Evening star., 1918-01-27
TEUTONS HELD GIRL,
THEN BRANDED HER
Cross Burned Upon Breast OF
French Maid by German
Soldiers.
CRIME IS UNBELIEVABLE
By THOMAS NJ. JOHNSON.
Copyright. 1917. All rights reserved. }


FRANCE. January 2.-"Ive seen lots
of things 1 never expected to see. and
some things maybe they wouldn't be-
lieve If I wrote home and told about"
said a sergeant to me.
I'VE had been talking about the Ger
man people and the German govern
ment. He had asked the Inevitable
question when Americans meet: How
many troops do you think we have over
here? Then we had settled down to
smoking and looking out Of the car
window. The train jerked and clicked
along. with now and then a squeaking
toot from the engine. One of the first
things newly arrived Americans notice
Is the French engine whistles, like a
sawmill at home
THE sergeant borrowed a match
from another non-com. on the seat be-
side him and as he struck it his face
shone out clearly in the early dusk of
the French afternoon. 1t was fine
with curly black hair; the face of a
man one believes when he says things.
while ago the sergeant was in Upper
Montclair; we had discovered mutual
friends. Beside him sat as fine a fig
ure of the new American soldier as one
may see. Six months ago he was a
young lawyer in New York. He was
graduated from New York University
Law School not many years ago. He
had the same look as he sat there,
d
kle in his olive drab blouse.
See Much Real Fighting.
Both these men had seen more ac-
tual fighting than nine out Of any ten
American soldiers now in France.
They had enlisted in a regiment Of
railroad engineers soon after we en-
tered the war because they knew that
regiment would be among the first to
come over. They had been attached
to the British army. and for months
had been at work right behind the
trenches, often right in them. They
were at Cambria.
The Germans came through. SO they
fought the Germans with what came to
hand whether the rife Of a dead Tom
the Germans were stopped they went
back to digging trenches and laying
ties. Their 'regimental commander got
an order from general headquarters to
choose NUM- number osd,er,n Of his most in
missioned officers and send them to an
ancient city where the Army has es-
tablishad series of schools and col
leges, there to learn to be officers. He
had chosen these men, and ore look
showed that he had chosen well.
The sergeant remarked that it was
close in the little second-class COM
Gastmsnt ggt up ana ,en opened tratdsIna tie wln
to passengers. 'Ne pas SO pench4r atf
dehors." he leaned out. The train was
tsays,ing slnwly ,,.g: os and few ws n9nss p0iasa
which seemed hardly to Justify the
little stone railroad station with blue
and white sign announcing that this
place bore the name OF some saint I;,elr or
in the snow some figures in that gray
ish green uniform that one never for
gets once one has seen: The sergeant
drew in his head sharply and shut the
window. He made a gesture Of disgust.
"Boches" Excite Disgust.
'Boches," he said. 1t recalled the
Belgian officer at Lyon who said that
the mere sight of the uniform made
him sick: but he had been three years
a prisoner in Germany. Americans
who have this feeling are rare-now.
1--WE were talking about the German
government and the German people.
the sergeant went on. And I said I'd
seen some things maybe they wouldn't
believe If wrote home and told about.
II saw one thing I'll never for
get. That gang back there made me
think of 1t again-something seems to
bring 1t up every day. 1t was a girl
1 saw-a French girl,'
He leaned forward in his seat. In
these French railroad cars the passen-
gers sit four or six in a compartment.
We were facing one another very
close.
"You know" he said, 1.-The British
took Marcoing in that Cambria drive
so quickly the Boche didn't have time
to get the French people out and drive
them back so they could make them
work some more, the way they always
do II they can. Our outfit came right
behind the British infantry and eighteen
Founders, the light guns, laying ties
and spiking rails as fast as we could.
and not fifty yards behind us the trains
coming along with ammunition and
supplies. We got into Marcoing almost
as soon as the Tommies did, and there
we found the German railroad in fine
shape, and we hooked right up with it
and the trains moved on over the Ger
man rails.
'My bunch had just finished its part
of the job and was sitting down beside
the track for a rest and a smoke when
the first Of the people started running
back. I never saw such sight In my
life. They were half in rags and pale
and thin-Boche had taken everything
they had. Well. along came this girl.
There was boy helping her. and she
was crying and about all in; could
hardly walk a step farther. Poor girl.
it was easy to see why. When she got
up to US she cried out something about
icans-and sort Of collapsed on pile
OF overcoats
Girls Case Pitifu1.
II always did hate to see a woman
cry, but it's worse when a man cries;
Io