Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-31
Continued from Last Issus)
Aershot's Dead

habitants of Aerschot who had not
fed the town were shut up in the
church for days with hardly any
food: on August 2S they were march
ed to Louyain, and turned loose to be
fired on by German soldiers, the fol-
lowing day they were marched back
to Aerschot. and again shut up, the
men in the church, the women in "a
building belonging to Mr.. Fentaine.
Many women and girls were violated
by the German soldiers. Seventy
eight men we're taken outside the
town and literally made to run the
gauntlet; German gendarmes struck
them with the butts of their revol-
vers: and of seventy-eight men only
three escaped death. Others were
ranged in lire. the Germans shoot
ing every third man.
The Germans killed over one
hundred and fifty of the inhab-
itants of Aerschot, among them
eight women and several children,
and on the sixth of September three
hundred were carted off in wagons
to Germany. The pillage and burn
ing continued for days and a great
quantity of furniture and objects of
art were sent TO Germany. In the
seven villages surrounding Aerschot,
forty-two persons were killed, four
hundred and sixty-twO were sent
to Germany, one hundred and
fifteen houses were burned and
eight hundred and twenty-three
were pillaged.
I have said that the worst Of all
was Tamines. but perhaps it only
seems the worst because it made
such an impression on the minds of
the young men Of the c. r. 3. They
were always talking Of it.
Yes, but have you seen Ia
mines?" they would say whenever
the conversation, as it did persist
emily, with a kind of fatal irrele-
vancy, turned on the atrocities.
They knew Tamines only as they
passed through it back and forth on
their way to and from the BOrinage,
and all they had seen was the poor
little cemetery there in the church
yard, crowded with the new-made
graves whose wooden crosses all
bore the same date.
Many of the young men of the
c. r. B., whose experience of hu-
man kind had been as fortunate as
their own natures were kind, came
with the scepticism that did so
much credit to. their characters, but
somehow that little graveyard at
Tamines was more potent as proof
l.
tive evidence could have been.
The Bullet-Scarred Church
Tamines is little mining town on
the Sambre, down in what is known
as the Borinage, the coal fields be-
tween Namur and Charleroi. The
little church stands on the village
green overlooking the river. its ia
cade all splotched where the bullets
and mitraille spattered against it.
And in the little graveyard beside
the church there are hundreds of
new-made graves, long rows of
them, each with its small wooden
cross and it's bit of flowers. The
crosses stand in serried rows, so
closely that they make very
thicket, with scarcely room to walk
of painted wood. alike except for
the names and the ages--13 to 81.
But they all bore the same sinister
date, August %, 1914.
The Germans had been in Tamines
for several days, but the occupation
was what would be called for the
times, peaceful; the only deed of VIC
lence, it seems, concerned a little girl
and her two brothers; they were
standing on the village green staring
at the German soldiers, who sudden
ly turned and killed them. The
French were holding the fridge on
the Sambre; there was sharp fight,
and after the Germans had carried
the bridge, they sent tho main body
OF the troops on after the French, but
they left enough troops behind to
wreak the usual vengeance on the
civilians. The Germans then began
to pillage and burn the houses, 676
of them; then they turned all the in
habitants into the street. promis-
cuOusly, marching about them in
bodies. in order. as the man from
whom we had the story said, Ito ter
rCTize the population and TO brighten
the women and children" 1t went
on for long hours: they were given
no food or drink. During a halt
they forced them 10 lie beneath the
machine guns, then they lined them
up against the church wall and per-
formed a mock execution, that is to
say, the soldiers fred over the heads
of the victims" 1t was the evening
of Saturday. the 22nd, about
O'Clock. About six hundred men
were massed in ST. Martins Square,
on the river bank, and the women
folk. their wives. mothers, daugh-
tiers. were assembled by the soldiers
10 witness the scene.
They lined up their victims"
said the man from Tamines, in
three rows along the Sambre and
tumbled one hundred and fifty of
them head over heels into the river,
showing back with their bayonets
those who attempted to cling TO the
bank. Only four or five escaped by
swimming. During this first eXecu-
ton the machine guns were trained
on the remaining lines. The first
discharge carried away all but TWEEN
ty men. among them my brother,
who still stood facing the enemy in
spite of three wounds in the shout
der and one in the left side OF the
groin. A soldier then approached
him and knocked him oyer with
blow on the head with his gunstock