The north Mississippi herald. (Water Valley, Yalobusha Co., Miss.) 1888-1929, 1918-12-13
GERMANS SHOW
NO REPENTANCE
Officers Loll About Tier
in Former Imperious
Manner-St Wear
ing u n i f o rms. Sol
diers Are Eager to
Talk to Americans.

Nearly every small boy IN Irler
and in the little country towns on
up toward the Rhine now wears one
of those round caps with red band,
which became so familiar to the
American soldiers in France as the
headgear of the enemy.
1t is proof that the German boys
daddy has come home from the
war. Some of the youngsters wear
their daddy's old cowhide campaign
boots, and even part of their fathers
uniform if daddy" isn't wearing
those articles himself, which is not
infrequently the case.
The male part of the population IN
this section of Germany is now half
soldier, half civilian, as far as ap-
narel is concerned. The men are
going about their daily tasks with old
military coats and civilian trousers,
or vice versa Out in the country
districts the farmers are still wear
ing entire uniforms, but in most cases
they have stripped them of the sol
diers' buttons. They are wearing
them because they have nothing else
to wear. Around town, however,
there are many former officers of the
German army who are still in their
resplendent uniforms as matter OF
choice. Some of them can be seen
loling around the hotels with all
their old imperious manner. 1t Is
pretty hard to believe that this par
ticular species of German is very re-
pentant.
Trains Loaded With Soldiers.
Trains arrive in Trier now and
then from various parts of Germany.
Most of them are loaded with soldiers
returning home. Men and officers
alike tramp along the streets and
down the country roads carrying their
luggage on their backs. Many OF
them are attended by their women
folks, who have met them at the
trains. Practically every man in
Trier, no matter how civilanized ne
may be in the matter of dress, bears
some unmistakable mark of having
served in the army. The most COM
mon form is the military hair cut,
which hasn't yet had the time to
wear off. Military bearing is an
other. Their hands jerk up halfway
to their foreheads involuntarily when
man in officers uniform passes.
Former soldiers are eager to talk
to Americans. Frequent instances
are related of Americans and Ger
mans discovering in the course Of
their conversations that they were
opposed to each other in the same
sector in France. A German was
found today who was in the German
forces that beleaguered Whittlesey's
'Lost Battalion" in the Argonne.
Without exception the German sol
diers declare that the Americans are
amazing fighters. and they generally
add that il it hadn't been for the
Yankees Germany would have won
the war.
Civilians Treated LenientIy.
The civilian population has had an
easy time at the hands of the Ameri-
cans so far. No onerous rules have
been imposed. It is mighty different
from the way the Germans treated
the people of the region in Belgium
and France when they were in pow
err. In turn, the German civilians
seem rather to be going out of their
way to make friends with the Ameri-
can troops.
1t is pretty hard, and indubitably.
wrong, to feel vengeful toward peo-
pie who have undoubtedly suffered
much. But at the same time it Is
equally hard to reconcile their pres
ent attitude with their demeanor Of
a year or so ago; it is pretty hard
to forget the ruined towns and home
less women and children in France
in this most German town, which has
been in no way damaged by the war.
1t still has its tree-lined streets. Its
beautiful dwellings, haven't been piled
into masses of debris by shells and
fires in wantonness. It's soldiers are
coming home, war-worn and weary,
but they have homes to come to.
That isn't so with great many sol
diers of France and Belgium. Their
homes were blotted out in many in
stances by the very hands now stretch
ed out conciliatorily.
American soldiers would be in
capable of treating the people Of a
beaten country any less humanely
than they are treating the people in
this region. They would be in
capable of manifesting vengeance,
especially when the manifestations
might fall upon women and children.
The fight IS over. They have won,
and there Is no bitterness in them
toward beaten country and beat
en- people, but in the light of the
German soldiers conduct in France
and Belgium it is interesting to con-
template what the conditions would
have been in Trier where q group of
men and women just passed the hotel
where this dispatch is being written,
singing songs and making merry, had
this been an American town and had
the soldier occupants been victorious
CarwnNrm