
the offtcerA hunt, and those who refnsl
are inaprssonsd In Q csflar three days for
each. such. rafusal.
nv period Of actual. AGsasdts hat
paAoed, there FsgsaaAps the paeasant
paaeime OF fngh<ening yonags Girls BY dir
chatxtng Ntssrns ~ daes nngs. And
Of ds 0aoaa1aa q EAmaneo,and DtnAn!
y a1iasr AAeoeitss many.
hASaao1RG 90 insnltin6 " weuseu