Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-06-10
HAVE CRUCIFIED
MANY CANADIAN SOLDIERS

bCI 10 hdhC Jul udluC d ~ uOuy III
for frightfulness, said the kaiser in
one of his me und Gott" proclama-
tions to his army. Let our terrible
ness surpass that of Atilla the Hun,
so that the nations of earth may
tremble at the menace of our wrath.
How thoroughly this diabolical
command has been executed by the
German soldiery was attested by Cor
poral James Irving Parker, a Chicago
boy who recently returned to Cri-
cago from over there, where he drove
an ammunition truck in the French
army. He is now serving under the
Stars and Stripes.
In his temporary home at the Ed
gewater Beach hotel he recited to 4
representative of the Chicago Post a
story of such horror that his bride of
four days, seated across a luncheon
table from him, repeatedly lifted a
handkerchief to her eyes.
1--WE were moving forward in the
Chemin des Danes drive last Octo-
ber on the heels of the fleeing Huns,
across train rwrich showed their
devastating hand on every side" said
Corporal Parker. "a crew of truck
drivers was billeted for a few hours
sleep in one of the huge French cha
teaus which the Huns, in their head
long flight, had failed to destroy.
I'VE were congratulating ourselves
on the excellence of our quarters
when poliu appeared and said in
broken English; Americans, come
with me-
I we followed him up a broad,
winding staircase and entered a room
that must have been 80 feet square.
Then there was presented to my eyes
a sight that haunted me sleep for
days, and which, l hope, but never
expect, to forget.
The atmosphere was tanned with
the odor of putrefying human flesh,
for on the walls of that run hung
10 crucified Canadian soldiers. Five
hung on each of three of the walls
Their faces, lying on their breasts
just as you have seen them in pic
lures of Christ on the cross, wore
the horrible, contorted look of men
who had died prolonged and agon-
Szing death. Some of the bodies had
stiffened in the ghasty, twisted atti-
tude they had held when death came
to their relief.
There were 1S American boys in
our party. We thought we were hard
ened At least, we had seen enough
men mutliated by shells in every con-
ceivable form to make us hardened
to war scenes.
But as we looked at that grim
exhibit of kultur, the tears began to
roll down our checks and soon we
were openly sobbing. The poilu, who
had probably already exhausted his
lifetimes allotment of tears stood at
salute, with blazing eyes and set lips.
-Four spikes to a man were used
in the crucifixion, one through each
wrist and one through each ankle.
The spikes in the wrist had been
driven through about four inches
about the hand, and under the weight
of the body had pulled longitudinaIly
through the flesh as far up as the
hand, making long, narrow slit,
such as you seen in the leg of a beef
hung up In meat market.
The victims were 13 privates and
two Officers, all in full uniform. The
Huns perhaps left their victims
clothes on so they they might be iden-
tiled as belonging to the hated Cana
dian contingent. That also may have
explained why the kaiser's followers
did not burn the chateau. There were
no wounds on the bodies of the men
other than those made by the spikes. 4"