The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-04-25
WOMEN FORCED TO SUBMIT.
Awful Condition in Territory Captur'
ed by Germans.

|
Marion, Esq, of an address made in
Columbia on April 9th by DR.. Esther
G.. Lovejoy, of the conditions prevail
ing in territory captured and held by
the Germans. The report was pub
lished in the Yorkville Enquirer,
which makes this editorial comment: a:
The careful attention of every
reader of the Yorkville Enquirer is
called to the story of the recent Red
Cross meeting held in Columbia, as
reported by j. A. Marion, Esq. The
woman who told the story of how
French women are being compelled to
bear German children, told only what
she saw. TO those who say they do
not believe the story, we say they are
ignorant fools. In the light of direct
testimony from our people, we do
not need the lessons of history on
this subject. History, however, is full
of the fact that the fate of these
French women has always been the
| fate of conquered peoples. If Germany
shall finally overrun the United
States we may look for the same
thing here What are our lives and
property against such conditions?
Who would withhold his life or his
property at such a cost? The object
of the Red Cross is to give as much
relief as possible to the unfortunates
Of France, and the object of the bond
issue is to enable our brave Ameri-
can soldiers to save us from such
conditions here at home.
DR.. Lovejoy is a physician who
several months ago returned from
Greece where she had been engaged
ever since the beginning of the war in
relief work. Her story, told in plain
and direct way, and yet with all the
earnestness and fire of one who had
seen and learned first hand of un-
speakable horrors, brought home to
her hearers in a most vivid way, the
utter inhumanity and barbarity Of the
Huns. This term,' she said, lis not
mine but that of the kaiser himself
who first pronounced it to his troops
and held it up as model they should
follow"
DR.. Lovt9oy said that for several
months she had been located in the
town of Evian, literally now the gate
way to France, and located on Lake
Geneva on the French side. 1t was
through this town that the broken
debris of humanity that has been
rejected by German military machine
as useless for military purposes,
found their way and groped their
way back into their native country.
For, said the speaker, the method
Germany had in dealing with the in
habitants of the French provinces
which they had overrun, and now
have under subsection, has been lit
orally a wedding out or culling pro-
cess. Of course inhabitants, all the
boys over IA and all girls over Is
are retained-the boys to be kept
from becoming soldiers of France,
the girls to become the involuntary
mothers of a race of barbarians who
were destroying their native land.
All women with one child under
three years of age we're also retained
because it being we'll known that
most of the children born in this
territory for the last three years
have been of German paternity. In
the conquered towns one of the
standing orders of the Germans was
that no doors were to be locked
against the troops, and as conse-
quence of this there was no right. on
earth that had not been violated at
the hands of the Huns, and there was
nothing sacred that they had not
besmirched and stained. All Of the
old men, old women, children under
IA. women with several children were
sent back into France as being useless
for military purposes, and for the
French to feed and to support. 1t
was these very lines of refugees who
day after day in unending procession
poured down through the little town
of Evian-broken, miserable Drift
wood of war. Thousands Of orphans,
children who had forgotten how to
play, furtive-eyed, shrinking, whose
very soul had been scared by the
flame of German hate. homeless,
without means of support except
what is provided for them through
the instrumentality of the Red Cross;
broken old women who could do
nothing but eat, women helpless and
despairing-all these came through
the little town on their journey to the
scared and broken land behind. To
most of these the Red Gross offered
the only solace and comfort that
they had.
In contrast to this sorrowful and
saddened line coming in, the speaker
said that she had seen division or
American soldiers going to the front,
strong, noble, clear-eyed and fear
less, and said she Il knew that no
evil could stand against them" They
are indeed the hope of France today.
The speaker declared there was
but one word that would express
what France had been through dur
ing the past three years and that was
vivisection-that literally they had
been vivisected physically and spirit
ually. The utter horror of the sltu-
alton however was best depicted as
to the women. Taken by their con-
uuerOrs as SDOilS of war and held in