Evening star., 1918-08-25
HORRIBLE CRUELTY
. OF HUNS DESCRIBED
Mother Mutilated and Babes
/, Throat Cut, French
T Peasants Report.
WAY FOE WAGES WAR
BY JUNIUs b. WOOD.

BY JUNIUs b. WOOD.
Especial Correspondence OF The Sun
day Star md Chicago Daily News)
SOMMEILLES, Meuse, July -Four
years ago this was a happy village
like many of the slumbering prosper
Gus hamlets in northern France. Then
the war broke out. most of the young
men went to join the army. the Ger
mans swept down suddenly. venting
their barbarism. destroying village
and Inhabitants with fiendlike thor
oughness. The crimes they perpe-
trated in the few hours they were in
Sommeilles have been duplicated in
other villages. However. when these
were committed they were still pratt
ing OF culture and a sympathetic
world stfll believed them. for the ami
NAL had not thrown aside his mask.
This quiet Sunday 1 was seated on
the shady side of one of the little cot
tages of rough boards which a Brit
1sh organization had erected for the
peasants to return and garner their
crops. when August Collas, bowling
courteously. removed his cap and sat
down at my side He lifted to his
knee the little girl holding his hand.
explaining that she was his orphan
grandchild. Four of his sons. all
wounded. were in the army. He was
the cousin of Nine. Angel Legle. the
mother whose martyrdom is one of
the most revolving examples of Ger
man barbarity.
Why the Peasants Leave.
The story of Sommeilles is story
OF the occupied regions of France. OF
the price which the countrysi is paying
10 the invaders. Germany, which has
the effrontery to claim to be fighting
for it's own preservation, pays no
tsuch price, for as yet the war has
never been brought to its doors.
Whenever there comes a forewarning
'of German offensive highways are
.choked with those hardy peasants
who have titled their fields and cared
Tor their crops almost within sight OF
/. the guns. slowly moving southwark
lesson to them To fall into the
hands of the Germans means death
-. to the women. slavery for the men.
: Life is all they can hope to save, and
+; they hee to save that, abandoning the
possessions which 1t has taken gen.
erations to accumulate.
Stepping briskly ahead, the aged
man led me to where the little stone
house of his cousin had stood. 1t was
on the street up from the church and
Hotel de Vile Only part of the walls
and steeple remained of the church
sand the high steps and columns mark
ed where the Hotel de Vile had been.
iGrass-grown piles of stone, hollow
! in the center where the cellar had
tcaved in, were the one-time houses.
HE picked with unerring accuracy the
one sought
Story Of Unbelievable Cruelty.
Angel Legle was one of those who
did not have time to escape when the
9Th and 51st regiments of German in
fantry suddenly entered the village
the evening of September 6. 1914 Her.
husband was with the army. and she |
had four children, the oldest twelve
years and the youngest eighteen
!. months. and it always took time to
prepare her brood for flight. She was
in her home when they came, and she
fwas in her home when the Germans
0eft, six days later.
: The mother, who was a comely
woman of thirty years. had been at
FFtacked- Her right arm had been cut
.fon and thrown to one side of the
room and both breasts had been sew
Sered from her body. The baby of
seighteen months had its throat cut
sand both arms cut off, The seven
9year-old boy had his throat cut, and
jthe eleven-year-old boy had his feet
|, girl had been assaulted her leg had
been cut off.
Story Is Confirmed.
Such f1endish cruelty seems unbe-
1ievable. but there is no doubt that it
'ds the way Germany wages war. 1t
.ds the yoke of barbarism which Ger
ha he
theory of might, under which no
homes, no land, will be safe until its
fanatics are exterminated. President
.Poincare and Marshal Joffre have
Evouched for these incidents. and a
painting by Ferdinand Gueldry has
ffecently been exhibited in the United
Estates. More than these are the un-
adorned stories of the simple peas
ants who lived there.
Age Fails to Save Them.
From another of the little frame
pointed out the pile of stones which
adjoined the home of the Legle fam
.1y. That was where Alcide Adenot
.oid. had lived. When the Germans
came in they sought refuge in their
cellar. Both were shot down there,
rthe aged man while he was crying
Nine. Legle's husband came beck
and went insane" said the woman.
HE wanted to go to the front and
Fight until he was killed, but the
army forced him to change into the
artillery"
Several hundred yards down the
road which had been the main street
= spot was pointed out where the
mayor of the village had been shot
He had been left lying in the road
FOR three days. Near him a French
aoldier had fallen. not. however, until
he had killed sixteen Germans.
poured oil on all the houses and
burned the village.
They were all buried In one grave"
said the woman. showing the way to
the cemetery. We who are left in
the village care for it,
And There Germans Live.
As we left the cemetery and walked
down the dismal road half a hundr,d
Germans in a nearby prison camp
Swere complacently summing them
hamlet where their countrymen have
.wreaked such vengeance in blood and
property shows a humanity and gen
Geness ingrained by centuries of civil
Hzatfon.
HUNS SAY THEY'RE FIRM;
=, SEE VICTORY IN BATTLE
1ey the Asociated PresL
AMSTERDAM. August a4.-rhe vor-
raerts Of Berlin. commenting on the